Co-op, Morrisons and Waitrose among retailers dimming lights to cut energy costs

AS REPORTED by Aoife Morgan in Retail Gazette, UK retailers are speeding up their efforts to bring down soaring energy bills as the government’s energy subsidies finish at the end of this month.

Many supermarket chains, including Co-op, Morrisons and Waitrose, have turned down their lights to reduce energy usage.

Similarly, electrical retailer Currys has reduced the brightness of display TV sets in a bid to bring down its energy bill, which jumped to £8m in the year to the end of April.

Waitrose is upgrading its fridges to make them 40% more efficient while Aldi is fitting see-through doors to maintain low temperatures with minimum energy usage. Meanwhile, Morrisons is using blinds on its fridges to keep the cold air in overnight.

Iceland has cut back on the amount of chilled food it sells and is instead stocking more room-temperature products.

Managing director Richard Walker revealed in January that he expects Iceland’s energy bills to reduce this year after its energy bill hit £70m last year.

Other retailers, including Sainsbury’s, Halfords and Superdrug have switched to LED lights, which on average use about 80% less electricity than traditional fluorescent lightstrips and bulbs.