Blog

Heatcraft Products In First LEED Certified Green 7-11

2010-07-16T22:46:17Z

Typical for most business, using the right tools or components for the job is a key to finishing the job satisfactorily. This LEED-certified 7-Eleven in DeLand, Florida is a great example of choosing the right components for energy-efficient walk-in cooler operation. The Heatcraft Bohn evaporators, Hyper Core condensers, and Beacon electronic refrigerant and operations control system are matched to provide the optimal balance of efficient energy use and cost savings.

One advantage to designing an energy-efficient walk-in cooler or freezer system is that many utilities and local governments have rebate and incentive programs to defray the initial additional cost of the components. But a longer term advantage appears when electrical usage and bills are lower every month. An additional advantage is that the consistent temperature and operation keeps more product from spoiling than older systems, which adds to the monthly payback.

You can read the entire case study (PDF) or give us call to talk about applying this to an upcoming project.

Imperial Walk-in Coolers Meet San Diego County Needs

2010-05-12T08:59:29Z

The new facility is 84,000 square feet, more than five times larger than the original 16,000 sq ft facility built in the 1960’s and evidence of the growth of the entire San Diego area. The facility opened at the end of 2009 with a LEED Silver rating, featuring the latest in energy saving design and technology, including Imperial walk-in coolers.

The San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office investigates approximately 11,000 cases each year with roughly 3,000 cases brought in for further examination. By any measure, this is a big job and Imperial walk-in coolers meet the requirements in the new Medical Examiner’s facility, as seen in the facilities tour with Dr. Glenn Wagner.

More detail about the Imperial walk-in coolers used in this facility is available in a new Case Study.

Chrane Foodservice Solutions Joins Imperial Manufacturing Walk-in Coolers and Freezers

2010-03-29T17:37:57Z

With offices in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, Chrane Foodservice Solutions will cover the three state area of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, training dealers and helping them meet customer requirements for Imperial walk-in coolers and freezers. Chranefs facilities to help develop customer solutions include a 550 square foot, fully stocked Test Kitchen with gPlug & Playh utilities allowing for equipment rotation, and a classroom with seating for 50 or more and complete audio-visual support.

We welcome Chrane to the Imperial Manufacturing family and look forward to great business.

See the news release for complete information.

Three Imperial Employees Greet A 20-Year Anniversary

2010-01-15T20:35:24Z

Burl Zirkle, Bart Maslowski, and Ken Rhoads (left to right)

Celebrating 20 years with one company is an accomplishment. Burl, Bart, and Ken received recognition for that achievement during the 2009 annual Christmas luncheon at Imperial Manufacturing.

Imperial has come a long ways in the last 20 years. Changes in insulating foam chemicals used in walk-in coolers and freezers, new equipment, plant expansion, the advent of LEED and green technologies, the transformation of Imperial Manufacturing from a family-owned enterprise to a wholly employee-owned ESOP corporation, and many more changes to numerous to mention.

During all these changes over all these years, Burl, Bart, and Ken have helped keep the plant running, the production humming, designs moving, and business growing.

Thank you Burl, Bart, and Ken for a great 20 years!

Employee Awards During Christmas Luncheon at Imperial

2009-12-30T19:19:15Z

The year 2009 was interesting for Imperial. But even with the economic downturn affecting our customers, everyone at Imperial pulled together and kept business moving.

On December 23rd, we all took a work break and gathered in the loading bay of the plant to enjoy a Christmas luncheon with all the trimmings.

Rick handed out raffle tickets to everyone for the after-luncheon raffle.

The loading bay is the only space in the plant large enough to hold all the Imperial employees at one sitting, especially when there are tables and food involved.

The sound system made it easy to hear the awards and year-end congratulations.

Our CFO, Justin, presented awards for reaching financial goals.

Rick and Dave were joined by Justin in handing out awards for production excellence.

Ken Rhoads was recognized for his contribution to a successful year. Ken took on a second job to streamline operations in our warehouse and shipping.

Every year someone loses the big bet on whether Oregon or Oregon State will win the Civil War football game. The winning team of the game has their team flag flown above the loading bay, but the loser of the bet has to appear in the opposing teams colors during lunch. There’s always next year!

Founder Al Zell spoke for a minute about the changes he has seen since he started the company 40 years ago and now that Imperial reached 100% ESOP status one year ago.

Following the raffle, where some lucky winners received tickets to Portland Blazer games and an assortment of other prizes, everyone lined up to pick up this year’s company gift, a 1/4-zip sweatshirt branded with the Imperial logo.

