Carel installs its chillBooster in 100 Delhaize stores

BRUGINE, Padua, Italy, 2 December 2021: Carel has installed its chillBooster solution in 100 stores of Belgian supermarket chain, Delhaize. Making the announcement through a Press release, the company added it has historically developed and proposed adiabatic humidification technology for its high versatility, immediate energy savings and low installation costs.

Carel said the chillBooster exploits the evaporative cooling principle, whereby the air is cooled before entering the condensing unit – that is, the chiller or dry cooler. Atomisation of water into micrometric droplets gives rise to spontaneous evaporation, a process that takes place by using heat from the surrounding air, thus lowering its temperature, the company said.

In the summer, this brings reductions of around 10-15 degrees C in condensing unit air inflow temperature, meaning a lightening of the work load and, consequently, considerable energy savings, the company said.

During the summer of 2019, due to a series of heat waves, many of the Delhaize chain’s stores were unable to get their refrigeration units to work properly, Carel highlighted. In addition to an overall decline in the performance of cold rooms and refrigerated showcases, the higher temperatures caused several units to shut down, with a consequent loss of the goods on display and, in some cases, forcing the stores to close for a few days, it said.

As a result of these difficulties, and the corresponding economic damage, Delhaize started to look for a solution to prevent these situations from being repeated the following summers, the company said.

According to Carel, the chillBooster system immediately proved to be the best choice, and was successfully installed on 120 gas coolers in supermarkets throughout Belgium. The considerable flexibility of the Carel solution made it possible to adapt to the different needs of each of the more than 100 systems where chillBooster was installed, the company said.

The choice to adopt evaporative cooling, the company said, has meant that the existing units meet the original design requirements again, saving energy and bringing an immediate benefit in terms of efficiency.

Carel launches new iJM solution

BRUGINE, Padua, Italy, 22 September 2021: Carel launched a new iJM solution, backed by a strategic partnership with Vision IoT platform for connecting field assets, the company said through a Press release. Describing iJM as a dedicated product line for refrigerated merchandisers, Carel said the launch was against the backdrop of an increase in demand in the beverage cooler market for solutions that reduce environmental impact by cutting energy consumption and emissions, and for those that feature connectivity options to give beverage companies better intelligence on the sales performance and user habits of their merchandisers in the field.

Carel said it has extensive experience in this sector and continuously invests in new technologies to satisfy the trends. iJM, it added, is the latest result of these investments.

iJM, the company said, includes cutting-edge options for energy efficiency, such as direct control of variable speed compressors, and a completely new flat and frameless display, with various cosmetic customisation options, available according to the customer’s brand. Owing to its connectivity options (NFC, Bluetooth and Beacon), iJM is ready to connect to the Vision IoT cloud platform, so as to offer customers analytics to improve retail management, Carel said.

Vision IoT, Carel said, is a long-standing industry leader in IoT solutions for connected beverage coolers, with more than 1.7 million active units on its Harbor Cloud Platform. Carel and Vision IoT have defined an end-to-end seamless offering that will help Carel’s global beverage customers reduce asset loss, improve utilisation and increase sales, Carel said.

The new feature will allow bottlers to equip their merchandisers with the latest generation electronic controllers for energy-efficient management of their units, as well as to monitor them remotely, analyse their profitability and optimise operation through corrective actions in the field, Carel said.

The combined Carel, Vision IoT solution will provide key insights to bottlers, who will be able to gain competitive advantages at the point of sale, Carel said. For bottlers, being able to better understand the performance of their different assets in a retail environment allows them to take actions to improve important KPIs, such as planogram compliance and sales, reduce asset downtime and optimise asset locations within a store.

“CAREL has a strong presence in the beverage cooler market around the world,” said Giovanni Tonin, Group Marketing Manager – Food Service, Carel. “This partnership combines our quality and experience in control solutions with Vision IoT, a vertical, effective cloud platform for beverage coolers.”

