2.10 The Growth of Smaller Stores

One of the major shifts taking place in food retail is the proliferation of small-format stores, particularly in urban areas. In Japan, this is already common practice.

While R290 plug-in cases are increasingly used throughout small stores, CO2 condensing units (as opposed to racks) are another option gaining momentum.61 There are already multiple rack manufacturers supplying CO2 condensing units to these small-format stores.

OEMs boast thousands of successful installations – especially in Europe – and there is a growing number of natural refrigerant solutions entering the market targeting smaller cooling capacities as well.

Small stores already make up a large percentage of food retail outlets in Europe, according to a November 2020 RefNat4LIFE report on sustainable cooling in the European organic and small food retail sector. 62

In 2015, the report estimated that 85% of European supermarkets had a maximum sales area of less than 1,000 m2 (10,764ft2). The share of the small food retail market varies within European countries. In 2015, the Netherlands had the lowest share with 67%, followed by France and Germany in the range of 75%. In contrast, Poland stood out with by far largest share with 99%, followed by Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy, which all exceeded 90%.

For the smallest food stores, with less than 400 m² (4,306ft2) sales area, the most popular refrigeration systems are plug-in, stand-alone systems, whereas stores between 400 and 1,000 m² sales area are more prone to using centralized refrigeration systems. In organic food retail (OFR), the average cooling capacity of centralized systems is around 25kW (7.1TR) for stores with a sales area of 400 to 999m²; for stores below 400 m², the capacity is 6 to 7kW (1.7 to 2TR).

However, most small food retailers have limited knowledge about the key technical specifications of their refrigeration systems, such as the refrigerants used, their energy consumption and running costs. They therefore lack an understanding of its cost and environmental impact.

Thus, these stores should be targeted for an educational campaign on natural refrigerants.

CO2 vs. hydrocarbons

In Europe, in 2020, 3.9% of the transcritical CO2 sites in Europe were using condensing units, according to ATMOsphere research. This percentage grew to 9% in 2022 and is expected to increase gradually in the coming years as OEMs continue installing them in small-format stores, gas stations, fast-food chains and restaurants. But self-contained hydrocarbon cases will also garner a substantial share of the small-store market.