Woolworths Converts New TC R744 Store to Temporary Warehouse During Pandemic

Back in October 19, 2019, Frasers Property, a developer in Sydney, Australia, announced that it would launch a large format retail center in Sydney called Eastern Creek Quarter, with Australian retailer Woolworths at its anchor tenant.

Woolworths Eastern Creek was due to open to the public at 9am, March 19, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Frasers Property delayed the date of its public opening. And instead of opening the store to the public, Woolworths turned it into a provisional distribution center “until things return to normal,” said Dario Ferlin, refrigeration engineer for Woolworths.

Eastern Creek is Woolworths’ 13th store in Australia with a transcritical CO₂ system. Ferlin said that, despite the current difficulties, the store is “an example of how transcritical CO₂ is quickly becoming the Woolworths norm.”

He outlined the system’s features as follows: “On site we have twin booster transcritical CO₂ racks from Bitzer Australia with Buffalo Trident gas-coolers assisted with Carel Chillboost adiabatic cooling.” The system loads are 36kW (10.2TR) for frozen and 190kW (54TR) chilled.

The showcases are all from Hussmann and installed across a trading area of 2,800m² (30,139ft²), and the installation contractor was Contract Refrigeration. Ferlin further remarked that “the site is not a sustainability focus development, but we specified transcritical CO₂ for refrigeration nonetheless.”

Asked to comment about how COVID-19 will further effect the refrigeration industry, Ferlin was cautious about making any predictions. ‘I’ll need a crystal ball for that!,” he said. “Coronavirus is impacting our industry’s supply chain on a global scale; not just locally.”

“Furthermore,” he continued, “social distancing is making it very challenging for site teams who need to maintain safety as their primary objective. This situation still needs to play out and no one is in a position to confidently predict how long it will take before we come out the other end.”

“This situation still needs to play out and no one is in a position to confidently predict how long it will take before we come out the other end.”

Dario Ferlin, Woolworths