Buy-Low Foods, the largest food wholesale distributor to independent grocers in Western Canada, serves nearly 1,900 wholesale customers through its Associated Grocers and Van-Whole Produce divisions, along with running ith 35 corporate stores and 2 franchise stores.
While designing a recent new-store build, Louie Pulice, Business Development Coordinator for Buy-Low Foods, began looking for lighting solutions to make the new Langdon, Alberta, store as cost efficient as possible, without sacrificing the shopper experience. He worked with Electrical Designer Dan Melchior to develop a lighting plan that would meet Buy Low Foods lighting standards while lowering operation costs.
Melchior decided to go with LED lighting after having a conversation with his sales agent, Bryan Lortie from CDm2 LIGHTWORKS. After Bryan introduced the Cree product line, he developed his lighting design primarily with Cree LED lighting.
“I’ve used alternate manufacturers for site lighting on other projects, but I‘m now convinced that Cree’s variety of LED packages and warranty knocks all of the competitors off the map. Cree provides a 10 year warranty on their products, which is double what other manufacturers provide,” said Melchior.
Dan used Cree’s CS18 LED suspended ambient luminaires down the aisles and CR24 LED troffers in the deli/bakery areas and offices. WS4 surface ambient luminaires were used inside the freezers and coolers, and Cree Edge LED high output area luminaires in the parking lot.
Among the deciding factors was the three-year payback, along with over $8,000 in annual maintenance savings, and Cree’s 10-year limited warranty, the company said in a Cree case study.
“With Cree, I’m confident that I made the right choice. Since the opening in 2014, we haven’t had an issue, and we were really pleased with the end result,” said Pulice. The end result is high performing, beautiful white light that can dramatically improve the visual appearance of fruits, vegetables and meats.”
The Langdon location set a trend for Buy-Low Foods. They upgraded the Buy-Low Foods in Clearwater and a Meinhardt Fine Foods with Cree LED lighting. Plus, they are looking to Cree for the next three Nesters Market stores in 2016.