DISPLAY FRIDGES EXPLAINED

TYPES OF DISPLAY FRIDGE

COMMERCIAL BEER FRIDGE

A Commercial Beer Fridge or back bar cooler is perfect for bars, pubs, clubs or leisure centres. The most common type of beer fridge is the undercounter back bar chiller which provides easy access to chilled bottled or canned beverages, although upright versions with a higher capacity are also available.

Usual features in beer fridges are sliding or hinged doors and attractive lighting, which helps to draw the customer's eye to the contents - especially in dark clubs or bars. Critical buying considerations for beer fridges are capacity and access, although efficiency and appearance can also be important, especially if you have multiple fridges.

Other types of beer fridges are high capacity Bottle Wells which can accommodate vast amounts of bottle beverages and Kegerators which help to bring draught beer and cider to the mobile catering environment. Popular beer fridge manufacturers are Polar Refrigeration, Gamko and Infrico and Autonumis.

COMMERCIAL WINE COOLERS

Visually, a wine fridge or wine cooler is similar to a beer fridge. Inside however, the wine fridge is quite different. As various wines have different serving temperatures, wine fridges need to be able to reliably keep a constant temperature to bring out the best flavours of the wines you're offering.

Some wine chillers have multiple temperature zones, allowing you to keep red and white wines separated in the same appliance, potentially removing the need for a separate wine cellar. Another noticeable difference is that many of the best wine fridges tend to have wooden shelves. This is because wire racks can bend under the weight of heavy bottles and can scratch the label.

Critical buying considerations for wine chillers are capacity and appearance. Polar Refrigeration and Foster offer some of the market's most popular wine coolers.

SERVE OVER COUNTER

A Serve Over Counter can often be one of the largest front-of-house appliances in a food service business. Designed to effectively merchandise chilled food and drinks such as pastries, cheese, cooked meats or fish, a serve over counter offers a versatile assisted service solution.

As these large appliances are often one of the first things a customer might see, a stylish appearance which fits into your front of house aesthetic is a must. Size and temperature range are also important, as the machine needs to fit seamlessly into your front of house whilst also storing food at the appropriate temperature.

Many serve over counters also offer upper display shelves or undercounter storage to speed up re-stocking during a busy service. Serve over counters are also available as ambient units, ideal for foods that are served at room temperature. Here at Nisbets, we offer serve over counters from world-renowned Zoin Refrigerazione, as well as highly regarded counters from Victor.

REFRIGERATED MERCHANDISER

From small countertop displays to large, rotating cake chillers, a Refrigerated Merchandiser keeps your chilled products at the perfect serving temperature and tantalisingly merchandised.

Refrigerated merchandisers are probably the broadest group of professional display fridges, as they can range from small, countertop sushi cases and tapas displays all the way up to the largest freestanding merchandisers for bulky desserts or beverages. Similar to a beer fridge, a refrigerated merchandiser is designed for front of house use to maximise impulse sales, however usually this category of display fridge is positioned for assisted service.

As there are so many unique types of refrigerated merchandiser, application or function is the main buying factor. There’s plenty of brand names to choose from too, including Polar Refrigeration, Foster, True, Lincat, Gram and many, many more.

MULTIDECK DISPLAYS

A multideck display fridge is a large, open-fronted merchandiser designed to allow customers to pick chilled products directly off the shelf. Commonly seen in convenience stores, sandwich shops and cafés, a multideck is a great way to encourage impulse sales, especially near queuing areas.

Due to their large size and open design, important buying considerations of a multideck are its capacity, number of shelves and security. Whereas Serve Over counters are considered to be "assisted service", a multideck display fridge is self-service - perfect for reducing queues and maximising sales.

DISPLAY FREEZER

On a hot summer's day, nothing brings in customers like delicious ice cream or lollies. Likewise, offering a takeaway service of frozen desserts or simply merchandising boxed ready meals can help you turn a profit with a commercial display freezer.

Available as display chest freezers, upright display freezers or ice cream counters, there’s plenty of choice when it comes to merchandising frozen foods. Display freezers are often considered to be self-service and are commonly used front of house in convenience stores, takeaways and leisure facilities. Some of the most popular display freezers are manufactured by Polar Refrigeration and Crystal.

OTHER CHILLED FOOD DISPLAYS

There’s a huge amount of other food service machines which keep food cold for fast service, although they don’t necessarily fall into any other category. Some are more unusual than others. For example, a chilled Salad Bar is ideal for presenting pre-prepared salads and desserts, whilst a Choco Kebab Machine or Anti Griddle is perhaps a little more uncommon. There are also Food Demonstration Stations which are ideal for highlighting new products to your customers.

Whichever you choose, each one of these machines help you to showcase your chilled foods and maximise sales.

WHICH DISPLAY FRIDGE DO I NEED?

Most display fridges are quite versatile. For simplicity, this table demonstrates which type of display fridge is suitable for each task.