Manufacturing companies

Our manufacturing companies have very substantial energy requirements. At the same time, they create surplus energy, including in the form of waste heat. This waste heat can be channelled back into production, helping to improve energy efficiency.

Exploiting synergies in production and saving energy

Whether at the banana ripening plant, Swissmill grain mill or vinegar manufacturer Nutrex, the following are a few concrete examples of how we use synergies in production:

Coop Nutrex production plant – use of waste heat

Nutrex produces vinegar. Optimum use is made of the waste heat this generates, with the help of two heat pumps. Firstly, it heats the vinegar to cure it and secondly, it is used to heat the working spaces. Consequently, we no longer need any additional heating.

Banana ripening plant – cooling/heating exchange

Each year, we ripen 23 000 tonnes of bananas at our banana ripening plant in Kaiseraugst, and this requires a lot of heat. At the same time, the bananas have to be cooled, so that they stay fresh. Both processes require a lot of energy. Having modernized the cooling system and replaced the old oil heating system with waste heat from the cooling systems, the banana ripening plant now saves 40 000 litres of heating oil each year, equating to a CO2 reduction of 115 tonnes. This enables CO2-neutral operations.

Coop Bakery and Swissmill

The distribution centre in Schafisheim houses Switzerland’s largest bakery. In addition to the well-established woodchips, milling by-products from Swissmill are also used to generate heat at our bakery.

Other projects

  • In 2011, our own industrial bakery in Gossau became the first industrial bakery in Switzerland to use a modern woodchip-fired heating system, enabling us to reduce annual CO2 emissions by 70 percent. This equates to 900 tonnes.
  • Our distribution centre in Wangen has been refurbished, enabling us to reduce its annual heat requirements by 30 percent. Today, three ground water heat pumps are already meeting 70 percent of those requirements and the remaining heat is supplied by a new gas heating system. We are currently building a new industrial bakery in Schafisheim.
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