a sustainable approach to food storage
NORMA is a German food discount retailer that operates 1,450 stores in its home country of Germany as well as in France, the Czech Republic and Austria. It has grown from a single family store opened in 1921 to be a leading player in its sector, offering customers “more for their money” on a range of more than 1,000 grocery items and everyday goods.
The company places great emphasis on sustainability. Its organic range makes it a market leader among discounters, and it attaches great importance to transparency in supply chains and the environmental credentials of producers. The operational processes in its logistics centers, branch warehouses and branches are structured to avoid waste and to efficiently manage energy usage. When NORMA decided to build a new central logistics center, it naturally took a sustainable approach to every aspect of the construction.
Opened in May, 2023, the ultra-modern new center is located in Gerolzhofen, Bavaria, in the south of Germany. The largest single investment in NORMA’s history, it comprises a 34,000 sq ft warehouse and a 2,000 sq ft administration building. Thanks to a highly efficient energy management system twinned with 10,000 sq ft of photovoltaic cells, no fossil fuels are required to heat the center. Special charging stations ensure that waiting refrigerated trucks are cooled using the building’s electricity rather than their own engines.
Refrigeration specialist Dresdner Kühlanlagenbau (DKA), a Dussmann Technical Solutions company, was contracted by Köster GmbH to supply the refrigeration and cooling system for the new center. Minimizing energy usage and using natural refrigerants were the two main stipulations for the project, and DKA chose to use a wide range of Güntner products, using carbon dioxide as the refrigerant. These included two Güntner Blast Air Coolers, 22 Cubic VARIO Air Coolers, four Cubic COMPACT Air Coolers and four Flat VARIO Gas Coolers. The system cools everything at the warehouse apart from fruit and vegetables, which are delivered on a just-in-time basis and do not require any cooling systems.
Güntner worked closely with DKA throughout both the initial planning stages and the six-month process of installation of the cooling system, and products were supplied promptly from Güntner’s factory in Tata, Hungary. For Wolfgang Ulrich, Sales Representative Field Service at Güntner, the collaborative process was a high point of the project. “The exchange of information and joint planning were incredibly exciting for me,” he says. “Working closely with the DKA team to establish the fundamentals for determining which air coolers were suitable for each specific task was really rewarding.”
The new center represents an important milestone for NORMA’s further expansion. With significantly shortened delivery routes and reduced delivery times thanks to its location, efficiency has been greatly increased. Integrated into the network of the company’s other logistics centers, it ensures that all of NORMA’s branches are supplied with fresh goods every day. And it stands as a very visible symbol of the company’s ongoing commitment to sustainability.