Featured by Tefcold: From Repair Specialists to Retail Leaders

It is not every day your own supplier writes about you. TEFCOLD — the Danish-founded manufacturer whose display fridges and freezers sit in shops and kitchens across the UK — has published a case study on Craven Cooling, and we will admit to being a little proud of it.

The piece, titled “From Repair Specialists to Retail Leaders”, tells the story of how a South Wales family repair business became a refrigeration dealer serving convenience stores, butchers, bakeries, hotels and schools — and it does not skip the unglamorous start.

It genuinely began on an ironing board

When lockdown stalled the hospitality and education work that kept the repair side busy, the sales business started at home. As I told Tefcold: “I just went from a home office with just me — initially started up on the ironing board one day in the living room. Darren came home from work and asked, what are you doing? And I replied with ‘I need a desk.’”

Darren kept the repair work running; the desk got bought; and the business that grew out of that living room now runs a showroom on Carmarthen Road in Swansea, opened in August 2025, alongside a brand-new website.

Why the showroom mattered

The number that caught Tefcold’s eye is the one that surprised us least: since the showroom opened, sales conversions from walk-in customers have risen by 60%. Standing next to a running cabinet answers questions a product page never will.

“You’re not just a box shifter — you’ve got more knowledge and experience in the industry, and they can come to you and rely on you if there is a problem.”

That trust is the whole model. Customers come in armed with questions about availability, delivery dates, dimensions and temperature ranges, and they leave with straight answers — because we have spent years learning the equipment from the inside, spanners first.

Eight years with Tefcold

The case study also marks eight years of Craven Cooling working with Tefcold, whose PC multidecks, LGF freezers and Galaxy range feature heavily in the projects we install. Tefcold credits the partnership’s success to reliability, transparent stock availability through its web shop, and easy access to technical diagrams and specification sheets — the boring, dependable things that actually keep a dealer’s promises to its customers.

From our side, it is simpler: when a manufacturer answers the phone, holds stock honestly and publishes real specifications, we can stand behind every cabinet we sell.

Craven’s verdict

Being someone else’s case study is a strange feeling — but the substance matters to buyers, not just to us. A dealer that started in repairs diagnoses before it sells; a dealer with a showroom lets you judge the equipment with your own eyes; and a dealer with an eight-year manufacturer relationship can get answers, parts and stock when it counts. If you are choosing who to buy refrigeration from, those are fair tests to apply — to us or to anyone.

The stunt — The Showroom Test: Before you buy commercial refrigeration from anyone, ask to see a running example of the cabinet — in a showroom or a real installation. Stand next to it. Open the doors, listen to it, check the shelf pitch against your products. If the seller can’t show you one anywhere, ask yourself what else they won’t be able to show you after the sale. Ours is at Unit 1, 304 Carmarthen Road, Swansea — the kettle works too.

Source: TEFCOLD UK — Case Study: Craven Cooling, From Repair Specialists to Retail Leaders (26 August 2026)