3.1 The Impact of Market Leaders

In all markets, there have always been a few end users who like to investigate new technologies before their competitors. This has certainly been true for natural refrigerant systems, especially transcritical CO2 systems in the commercial refrigeration and industrial spaces.

These end users not only kick off a trend; they drive it over time and can be expected to continue installing new systems and retrofitting existing ones into the future. They also provide legitimacy to the technology, encouraging their competitors and others to eventually follow suit, thereby expanding the market.

In Europe, a number of retailers have launched aggressive transcritical CO2 installation programs. These include German wholesale chain METRO AG, which had 133 transcritical CO2 installations (including 37 with ejectors) as of September 2022, as well as Biedronka, Migros, Albert Heijn, and Sainsbury’s.

In one of the most ambitious retrofit initiatives of its kind, Danish retailer Salling Group plans to replace old refrigeration systems in 725 stores with CO2 racks as part of a DKK 2.5 billion (US$366 million) investment in energy efficiency technologies.63

The Sailing Group refrigeration refurbishment project includes stores in Denmark, Germany and Poland and is expected to conclude in 2026. In Poland 328 stores will be refurbished, 270 stores in Germany and 127 stores in Denmark. The retailer will also install glass doors on all cooling cabinets and freezers. Salling Group operates the Netto and Føtex supermarket chains, the Bilka hypermarket chain and a smaller number of Salling department stores. Founded in 1906, the group has more than 1,700 stores.

In other regions, there are far fewer clear leaders, but they have had an outsized impact on the market. In the U.S., one to emerge is ALDI US, which had installed transcritical CO2 in nearly 500 of its more than 2,000 stores as of May 2022.64 In Japan the clear CO2 leader is convenience store giant Lawson, which had installed CO2 condensing units in more than 4,100 stores as of February 2021.

Influencing others

Market leaders should be expected to continue driving adoption of transcritical CO2 in all regions. Sailing Group, ALDI US and Lawson will continue to have a significant impact on overall transcritical CO2 adoption in their markets, both with their own installations and their influence on other end users.