GEA wins at RAC Cooling Awards 2020
GEA Refrigeration Technologies has been named Contractor of The Year 2020 at the industry’s RAC Cooling Awards for its installing of a new compressor within a strict 10-day deadline, set by Quorn Foods, during a planned shutdown at the food firm’s North Yorkshire facility. GEA was also Highly Commended in the Building Energy Project of The Year category for supplying a new, environmentally friendly refrigeration system at Mackie’s of Scotland, one of Britain’s leading ice cream producers.
Commenting on the RAC Contractor of the Year accolade, the judges said, “GEA looked beyond the best solution for themselves and came up with a cost-effective solution for the customer within the timeframe they had, but also took the opportunity to improve the flexibility of how the plant ran and the energy saving going forward.”
As part of a £4.5 million (€4.9m) project, luxury ice cream brand Mackie’s replaced existing freezing equipment at its Aberdeenshire facility with GEA’s ammonia-based, low carbon, energy efficient refrigeration system that incorporates an Absorption Chiller, which will help Mackie’s to target ambitious CO2 reductions of 90% and energy cost savings of 70-80%.
GEA’s installation for the ice cream giant, set to be one of the most sophisticated refrigeration systems in Europe, was Highly Commended by the RAC Cooling Awards judges panel for being ‘packed with innovation’.
GEA’s UK project sales manager, John Burden adds, “Designing an ammonia system for a site that has no previous experience of this refrigerant was a challenge but we achieved all the project goals. We have a wealth of experience in designing and installing systems utilising this technology and we’re delighted to see this recognised by such a prestigious award.”