Expert Advice and Services

Our new StoreCheck audit service is now available to book; audits will begin in June 2014.

StoreCheck offers an opportunity for the performance criteria for individual stores to be assessed. Potato Council-funded survey work conducted by SBCSR and Farm Energy has revealed a huge range of levels of performance across commercial stores in every day use throughout the industry. Some stores have been costing up to three times as much to run as comparable facilities.

Store performance is basically influenced by any factor which changes the store condition from its optimum. Clearly, there are things the store manager can do little about, such as crop respiration, which produces heat and usually requires the store to be periodically cooled. But there are also factors we can influence such as air leakage into the store – on a windy day warm air leaking into a store can increase running costs by as much as 50% and heighten the risk of condensation which will encourage disease development. Ventilation performance can be seriously compromised by poor air circulation which means that heat is not removed as effectively as it might be adding to electricity costs and weight loss. And refrigeration relies on efficient heat transfer from crop to air, from air to refrigerant (in the evaporator coils) and from refrigerant to the outside air (via the condenser). Any limitations on these processes reduces cooling efficiency and means it takes longer (and costs more) to achieve any change in store condition that’s needed.

Please watch our video below for more information. Ultimately, can you afford to run your storage without knowing that you have your store running to the best of its ability? Help is just a phone call away. Call now and book an audit for your store – the small investment needed for a StoreCheck assessment could be paid back in as little as one season.

Contact the booking line on 01406 359419.

Discounts are available for multiple stores at a single postcode. Please note our on-site storage services are now charged at a flat rate nationwide.

Storage Advice Line: call free on 0800 02 82 111

The Potato Council provides free general storage advice and information to levy payers from its team at SBCSR. For up-to-the-minute information on storage, call the Storage Advice Line or see our storage bulletins for topical information.

• Advice on managing your stores more efficiently
• Talk to our researchers and benefit from the latest Potato Council R&D
• Get the latest advice from Potato Council experts on your storage issue

Although every effort is made to answer the advice line personally, it is occasionally necessary to use an answer phone. Please leave contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible. For non-0800 compatible phones, call 01406 359419 (calls to this number are chargeable).

StoreCheck is a new store auditing service which will carry out a detailed assessment of your store’s capability and provide data on efficiency-related aspects of the store building, including a new store air leakage test, energy use and, where applicable, key factors relating to refrigeration efficiency.

We also offer private consultancy on storage issues covering storage design advice; expert input to loss adjustment, dispute arbitration and resolution.

Further information is available on accompanying pages or please contact us by telephoning 01406 359419 or e mail [email protected].

Or why not visit Sutton Bridge? Please call to make an appointment. Click here for a location map.