GreenChill Platinum EPA Designation For New Grocery Store Featuring Kysor/Warren Cases

09/02/2015 3:34 PM ET

Aug. 27–A new Piggly Wiggly supermarket opening next week in east Columbus will have an environmentally friendly operation, the store’s owner, Pheonix City-based JTM Corp., said Wednesday.

The 35,763-square-foot grocery store will carry a “GreenChill Platinum” designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when its doors open next Wednesday, the company said.

The supermarket will be the anchor of a small strip shopping center at 2424 Woodruff Farm Road, near the intersection of Forrest Road. About 19,000 square feet of additional retail space is on the 9-acre site, which JTM bought more than three years ago from a church that had planned to build there, but decided otherwise.

JTM Corp. financial controller Keith Milligan could not be reached for comment. “We’ve been trying to get that location (for) about 20 years,” he said last summer as construction was starting on the commercial project.

GreenChill is a certification for stores built with refrigeration systems that are kinder to the environment. In essence, they reduce emissions, thus cutting negative ozone impact on the global climate.

There are now only nine stores in the U.S. with the designation, with only one in Georgia, at a Sprouts market in Dunwoody, according to the EPA website. Aside from the top platinum category, there also are gold and silver levels.

JTM said it has been working with Heatcraft and Lennox International, companies that own the Kysor/Warren refrigeration manufacturing plant in Columbus. The equipment installed by Kysor/Warren will use a newer ammonia CO2 refrigerant instead of freon, JTM said.

That partnership, the company said, “will allow potential future (commercial) customers of theirs to see this state of the art system in a real world, working environment.”

The EPA says the GreenChill certification is good for only a year, with stores needing to reapply annually to maintain the designation.

JTM Corp., founded in 1966 by Tommy Milligan, operates 19 Piggly Wiggly supermarkets in the area. That includes eight in Columbus and four in Phenix City, making it the largest grocery company in the local market in total locations. Publix, Winn-Dixie and Walmart Supercenters are its primary competitors.

Piggly Wiggly is a privately owned supermarket chain founded in Memphis, Tenn., in 1916, although its headquarters is now in Keene, N.H. JTM is among its independent owners across 17 states.

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Cold Craft, Inc. established in 1991 as an energy efficient leader in the field of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration has installed Kysor/Warren products for San Francisco Bay Area.  Our grocers are seeing local utility rebates and financing as a way to make their store look more updated, improve sales with new cases, provide more consistent cooling than the units that were replaced and save a lot on their energy usage.  If you are a grocer and are interested in learning how utility rebates, financing and better looking/operating cases can improve your bottom line. Contact us at 408.374.7292.