Commercial Display Fridge Guide

Filling a display fridge is a great way to showcase your chilled food and drinks. Not only does it keep contents at the perfect serving temperature, it can also encourage impulse purchases that will really drive your sales. It is a simple yet highly effective way for cafés, bars, canteens or takeaways to merchandise anything from alcoholic and soft drinks to sandwiches, cakes and desserts.

A commercial display fridge will be an important part of your front of house display, so it needs to look smart and attractive as well as being reliable and easy to maintain. Fast and easy access is essential too - customers must be able to grab their items quickly, while staff need to refill the fridge with a minimum of disruption. This guide will help you decide which display fridges will best suit your requirements.

Types of Display Fridge

Commercial Bar Fridge

Commonly known as a beer fridge, a commercial bar fridge is the perfect solution for displaying your full range of cans or bottled drinks. Fast customer service is vital in bars, pubs and clubs, so having these chilled beverages within easy reach is equally important.

An under bench bar fridge has a compact space-saving design that many licensed premises prefer. These can feature standard hinged doors or sliding doors if you need to save on space in tight bar areas. Interior lighting will highlight your drinks and grab the customer's attention, particularly in dark clubs or bars. If you have more space available, an upright back bar fridge will provide an even greater storage capacity.

Capacity and access are two key considerations if you're looking to buy any glass front bar fridge. Appearance and efficiency are also important, particularly if you are running multiple fridges. Popular beer fridge manufacturers include Polar Refrigeration, Skope and Williams.

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Commercial Wine Fridge

At first glance, a wine cooler looks very similar to a drinks fridge. However, they are quite different inside. A wine fridge will have specially designed racks to hold bottles safely and securely. Some top models will feature wooden shelves for additional strength, as well as to protect the bottles and labels from scratches.

Different wines require different storage conditions, so a commercial wine chiller must have a wide temperature range that is easy to control and manage. Whether it is red, white or sparkling wine, programming your wine fridge at the correct temperature will ensure you bring out the best flavours of your bottles. Polar Refrigeration offer some of the market's most popular wine coolers in a range of sizes and styles.

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Refrigerated Merchandiser

A huge variety of refrigerated merchandisers are available to choose from, but they all share the same purpose - to showcase your food in the best possible way and maximise impulse sales. The broadest group in our commercial display fridge collection, these merchandisers can range from a small glass door mini fridge to a large countertop display fridge.

Much like a drink fridge, merchandisers are designed for front of house displays. However, these units are usually positioned for assisted service due to their size and layout. Countertop models are perfect as a dessert or cake display fridge, while larger upright glass door fridges offer greater capacities and shelf space.

With so many choices, the main buying factor must be application or function. Polar will have a display refrigerator for any commercial task, while Williams, Skope and Birko are among the other top brands.

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Refrigerated Servery

Servery refrigeration covers any display fridge which assists with the preparation and presentation of chilled food. These can be used for front of house buffet service or even as a tapas display fridge, as well as a prep fridge for quick access to ingredients during pizza, salad or sandwich creation.

These countertop display fridges usually feature easy access to multiple gastronorm pans, so ingredients or contents can be replaced quickly and easily. This category also features a range of drop-in fridges, which can fit into a bench and provide an attractive self-service buffet solution.

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WHICH DISPLAY FRIDGE DO I NEED?

Display fridges are remarkably versatile. With such a huge choice available, this table provides a simple overview of the main tasks each display fridge is suitable for.

	Bar Fridge	Wine Chiller	Refrigerated Merchandiser	Refrigerated Servery
Chilled Food			✓	✓
Chilled Drinks	✓	✓	✓
Wine	✓	✓	✓
Ambient Food & Drink			✓	✓