Steve Ennis, manufacturing sector manager for Aggreko, unpacks the findings of company’s latest temperature control survey, and maps out future cooling strategies for the sector amid rising temperatures, squeezed capex budgets, and the ongoing F-gas phasedown.
The broad umbrella of industrial HVAC plays a critical – yet often unsung – role in the UK brewing sector. From steam boilers through to, cooling, and dehumidification, you would be hard pressed to find a process that does not rely on some form of industrial HVAC. And while it often goes under the radar, production can quickly grind to a halt when it’s not functioning as intended.
Recent challenges have now brought the role of industrial HVAC into sharper focus than ever before. The heat is rising, with all 10 of the UK’s warmest years occurring since the year 2000. Equipment is ageing, impacting on-site efficiency and threatening uptime, yet squeezed capex budgets are blocking investment in new assets. Adding to this, evolving F-gas regulations and net zero pressures are adding complexity to an already cloudy landscape.
For this reason, we commissioned a survey of 334 UK manufacturing managers to assess how well cooling infrastructure is faring, and how this shift is impacting strategies moving forwards. This culminated in our latest research report – Temperature Check: What UK Industry Needs to Compete. All respondents are responsible for cooling processes and work for companies with a turnover of at least £50 million. Of the 334, 90 work in the food & beverage sector, which is the group we’ll be homing in on specifically.
The key findings at a glance:
Age claims its due
Food and beverage manufacturers are increasingly using ageing assets. 67% of respondents said that their cooling equipment was between 5 and 10 years old, while 30% said that the average age of their cooling equipment was between 11-15 years old, with a small number even exceeding the upper end of that range. Further to this, a staggering 41% said that more than half of their equipment will require replacing in the next 1-3 years, suggesting that a period of upheaval is on the horizon for many breweries.
Efficiency drives investment…
When asked to choose up to three drivers for investing in new equipment, meeting legislation led the vote at 48%, though efficiency and reliability followed closely at 47% and 46% respectively. In line with this, the most popular option for how efficient new equipment would need to be to justify a proactive investment was 50-59%, demonstrating a clear appetite for efficiency gains.
…though investment uncertainty prevails
Despite these incentives for investment, 94% said current market uncertainty has affected their plans to do so, with 59% being ‘significantly affected’. This juxtaposition places brewers in a difficult predicament – the want and need to invest in new equipment is clear, but the barriers to entry are high, suggesting that an alternative approach to procurement may be needed.
The heat is on
It’s no secret that extreme weather is placing pressure on temperature control, and this is reflected in the numbers. 94% of respondents showed some level of concern about the impact of extreme weather on their cooling equipment, with 44% being ‘very concerned’. It’s easy to see why, with 99% of respondents facing downtime due to cooling equipment failures in the past 12 months. Of these instances, 44% were in excess of three weeks – and although the research does not identify heat as a direct cause, higher ambient temperatures can impact equipment efficiency and performance, with many cooling systems now working beyond their intended operating conditions.
The F-word
With legislation leading the drivers for investment above, we also dived into the specific challenges that food and beverage manufacturers are facing on this front, with F-gas being a focal point. Here, 51% of respondents expect legislation surrounding this to have a significant impact on their ability to maintain and upgrade cooling equipment, though 94% believe that their organisation is prepared to meet the compliance timeline. When asked what the three biggest barriers were to meeting this, 48% said knowledge and understanding of regulations, which was matched by monitoring and reporting, and closely followed by cost of equipment at 47%.
Reapproaching cooling
Though these results paint a somewhat difficult picture for the sector, there is light at the end of the tunnel. While there are clearly barriers to procuring new temperature control equipment, our report also explored some of the alternative routes food & beverage manufacturers are taking to meet their needs – namely, procuring their cooling equipment through a third-party specialist on a hired basis.
The benefits here are multi-faceted. Hiring equipment allows breweries to circumvent capex limitations when looking to make a new investment – something that 94% of respondents were already considering for this exact reason. This facilitates access the latest, high-efficiency equipment – a clear driver for upgrading, as outlined earlier – without the usual barrier of cost.
Hire supports customers by giving them access to equipment while they assess and plan long‑term, permanent investments. In temporary set‑ups, this can help reduce emissions and fuel use through the deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and by right‑sizing power equipment to actual demand.
This approach can support wider ESG goals by enabling lower‑emission operations without premature capital commitment. Access to the latest hire equipment, supported by specialist third‑party expertise where required, allows brewers to solve challenges without large capital investment and removes pressure from an already complex decision‑making process – one of the reasons 88% of respondents consider hire as part of their approach.
Maintaining production without dram-a
But don’t just take it from us. For one of our UK customers, a whiskey distillery in Scotland, hire was the missing piece of the puzzle that allowed them to maintain production while their steam boilers had to be taken offline for testing. Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a statutory requirement that means steam boilers must be tested every 5 years – requiring a 2-week shutdown of their on-site boiler that would halt whiskey production.
With this presenting potential losses of over £250,000, we were called upon to bridge the gap with a hired solution. By specifying a 20,000-litre steam boiler supplying 5.5 tonnes of 99.5% dry-saturated steam an hour, the manufacturer was able to maintain production even while testing took place.
As demonstrated by this case study, while challenges persist, hire presents a pragmatic route through the tumultuous years ahead. Best of all, it’s entirely scalable and comes with minimal risk – the supplied package can be sized up or down as desired to meet demand, and should further legislative shifts strike in future, brewers can easily pivot to new equipment without being burdened with a fixed asset. While future-proofing temperature control won’t solve every business challenge, having one less thing to think about in an increasingly complex market can be invaluable.