The luncheon closed out 2009 on a very positive note, a tough year that saw lots of success and growth for Imperial. Now we can look forward to a great 2010.

Stacey Sewell Joins Imperial Manufacturing in Southern California Walk-in Cooler Sales

2009-11-06T07:33:00Z

Stacey has always been interested in building and construction. Her first involvement in construction was working for a mid-west commercial walk-in cooler manufacturer. She quickly moved into sales and then served for 10 years as a national account manager at the company.

While Stacey is qualified in refrigeration load analysis and other design parameters required for proper walk-in cooler and freezer design, her interest in construction pulled her into a two-year role in Southern California as project engineer coordinating all aspects of construction.

Stacey spent some time at the Imperial headquarters on the plant floor getting a close look at the manufacturing process and the construction of Imperial walk-in coolers and freezers.

We are happy that Stacey brings to us her wealth of walk-in cooler and construction experience in chains, cafeterias, and casual- and fine-dining restaurants, as well as industrial refrigeration. Although she is located in LA, we know she’ll be bringing her snowboard and love of the beach with her on trips to our headquarters plant.

Jim Coffey Joins Imperial As Director Of Sales & Marketing

2009-08-04T16:13:00Z

Jim has been with ICS (International Cold Storage) for over 20 years working through inside sales, territory sales, national accounts responsibilities before becoming Director of Sales and Marketing in 2004. Jim’s extensive experience in the Walk-In Cooler / Freezer business includes very strong relationships in the dealer community, chain account segment and manufacturers’ reps. He comes highly recommended by our key accounts, reps and competitors.

Jim earned a bachelors degree in Business Administration from Wichita State University. Jim and his wife Jill live in Newton, Kansas near Wichita, Kansas along with their high school age daughter and college age son. Jim and Jill will continue to reside in Kansas for the next two years while their daughter finishes up high school and then they will relocate to Portland. Jim will spend considerable time with us in Portland when he is not on the road working with our key accounts and field sales team. Jim is on board with us starting August 1, 2009.

Walk-in Cooler Requirements For Restaurant Fresh Produce

2009-07-28T15:23:01Z

A natural by-product of mechanical refrigeration is dehumidification. Improperly refrigerated walk-in coolers can quickly dehydrate fresh produce ruining the “freshness” of the product. Grocers have known this for years and always include specialty high humidity produce coolers in their supermarkets.

Fresh produce is a big discussion topic at the current IFDA sales and marketing conference, but properly storing fresh produce requires some additional preparation. Restaurants featuring fresh produce offerings need to consider dedicated “produce coolers” just as they have dedicated “meat coolers” to insure high quality produce. Ringside Restaurant, Portland, OR is including a walk-in cooler specifically for produce as part of their current expansion plans to make certain their fresh produce offerings are of the highest quality.
For information on produce coolers call your local Imperial rep. More infomration on our walk-in coolers is in our walk-in cooler pages.

Get A 30% Grant For Solar-Sourced Power

2009-07-27T19:16:01Z

This offer is only good for 2009 and 2010. But if you are considering adding solar power to your next project, this could be a great opportunity. BuildingsAndEnergy.com has a very clear post outlining the details and linking to the specific documents on the U.S. Treasury web site.

We work with local utilities to design highly energy-efficient reffrigeration into your walk-in coolers and freezers. You save money on the monthly bills and you pay nothing or very little additional.

You can get a list of our current rebates and incentives opportunities by calling our reps directly.

Burgerville Looks Good In Green

2009-06-25T22:40:00Z

The Green Blog (TGB) did a nice job covering how Burgerville carefully selects local farmers and suppliers to serve the freshest food as close as possible to the source. TGB also covered the efforts Burgerville makes in recycling everything in the restaurant and the focus on using renewable sources of energy. But they missed the efforts that Burgerville makes to control the hidden wastes in areas like walk-in coolers.

Every year the refrigeration electric bill comes to over $1 billion and 25% of that can be saved just by upgrading to more efficient components. That 25% savings in cost is equaled by the 25% savings in energy use and environmental impact, equivalent to removing 475,000 cars from U.S. roads in the first year.

Imperial is proud to contribute to Burgerville’s tremendous efforts to be environmentally and socially responsible. We will continue to design walk-in coolers and freezers that match those efforts to achieve energy efficiency and operating economy.

