Why koolmax

14 Years Keeping Commercial Stock at the Right Temperature.

The UK loses billions of pounds worth of chilled and frozen stock every year to refrigeration failures, temperature drift, and poorly specified equipment. For food retailers, hospitality businesses, and food producers, that loss is direct. It comes off the bottom line, it triggers food safety incidents, and in the worst cases, it costs operating licences.

Koolmax was built specifically for this problem. We manufacture our own Koolmax range of commercial refrigeration equipment, supply from industry-leading brands including Arneg and Scancool, and install and service everything ourselves. One team carries the full responsibility from the initial survey to the commissioning sign-off, and that same team is available when something needs attention afterwards.

In 14 years, we have worked with some of the most recognised names in UK convenience retail and food service. What they got was a refrigeration partner who understood their business, not just their equipment.

Industries We Cover

Every building type has different demands. We size, install and maintain systems built for yours.

Convenience Retail and Symbol Groups

Chilled and frozen display running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have supplied and installed refrigeration for Best-One, Budgens, Londis, One Stop, Premier, Costcutter, Kwiksave, and Shopsmart stores. We know what convenience retail demands, and we deliver equipment that earns its keep on the shop floor.

Restaurants and Catering Operations

Walk-in cold rooms, blast chillers, prep refrigeration, and undercounter units. Every piece of equipment in a working kitchen has to be in the right place, sized correctly for the menu volume, and reliable enough to survive the pace of a busy service. That is what we plan for at the survey stage.

Supermarkets and Food Retail Chains

Remote refrigeration systems, multideck display cases, serve-over counters, and cold room storage. Temperature logs, night blinds, and energy consumption all matter in food retail. We work around trading hours and site-specific constraints from day one.

Food Production and Processing Facilities

Temperature control in food production is governed by law. HACCP compliance, critical control points, and equipment that does not allow temperature excursions are non-negotiable. We install systems built to those standards and maintain them so the audit trail stays clean.

Pubs, Bars, Hotels, and Hospitality

Cellar cooling, keg coolers, back-bar display, bottle chillers, and kitchen cold rooms. Hospitality environments span multiple departments with different temperature requirements. We handle the full site, so you are dealing with one contractor for all of it.

Pharmacies and Medical Storage

Medicines that drift outside their specified storage temperature cannot be used. That is a direct financial loss and a patient safety risk. We install and maintain pharmaceutical-grade refrigeration units with the precision and documentation these environments require.

Wholesale and Cash and Carry

High-volume chilled and frozen storage at scale needs equipment rated for continuous heavy use, not repurposed light commercial units. We specify correctly for the throughput and install systems that run efficiently at the volume your operation demands.

Butchers, Delis and Specialist Food Retail

Serve-over counters, butcher display fridges, and product-specific temperature zones. Specialist food retailers have precise display and storage requirements that generic solutions do not accommodate. We have built and supplied display cases for these environments and understand what presentation and compliance both demands.

Our services

Koolmax Commercial Refrigeration Services

Chillers – Maintenance and Repair

A chiller running outside its performance range is costing you money before anything visibly fails. Inefficient operation drives up energy consumption, increases wear on the compressor, and shortens the service life of the whole unit. Our planned maintenance schedules keep chiller systems running at the efficiency they were designed for. When faults do occur, we diagnose fast and carry the parts to resolve most issues on the first visit.

Supply and Installation

Starting from scratch, replacing ageing equipment, or fitting out a new site entirely. We manufacture our own Koolmax range and supply from Arneg and Scancool, so the equipment recommendation comes from a supplier with no incentive to push one brand over another. We handle the survey, the specification, the delivery, the installation, and the commissioning across the UK. The project is complete when the temperatures are logged, and everything is running to specification.

Servicing and Breakdown Cover

Refrigeration running below temperature, making unusual noise, cycling too frequently, or showing ice build-up are all early warnings that a breakdown is coming. Planned maintenance contracts catch these signs before they turn into a failed unit and a stock write-off. We also provide reactive repair and emergency callout cover across the UK, because refrigeration failures do not schedule themselves around business hours. For businesses also running air conditioning commercially, we manage both systems independently, so you are dealing with one contractor across your entire site rather than going through the headache of coordinating two.

Glycol Chillers

Glycol chiller systems are used across brewing, food production, and cold beverage lines where precise process temperatures are non-negotiable. The demands on these systems are different from standard refrigeration, and the maintenance reflects that. We carry out glycol concentration checks, pump and circuit maintenance, leak detection, and full system servicing. If a system is not holding temperature or is losing glycol, we find it and fix it without guesswork.

