Degrees Celsius

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/2-3.

Gábor Kisgyörgy
area sales manager
Liebherr Magyarország

There has been a spectacular “evolution” in the commercial freezer category, driven by sales promotion, space use and cost optimisation,

says Gábor Kisgyörgy, area sales manager of Liebherr Magyarország Kft.

Nowadays we can see more and more upright freezers with glass doors. Presenting food products in a fashion that encourages sales and impulse buying has become a priority. The use of various monitoring and alarm systems is becoming more widespread. Liebherr offers refrigeration solutions for all players in the market: in addition to store refrigeration cabinets, chest freezers, deep-freeze structures and vertical deep-freezers, they also manufacture beverage coolers, promotional refrigerators and deep-freeze cabinets.

Needs and costs

Zsuzsanna Károlyfi
managing director
Interlevin Európa

Interlevin Európa Kft. is a leader in selling refrigeration equipment to small and medium-sized retail outlets, says managing director Zsuzsanna Károlyfi. They mainly offer products with built-in aggregates, but there are factories where they also prepare products for installation on special request. With the drastic rise in energy prices, the demand for energy efficient refrigerators has increased, even if they cost a little more.

Interlevin Európa’s most popular products are deli counters, wall-mounted shelf refrigerators and glass-door refrigerators and freezers.

Tamás Horváth
area sales manager
EPTA International

“Epta offers a large selection of products in the field of commercial refrigeration”,

emphasises Tamás Horváth, area sales manager of EPTA International Kft.

They have modular refrigeration units with positive and negative temperature systems and modular refrigerators with their own aggregates (Integral and Plug-in), plus advanced energy-efficient refrigeration systems. As regards digitalisation, the group’s offer is expanding and is embodied in the advanced service packages provided by EptaService – covering maintenance, troubleshooting, 0-24 assistance, remote monitoring and digital services

Steady R+D work results in increasingly modern technology (Auchan Maglód)

Smart solutions

Tamás Szabó
owner and sales manager
Assur

“Traditional electromechanical control is disappearing from the retail sector”,

says Tamás Szabó, owner and sales manager of Assur, with digital control taking its place and touchscreen models appearing a few years ago.

Manufacturers are also starting to use more advanced temperature data logging systems and SMART solutions, which allow remote access and remote monitoring of operating parameters. Assur has been distributing refrigerated display cabinets, wall-mounted shelf refrigerators, display refrigerators and refrigerated cabinet systems of Belgium-based company Diamond for over 30 years in Hungary.

Gábor Kisgyörgy adds that refrigeration equipment accounts for up to 40-50% of energy use in shops, with energy prices rising, so energy efficiency has become a key consideration in the selection process. Plug-in appliances have become more cost-effective to operate. Liebherr Magyarország offers a full service to partners, with what they call the “one-stop shop” method: from the design, delivery and installation of the appliances to maintenance, everything is in their own hands

Ergonomic, modular, glass-door, plug-in freezers – maximum capacity per unit floor area

Maintenance and advice

According to Zsuzsanna Károlyfi, price is still the decisive factor when choosing low and medium category commercial refrigerators and freezers. Special requests emerge the most often when there are product promotions (refrigeration islands, stickers and the like), and Interlevin Európa Kft. can help with these too. Price sensitivity can be the main reason for poor purchasing decisions and the most common mistake is not following the most important maintenance rule of having the machines checked at least once a year.

Tamás Horváth reckons that in a traditionally energy-intensive sector with a significant environmental impact, Epta’s commitment to sustainable innovation has made the company a leader in the industry’s green transformation. Their new products represent an even better energy class than previous models, for instance in the Costan Outfit range the new Batik models belong to energy class B.

Tamás Szabó explains that the most important factors for customers are size and capacity when choosing a machine, together with the function and cooling task for which the refrigerator is purchased. It is needless to say that price is also an important consider ation, but fortunately consumers are becoming more and more conscious when it comes to buying refrigerators. Assur assists partners in the selection of machines with personal advice and on-site surveys. //

As promotional tools

Robert Roboz
managing director
SilverDot Communications

Marketing agency SilverDot Communications offers practical tools that can be used as secondary displays in grocery stores, at the same time also supporting consumer promotions. Managing director Robert Roboz:

“The display coolers are manufactured by Thermotechnika-Crown Cool Kft., based on the agency’s designs and instructions. Each side of the simple and practical device can be decorated with a magnetic foil. One of the refrigeration unit’s advantages is that it is easy to move, so that it can be placed in several locations at short notice. The device is often placed in the checkout zone or busy store locations. Maintenance work is carried out exclusively by the experts of SilverLine Consulting, in order to comply with the warranty conditions”. //