ALDI invests big in the rollout of Project Fresh revamp at Mayo stores

Leading retailer ALDI Ireland will invest €7.2 million in upgrading six of its stores throughout the country in 2023. The stores will be part of the supermarket’s award-winning Project Fresh retrofitting programme, which overhauls a store’s infrastructure with energy-saving upgrades.

Since the beginning of the programme in 2016, ALDI has invested €62 million in the roll out of Project Fresh across its network of stores.

Through the Project Fresh innovations, ALDI stores in Mayo are significantly cutting their energy consumption with the use of modern and efficient chiller doors and refrigeration systems. This not only reduces each stores environmental impact, but also allows ALDI to reinvest savings made in its store network to improve the overall shopping experience for customers and ensure that they are getting the freshest produce at the lowest prices.

ALDI’s Project Fresh has delivered a number of key energy-saving infrastructure upgrades across its store network.

These upgrades include, among others: new store chiller doors to reduce refrigeration energy consumption by approximately 20%; latest generation CO2 refrigeration packs, which make energy savings of 18% when compared to the same store in the previous year; LED lights which use 60% less energy per year.

ALDI has also invested heavily in improving its energy management systems and its entire store network is now powered by 100% wind-generated energy. ALDI was the second retailer in Ireland to achieve ISO 50001 accreditation in recognition of its efforts to improve energy efficiencies.

The Project Fresh approach has customer experience at its core. Driven by feedback and customer demand, it involves an expansion of the fresh food selection, such as fruit and vegetables, by increasing chiller space capacity.

Stores have also been given a visual makeover, with new floors and signage giving a more open and premium look and feel to the point of slafe offering and enhancing the in-store experience further.

ALDI’s Project Fresh store layout was recognised at the Checkout National Retail Supplier Awards when it scooped the Best New Store Build Award for ALDI’s Ennistymon store, one of ALDI’s first Project Fresh stores.

Commenting, Colin Breslin, managing director of buying and services Ireland, said: “We are delighted to be at such an advanced stage of the rollout of our Project Fresh store upgrades. We are proud to have invested €62 million in upgrading our stores since 2016, including two stores in Mayo, and this year we will invest €7.2 million in a further six store upgrades across the country.

“Reducing energy consumption is an important goal for all of us and at ALDI, we are deeply committed to a sustainable business model, which is why we are always looking for opportunities and new ways to reduce our carbon footprint. Through initiatives like Project Fresh, we are playing our part in helping to meet the ambitions set out under the government’s Climate Action Plan to halve emissions by 2030 and implement a carbon neutral economy by 2050.

“For our Mayo customers, it means that when they shop at ALDI, they are shopping with a business that is acutely aware of our impact on the environment. The savings that we make through a programme like Project Fresh mean we can continue to invest in our store network to improve and enhance the in-store experience for our customers and, most importantly, guarantee the freshest produce at the lowest prices.”