CO₂ Refrigeration Systems

CO₂ operates with a global warming potential of 1, compared to 1,430 for R134a. For businesses that want to stop paying rising costs on phased-out refrigerants and get ahead of regulatory compliance, CO₂ is the direction that makes commercial sense. We install, commission, and maintain CO₂ refrigeration systems for retail, food service, and industrial applications. Our engineers hold the certifications required to work with CO₂ and understand the system design differences that set it apart from conventional refrigeration.

Why a Perfectly Running Refrigeration System Is Non-Negotiable

Temperature Drift Costs You Before the Unit Shows a Fault

A refrigeration unit running one or two degrees above its set temperature is not broken in any obvious way. Still, it is already shortening the shelf life of your stock and increasing the risk of a food safety event. In a food retail or catering environment, that slow drift is invisible on the shop floor until it becomes a stock write-off or an EHO inspection finding. The difference between a unit that is performing correctly and one that is quietly failing is often a single scheduled maintenance visit.

Refrigeration Failure Triggers Consequences That Run Beyond the Repair Bill

When a refrigeration unit fails in a food business, the direct cost is the emergency repair. The real cost is the stock you cannot sell, the compliance event you have to document, the operating licence that comes under scrutiny, and the reputational damage if the failure reaches your customers. Best-One, Budgens, Londis, and the other convenience retailers Koolmax has served for over a decade did not choose a refrigeration partner based on price alone; they chose one where failure consequences had already been understood and planned against.

Inefficient Refrigeration Is One of the Largest Hidden Costs in a Food Business

Refrigeration typically accounts for 30 to 50 percent of a food retailer's total electricity consumption across the UK, which means a system running below its designed efficiency is one of the biggest drains on your operating margins. Fouled condensers, failing door seals, and degraded insulation do not announce themselves; they quietly inflate your energy bill month after month while the unit appears to be working normally. A properly maintained refrigeration system running at its designed COP directly protects your gross margin in a way that very few other operational decisions can match. For businesses carrying that energy load across the whole building, it is worth understanding whether a heat pumpcan take pressure off the overall consumption figure.

The Wrong Equipment for Your Environment Will Never Perform Correctly

A refrigeration unit specified for a low-traffic delicatessen counter will not cope with the demands of a busy supermarket aisle running 16 hours a day. Getting the specification right, the right cabinet type, the right compressor capacity, and the right refrigerant circuit for your ambient conditions is the foundation that everything else sits on. No amount of maintenance can recover the performance of equipment that was undersized or poorly specified at the point of purchase, which is why the survey stage is the most important conversation in the entire process.

Not Sure Which Service You Need?

That is exactly what the first call is for. Tell us what your building is, what you are experiencing, and what you are trying to achieve, and we will point you straight to the right service. No pressure, no upsell, just a straight answer so you can make the right decision.

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Frequently Asked Questions

My refrigerator is running warm, but has not failed yet. Should I call you now or wait?

Call now. A unit running above its set temperature is already losing efficiency and shortening its own lifespan. The energy cost alone often justifies a service call, and in a food business, stock at the wrong temperature is a food safety risk even if the unit has not completely failed. The earlier a fault is caught, the less it costs to fix.

What is actually included in a planned maintenance contract?

A physical inspection of the unit and its components, condenser and evaporator coil cleaning, door seal checks, temperature verification, electrical connection checks, refrigerant pressure readings, and a written service report. The exact scope depends on the equipment type and how heavily it is used. We set the contract up based on what your specific equipment actually needs, not a generic schedule that applies to every customer the same way.

Does leasing refrigeration equipment make sense for my business?

For many businesses, it is the more practical route. Leasing spreads the cost across monthly payments that are easier to plan for than a single capital outlay, and leased equipment is often treated as an operational expense for tax purposes. We are FCA authorised, which means our finance offering is fully regulated. Speak to us about what is available for the specific equipment you need, and we will walk you through the numbers honestly.

Do you work on equipment you did not supply or install?

Yes. Our engineers service and repair equipment from all major commercial refrigeration manufacturers. Bring us the make and model, and we will tell you straight away whether we cover it. The only situation where we advise replacing rather than repairing is if the unit is old enough that continued investment no longer makes commercial sense, and we will explain the reasoning clearly when that comes up.

We are fitting out a brand-new site. At what stage should we be talking to you?

As early as possible, ideally before the building layout is finalised. The position of your refrigeration equipment affects your electrical load planning, your drainage runs, your condenser positioning, and, in some cases, your structural requirements. Getting us involved at the design stage means the specification is built into the fit-out from the start rather than retrofitted around decisions that have already been made. Call us when you have a floor plan, and we will tell you exactly what we need to know to give you a proper specification.