Promoted content: SMART BUILDINGS - Socomec and W Foods Market elevating power monitoring to a new level

W Foods Market* is one of the largest supermarket chains in the world, currently operating over 1000 stores. The management team at W Foods Market was keen to identify opportunities to reduce the business’ impact on the environment and to maintain competitiveness, while also increasing customer comfort and building brand sustainability.

Energy is vitally important for the business – not least as their second highest operating expense – but also as an opportunity to drive growth. According to specialist retail studies, a 15% reduction in energy consumption can directly increase profit margins by approximately 1 point.

In common with the majority of their peers in food retail, more than 80% of the energy consumed by W Foods Market is split across three key usage groups: refrigeration, HVAC and lighting.

Despite monthly energy billing by store, it was not previously possible to break this consumption down by usage – preventing meaningful action from being taken. In order to drive a more energy efficient policy, the management team took the decision to install a power monitoring system across 530 stores – more than half the estate – in order to more precisely measure the energy consumption across each of these three key usage areas.