UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) is investing in new refrigeration as a result of rising temperatures in the country, it was revealed this week.
CEO Stuart Machin told shareholders at the M&S annual general meeting (AGM), which was held on Tuesday 7 July, the company was planning for a warmer climate.
During the AGM, when asked about new product lines and as a precursor to explaining ice cream sales had rocketed in the UK recent heatwave, Machin said he returned from a trip to Chennai to find the UK hotter than where he had come from. And in M&S stores he visited on his arrival, refrigeration was down.
“There is no doubt we were struggling in those nine days of extreme heat,” he explained.
“Now we’re investing in plant equipment for new stores to deal with temperatures of 45 degrees C, assuming every summer is going to get warmer.”
He acknowledged M&S is “reviewing all our refrigeration”.
Machin’s comments come after Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts used the retailer’s first-quarter trading announcement on 30 June to also reference refrigeration capability.
Fridges failed in several retailers across the UK when the hot weather peaked at the end of June.
Roberts said staff and suppliers had been working “around the clock” to make sure Sainsbury’s stores remained stocked and refrigeration systems held up in higher temperatures.
Rupert Ashby, CEO of the British Frozen Food Federation, told the BBC Breakfast show in June that freezers were breaking down or being switched off in supermarkets in the extreme heat due to systems finding it difficult to deal with the high temperatures.
“The way the fridges work is to cool everything down and expel the hot air,” he said, suggesting this typically works well the UK’s ambient air.
“With heat like this, trying to expel that air is very difficult.”
Read a recent EPTA advertorial on Green Retail World about the future of refrigeration
[main image credit: M&S]