More information on how walk-in cooler and freezer designs can contribute to energy and operations savings is available on this web site and in our award winning article Capturing Financial Savings Through Energy Efficiency In Commercial Refrigeration, written for Foodservice Consultants Society International.

Future high-efficiency lighting for cold storage walk-ins

2009-06-23T22:22:00Z

About the size of a tiny Christmas string light, Luxim’s bulb transfers most of the energy input to light instead of heat. The bulb itself is filled with argon gas and does not use embedded electrodes, an electric field is driven into the bulb through what is called a “puck”. The electric field vaporizes the argon into a plasma that outputs 6000K daylight-spectrum light at a very high lumen per watt.

Typical lumens per watt ratings are:
Luxim - 140 lumens/watt
LEDs - 70 lumens/watt
CFLs 50-80 lumens/watt
ordinary lightbulbs - 15 lumens/watt

The full daylight color spectrum is an advantage in determining the condition of perishable or frozen food items, which can be difficult to see under some lighting. The entire unit is RoHS compliant, meaning there is no lead or other environmentally harmful substances in the bulb. Argon gas is inert, unlike the substances used in many lighting systems.

With an operating temperature range of -40C to +40C, these bulbs could easily handle the environment of a cold storage warehouse or walk-in cooler or freezer. Even better, there’s no lifetime derating for bulb orientation or short cycle times. The only drawback is the 30-second warm-up and two-minute restrike.

Check the ZDNet video (only 1:30) where Luxim CEO Tony McGettigan explains the properties of the bulb and the technology used.

Andaz West Hollywood Sees New Walk-in Coolers

2009-06-18T15:14:01Z

When the Andaz West Hollywood came calling, we snapped to attention. After all, it isn’t every day we get to make the historic scene of rock stars.

This project has our coolers made mostly of glass and completely viewable from the restaurant seating areas. In fact, some views of the coolers extend to the food prep areas in the back of house. Lee Simon, the designer from Innovative Foodservice Design Team, said the results met the initial challenge as “The end product has allowed the property to differentiate itself in the marketplace, and the walk-ins were a big part of that strategy.”

Read the entire case study.

John Cornyn Takes FE&S 2009 Top Achiever Award

2009-05-20T21:26:00Z

This week at NRA, John Cornyn received FE&S Magazine’s top award for consultants. The FE&S announcement was presented during the magazine’s annual Dealer of the Year & Industry Awards Gala on May 16 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago.

The Cornyn Fasano Group has been consulting on foodservice management since 1976, working with architects, designers, developers, realtors, hotels, restaurants, health care, legal services, corrections, educational and recreational facilities to design programs that are as individual as their needs. Cornyn and his partner Joyce Coons-Fasano are co-authors of Noncommercial Foodservice: An Administrators Handbook, a well-known reference for new and seasoned foodservice professionals.

Imperial Manufacturing congratulates John Cornyn on receiving the recognition his long career deserves.

9 of Top 50 U.S. Green Power Purchasers Are Food Businesses

2009-04-29T16:22:00Z

According the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nine of the top 50 green power users in the U.S. are in food-related businesses. These businesses range from food produceers to wholesalers to retailers, spanning the entire food production and distribution chain.

The nine food-related businesses are:
PepsiCo
Whole Foods Market
The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Starbucks
PepsiAmericas, Inc.
The Dannon Company, Inc.
WhiteWave Foods Company
Safeway, Inc.

Many of the remaining top 50 businesses have substantial food-related operations as part of their business. These include branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, many colleges and universities, and a number of vacation resorts.

Businesses on the list and located in the region near Imperial’s manufacturing facility include Oregon State University; California State University System; City of San Diego, CA; Los Angeles Country Sanitation Districts; Cisco Systems, Inc. ; Intel Corporation; and many local offices and retail outlets of other large corporations on the list.

Seeing so many companies involved in the move to more efficient use of energy is heartening. We are doing our part at Imperial, both in our manufacturing facility and in the products our customers use. It’s a good feeling to be a part of this green movement, especially helping our customers save money on energy use and obtain rebates on walk-in cooler and freezer upgrades.

Imperial Manufacturing battles tough economy

2009-04-21T22:33:00Z

Imperial has been able to weather the storm the last 9 months as the US economy continues to fluster. Imperial has reacted to decreased orders by adjusting our overhead to stay financially healthy. In fact, order entry has steadily increased over the last 4 months to the point were we have even hired back production workers. With the current Oregon state unemployment at 12.1% we are doing what we can to help out. Our sales force and high quality products have made it easy for existing and new customers to purchase from Imperial.