Southeastern Minnesota IGA stores add REMIS glass

By News Team
ads@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Fri, Nov 2nd, 2012
Posted in All Features

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Rush Foods, Inc. has installed doors onto previously open cases at three of their locations in southeastern Minnesota. The local grocer added 16 feet of grey doors at Harmony IGA, 88 feet of black doors at Preston IGA, and 84 feet of black doors at Rushford IGA. In addition to the doors, the Rushford location installed 42 feet of black Ecosafe island covers. The system includes new energy efficient LED lighting, which is more reliable than the existing lighting, as well as improved quality of light on the product displayed in the case. The installation was made possible through a USDA Rural Energy for American Program energy efficiency grant and rebates from Tri-County Electric Cooperative and Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency.

Brad Hoiness, co-owner/operations manager, said that he heard of REMIS through a fellow IGA retailer who had installed doors to save on his electric bill. For Rush Foods, the estimated annual Kilowatt hour savings at each store is: 5,367 kWh for Harmony, 40,757 kWh for Preston, and 39,558 kWh for Rushford, based on data provided by Director of Member Services for Tri-County Electric Cooperative Brad Pecinovsky. Although saving money was the primary reason to install the system, improving product quality was a close second motive for the grocer. With the doors comes temperature consistency and as Hoiness explained, “The temperature consistency will not only extend the shelf life of our fresh foods, but also it will keep foods fresh longer in our customers’ refrigerators.”

Both customers and employees are proud of the recent store changes. “Our customers like to see improvements made to ‘their store’ and they understand that electricity is getting to be a bigger expense even in their own home. Our employees understand it is necessary to save money by conserving electricity and are proud that we’ve accomplished that with this project.” So far, customers have shown their appreciation for how much warmer the store feels, which makes shopping more enjoyable.

Hoiness said that the installation process went smoothly. “The REMIS team was very professional from start to finish. They understand how to protect our products in the cases they are working on and were able to install the system overnight so it did not negatively impact our business. The custom REMIS system fits so well, it looks like it was always meant to be there.”

Rush Foods, Inc. is a family-owned grocery retailer with stores in Rushford, Preston and Harmony, Minnesota serving communities in Fillmore County. The Hoiness family has owned and operated Rush Foods, Inc. since 1973.

REMIS AMERICA offers retro-fit refrigeration doors and covers to grocery retailers that cut energy costs up to 80 percent while also greatly reducing retailers’ carbon footprint. REMIS AMERICA, headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana, is the result of a joint venture between, DEHCO, Inc., Elkhart, Indiana, and REMIS GmbH of Cologne, Germany.

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