Austin Groves, CEO, Vision IoT, said: “We are proud to have been selected as the platform partner of choice by Carel. Our device-agnostic platform is helping more and more global CPG brands gain mission-critical insights to their in-store operations. The scalability and ability to deliver insights directly to the representatives solving these issues are what’s enabling the continued success of our clients and partners.”

Recuperator receives AHRI certification for its plate and rotary heat exchangers

RESCALDINA, MILAN, Italy, 4 June 2021: Recuperator S.p.A., a member of Carel Group, announced receiving AHRI certification for its plate and rotary heat exchangers, following what it described as a rigorous review process.

Making the announcement through a Press release, Recuperator said the certification is the result of its dedication to continuous improvement, including innovation in R&D. The whole range of plate and rotary heat exchanger products is now listed in the AHRI directory of certified products, it said. The AHRI certification, it further said, is added to all the certifications it has already obtained during its long and profitable activity.

“The commitment to obtain this recognition will allow Recuperator to expand its overseas market horizons and to increase the service to its customers in the Middle East,” said Stefano Baldo, Sales & Marketing Director, Recuperator. “The experiences we will gather in new markets will be a stimulus to continue innovating our products and services. Furthermore, the high quality standard required by AHRI helps to raise the quality level of the entire Recuperator production.”

Carel signs agreement to acquire 51% of CFM Soğutma

BRUGINE, Padua, Italy, 10 May 2021: Carel Industries, on May 5, signed a binding agreement for the acquisition of 51% of CFM Soğutma ve Otomasyon A.Ş., a long-standing distributor and partner in Turkey as well as a provider of digital and on-field services and solutions dedicated to OEMs, contractors and end users in the Turkish HVACR market.

CFM’s workforce, based in its 6,500-square-metre Izmir facility, in Turkey, numbers 34, half of whom are part of the technical and engineering team, Carel said.

With major expertise in thermodynamics, mechanics, control and connectivity, CFM offers complete solutions, starting from system design and technical support, during the start-up phase of the plants, up to the remote monitoring and supervision service, Carel said. The offer, which is based on the proposal of the best brands and includes software development and customisation, customer training in its Academy as well as energy management services, allows CFM to stand out significantly, Carel said.

According to Carel, CFM has created a unique business model, demonstrated by its high rate of customer loyalty, its long-standing relationships with the country’s main retail chains and its particularly high profitability.

A peculiar feature of CFM is also that it invoices almost all its sales in euros, thereby protecting itself from fluctuations in the local currency, Carel pointed out. In 2020, CFM reported revenues of 14.5 million euros and EBITDA of five million euros, it said. It is expected that at the time of the closing of the operation the net financial position will be slightly positive, it pointed out.

Carel said the transaction is aligned with two of its key strategic directions: geographical expansion outside western Europe and the development of the services business – on-field and digital. The acquisition, the company said, will allow it to not only establish a direct presence in the important Turkish market and to have a solid platform for the development of its Middle East market but also to adopt a distinctive business model, characterised by a wide range of complementary services. The transaction will also allow it to further develop its potential in synergy with its hardware, IoT and thermodynamic competence, it said. After having established its success in the refrigeration sector, CFM, in fact, has extensive growth potential in air conditioning and humidification, it added.

The closing of the part-acquisition is expected by the end of July 2021 and is subject to obtaining the approval for the transaction from the local antitrust authorities, and meeting other conditions precedent that are characteristic of this type of agreement, Carel said. With this transaction, Carel said, it will take control of the Turkish company through the acquisition of 51% of the share capital of CFM, with an enterprise value of 23.1 million euros for the stake. The acquisition of the remaining 49% of CFM, the valuation of which is tied to the Turkish company’s future results, is governed by a cross-option mechanism between the parties, exercisable between 2024 and 2027, Carel said. This structure in which the current management is heavily involved in the company in the medium term, it added, ensures a complete alignment of interests during the integration period of CFM into CAREL.