SUPERMARKET EQUIPMENT
Necessity is the mother of invention
Lewis Bourne, founder of Genfrost UK and Lucabo International talks about developments in chilled grocery retailing, his reasons for investing in a new generation refrigerated displays and his partnership with Adande.
L
ewis Bourne founded Genfrost in 2011 as a company specialising in the design, supply and installation of refrigerated display and storage equipment for the
food retailing and foodservice sectors. Mr Bourne describes himself as an environmental champion with a passion for innovative design and manufacturing. While Genfrost continues to thrive under his stewardship, Mr Bourne has embarked on an additional venture with the launch of Lucabo International at the recent EuroShop Retail Trade fair in Dusseldorf, where the company showcased its range of Aero open front refrigerated multi deck displays.
What prompted you to set up Lucabo and develop a new range of refrigerated displays? A fresh approach to the display of perishable groceries has been long overdue. Public awareness of climate change issues, government legislation aimed at significant reductions in carbon emissions and the introduction commercial energy labelling regulations have focused the attention of stakeholders on more efficient equipment. The challenge has become more urgent in light of the sustained and significant increase in energy tariffs – necessity is the mother of invention. I believe that much of the industry has adopted a ‘sticking
plaster’ approach to energy efficiency, doing just the bare minimum to address the biggest challenge our generation faces. A number of manufacturers have touted cabinets with doors as the solution and some retailers have trialled them. Whilst glass door displays may work in small stores
30 April 2023 •
www.acr-news.com
with low volume sales, they are not the answer for high volume food retailing environments, where frequent opening of doors causes chilled air to spill out and the cabinets fail to maintain operating temperature. There is also evidence to suggest that doors provide a barrier to shoppers with a detrimental effect on browsing and impulse purchases. There have been other systems introduced and adopted by some retailers, but I don't believe they have delivered the reduction in energy consumption that we need to achieve.
It was and is our belief that the open front multi deck cabinet is the preferred display option for retailers and we recognised the considerable opportunities for a company that could deliver a solution offering significant energy savings. Given my passion for innovative design and manufacture, we were determined that we would be the ones to fill the void and to do so with a UK-based production facility.
How did you go about the design of the Aero range? Aero hasn’t happened overnight; it is the result of three years research, development, planning and testing. It all kicked off in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The hiatus of lockdown gave us the time and resources to commit to new product development and a multi-million-pound investment, including new manufacturing equipment at our Boston factory.
Rather than base our design on existing cabinets, as is normally the case, we adopted a radical approach,
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