Nisa retailers have taken measures to help combat rising energy costs, investing in energy efficiency, and changing business practices.
Retailer Fraser Johnston, of Nisa Murthly and Nisa Bankfoot in Perth, worked with the symbol group’s store development team to make energy-saving changes to his store.
Nisa Murthly now has two new Evolution chillers, with doors, from Pastorfrigor. In addition, doors were installed doors on existing chillers, as was Clearvision Cooling LED lighting in the chiller doors.
At the Nisa Bankfoot store, the retailer has also fitted the Clearvision Cooling doors, due to the impending increase in the electricity contract. Along with other changes made, initial indications in the Nisa Bankfoot store show a 25% reduction in the amount of units being used.
Fraser said: “The reason we never updated our original fridges is that I wasn’t a fan of having a barrier between the customer and the product. There is a lot of debate among retailers on whether doors reduce trade but on looking at our sales it has not had any detrimental impact.
“Now is a good time for retailers to plan as much as they can. Our electricity contract is expiring in a few months’ time which is why we have made investments into energy efficiency. We don’t know what it will be like once that contract runs out.”
Retailer Zubair Aslam, of Nisa Local in Perth, revamped his store in November 2022, installing new chillers and LED lighting resulting in noticeable reductions in his energy bills.
He said: “Overall, since installing the new chillers we have saved £500. We really didn’t think we would see such a drastic change in our bills. I would say to other retailers it is worth investing in energy-saving measures.”
Peter Batt, Managing Director of Nisa, said: “The squeeze on global gas prices has meant that the price small businesses pay for energy has increased drastically and will likely continue to rise [without further government support].
“We want to help our independent retailers mitigate the impact of rising energy bills and encourage their adoption of energy saving measures. As some of our retailers have shown, there are a number of energy saving actions retailers can take, both front and back of house, that will help save on costs and improve their store sustainability by reducing its energy demand and environmental impact.”
