Food for thought as Singapore firm cuts energy cost

University of Teesside graduate Adam Stewart, from Redcar, spent six months working with the International Cuisine company that employs 550 people, in Consett, Country Durham.

As a result of the work of Stewart and other energy consultants, International Cuisine, which makes more than a million chilled meals a week, has been able to identify measures that will reduce its power consumption by up to 10 per cent.

Adam Stewart was recruited to a One NorthEast- funded collaborative innovation partnership using the specialist expertise of Teesside University’s Clean Environment Management Centre that advises companies on ways of reducing their impact on the environment.

Oxford Innovation

Stewart’s project was based on carrying out a full audit of the factory’s energy use to identify ways by which it could be reduced and supporting the company in achieving Carbon Trust Accreditation.

Stewart, who is completing his master’s degree (MSc) in environmental technology at the Middlesbrough-based university, said: “International Cuisine was already operating in a very efficient way but the work we have done showed that even companies that were already efficient can make further, extremely significant, improvements.”

These measures included the simple step of keeping doors closed during warm summer weather - leaving them open makes the refrigeration units work harder to maintain the best conditions for stored food.

[…] If energy is wasted, a company wastes money and that hits its viability and, in turn, people’s pay packets

Adam Stewart

International Cuisine

Stewart said: “Once we discovered the effect that leaving the doors open was having on the refrigeration units, we were able to make the staff aware of the amount of energy that was being wasted. We were also able to explain that making economies benefited them directly. If energy is wasted, a company wastes money and that hits its viability and, in turn, people’s pay packets,” he added.

Other recommendations included a more efficient use of blast-chillers used to cool food down quickly, better ways of using boilers and compressors and more efficient ways of operating other equipment. The company is drawing up a schedule of work to implement the suggestions.

Stewart said: “If all the measures were adopted, it could cut energy usage by up to 10 per cent. The important thing about that figure is that every pound saved in this way goes straight onto the company’s bottom line. By making a few easy, relatively inexpensive changes, companies like International Cuisine can add to their profitability.”

International Cuisine

Tom Weldon, site operations director at International Cuisine, said: “We would never have been able to achieve this ourselves without the invaluable support of Adam and the University of Teesside.”

We would never have been able to achieve this ourselves without the invaluable support of Adam and the University of Teesside

Following the success of his work at International Cuisine, Adam Stewart was offered a role at the university working on the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme. He now has the opportunity to move from student to teacher using the case study to teach environmental technology students at Teesside.

Since starting up in 1973, Singapore Food Industries (SFI) Limited has become the largest integrated food company in Singapore, with a wide portfolio of products and services.

SFI has grown in size, diversification and market reach, from a food raw material supplier, to food distribution, to food catering, and to food manufacturing and processing. The expansion and diversification has led SFI to be listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange in November 1999.

It has significant operations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland that contribute more than 50 per cent to group turnover. Its businesses are in three main areas: food distribution; food preparation, manufacturing and processing; and abattoir and hog auction.

SFI’s operation has managed to obtain and sustain its continuous growth since it started its operations. It demonstrated strong growth in 2007, achieving pre-tax profit of 48.6 million Singaporean dollars on a turnover of 715 million.