D M Newmans Butchers, High St, Lavenham, Suffolk.Owners: Peter Hobbs and son Karl. 

D M Newmans is a high quality traditional family butchers based in the beautiful and ancient medieval town of Lavenham, Lavenham has many Tudor and historic buildings and is a centre for tourism in Suffolk.  D M Newmans is situated in a listed building that is central to the high street directly facing the prestigious Swan hotel, the buildings listing status means any work carried out must be sympathetic to the structure and look of the building.  The buildings listing status can also cause significant problems when installing any new equipment; this made our Wireless DATAcentre system the obvious choice for this project. 

The shop itself has one frozen and three chilled cold rooms. There is a double length meat serve-over counter, a window display, a deli counter and a cheese counter. As with any traditional butchery business HACCP and due diligence compliance play an important part of daily routine.  Temperature records were being taken numerous times each and every day using hand held thermometers, this meant numerous daily visits to the shop at weekends and during holiday periods to ensure compliance.  During high peak trade periods (Christmas, etc) it was also vital to ensure that all refrigerated systems were working correctly due to the high value of stock being held on the site. 

The aim of installing the Wireless DATAcentre monitoring system was to make the day to day working life easier for both Peter and Karl and the businesses staff.  The system also had to ensure that all HACCP and due diligence legislative requirements for “maintaining the cold chain” could be met and to give total piece of mind.  

During the initial discussions it became apparent that Karl likes technology and was fully committed to having the system, whereas Peter was sceptical of the benefits and feared it might be complicated to use.  Both knew that the project was in their best interests and with reservations on Peters part the installation dates were agreed and the project went ahead. 

The Wireless DATAcentre system was installed by one of our engineers and training given on-site to the staff.   The manual temperature logging ceased, this freed staff to do more productive tasks with the time saved.  Peter immediately saw the simplicity of using our system and began using the temperature logging to analyse the performance of the shops cold stores and counters.  

Straightaway the data showed that the frozen cold store was not quite achieving the required overnight temperature and that one of the chilled cold stores was slightly too cold.  Peter was able to adjust the temperature of the chilled store but a refrigeration engineer was required to check the operation of the frozen store. It was found that the frozen stores refrigeration plant had a refrigerant leak which would have very shortly led to a total breakdown.  

These events totally sold Peter on the benefits of the DATAcentre system, Peter saw that by being able to adjust the temperature of the chilled store he had an instant energy saving.  With the frozen store Peter was able to take preventative steps to stop total unit failure reducing the risk of any stock loss.  The other fringe benefits were that an engineer came during normal working hours so saving on out of hours or weekend call out fees; and Peter could see the energy saving from having the frozen system gassed and working correctly. 

A further advantage to constant temperature logging was revealed when it was shown that the chilled cold store defrost times followed the routine re-stocking of the cold rooms, this caused the cold room temperature to be high for a longer period than necessary. Peter adjusted the defrost times and was able to improve the performance of the cold rooms.  Again reducing any risk to stock and also saving in energy through better performance of the refrigeration plant. 

The Wireless DATAcentre is connected via a router to the internet using its in-built Ethernet port, this allows Peter and Karl to view & analyse all of the shops various frozen and cold store temperatures from home. This proved its full worth on Christmas day when for the first time they could check that their stock was safe without the need for either of them to drive to the shop. 

Because the system is connected to the internet the email notification is enabled which allows alarm notifications emails to be sent.  This means that both Peter and Karl have further peace of mind when they are away from the shop, as should there be an issue an email will automatically be generated and sent to them. 

During a recent inspection Peter and Karl demonstrated the Wireless DATAcentre to the local EHO and favourable comments were made. HACCP compliant temperature logs are printed from the Wireless DATAcentre and form part of the business of due diligence.  

Both Peter and Karl are very happy with the Wireless DATAcentre system and neither would want to go back to operating without it.  The total benefits and peace of mind it gives have improved the working lives of both and are also felt by their staff. 

Equipment installed – Wireless DATAcentre receiver.  Networked monitoring for the frozen and chilled cold stores and wireless sensors for the shop counters.