Keep the fridges open. Cut what they cost to run.
Shelf edge Aerofoils fitted to open refrigeration cabinets to hold the air curtain and cut cold air spill into the aisle.
An Aerofoil is a profiled aluminium blade that clips onto the front lip of each shelf in an open refrigeration cabinet, in place of the ticket strip. It keeps the falling curtain of cold air attached to the face of the case instead of letting it spill into the aisle, so the cabinet does less work and product temperature steadies. Aerofoils are passive: no power, no moving parts and nothing to service. They are made by Aerofoil Energy in the United Kingdom, out of Williams Advanced Engineering, and Nextage Group is an authorised Australian partner. On the Australian sites Nextage has fitted and had independently monitored by Nube iO, the full year reduction in daily refrigeration energy has settled at about 20 per cent. On the large format store that is roughly 22,800 kWh a year, off a refrigeration load Nube iO read at 312 kWh a day before fitting, and about 14.6 tonnes of carbon on the NSW grid.
About 20 per cent
Full year reduction in daily refrigeration energy on the Australian sites we have fitted, read before and after by Nube iO, independently of us.
25 to 38 per cent
Reduction in cabinet energy consumption published by Aerofoil Energy, who make the product, from their own installations. Their figure, their cabinets.
About one third
What Aerofoils cost to fit compared with putting doors on the same cabinets, on our own pricing for the same job. No maintenance line after that.
How it works
Air, not electronics.
Cold air falls, and some of it escapes
An open cabinet holds product cold with a curtain of falling air. Aerofoil Energy put about 70 per cent of that cabinet's energy into making and holding the curtain. At each shelf edge it turns turbulent and part of it spills into the aisle, taking the cooling with it.
The blade reshapes the edge
A profiled blade on each shelf lip smooths that turbulence, so the curtain stays attached down the face of the cabinet instead of breaking up. Shape is the whole mechanism: a flat guide put in the same place creates turbulence and can make the cabinet work harder.
The cabinet works less
Less spill means less warm store air pulled into the case, which shows up as lower run time and a steadier product temperature across every shelf, not just the top one.
The aisle stops being cold
The spilled air was landing in the aisle. Retailers usually notice the chilled draught, and the dwell time it costs them in front of the case, before they notice the meter.
The evidence
Where every number on this page comes from
Three separate things get confused in this market: what the manufacturer publishes, what a laboratory records, and what a store actually does. They are kept apart here, and each one is labelled with whose it is.
Nextage, measured in Australia
Aerofoils fitted to a large format liquor store in NSW in May 2025. Nube iO read the energy before and after using multiple linear regression, controlling for indoor and outdoor temperature and case load, so the result is the blades and not a mild month. The first 57 days showed 31 per cent. The full year read settles at about 20 per cent, and 20 is the number we stand behind.
A second monitored NSW site
A smaller liquor format fitted in April 2025 and read over an equal 37 day window before and after, again by Nube iO. Same direction of travel on a different cabinet layout, which is what tells you the first result was not a one off.
Aerofoil Energy, the manufacturer
Publish 25 to 38 per cent off cabinet energy consumption, an average aisle temperature rise of 6 degrees, and payback under 18 months even where power is cheap. Across their client base they publish 3.35 TWh of energy saved and $875m of benefit to clients. Their figures, from their installations.
Independent academic testing
A 2022 experimental study in the International Journal of Thermofluids ran a multideck cabinet with and without aerofoil structures at 25 degrees and 60 per cent humidity. Total power consumption fell 21.7 per cent, the heat entrainment factor fell 38.7 to 50 per cent, and the worst case food temperature spread narrowed by 0.6 degrees.
Named retail estates overseas
Sainsbury's has publicly reported a 15 per cent reduction in energy from fridges across its estate. Aerofoil Energy reports 17 per cent across 187 Asda supermarkets, and lists Tesco, Marks and Spencer, WH Smith, SSP Group, Morrisons, Walmart, Target and Aldi among its clients.
Awards and test standards
Aerofoil Energy holds a Queen's Award for Enterprise for Innovation, won at the 2019 RAC Cooling Industry Awards and is a certified B Corporation. Refrigerated display cabinets are tested to ISO 23953, which is the standard any laboratory figure quoted at you should name.
Comparison
Aerofoils, or fit doors?
Both go after the same waste. Only one of them leaves the shopping experience, the store air conditioning and the maintenance schedule alone.
| Consideration | Aerofoil blades | Fitting doors |
|---|---|---|
| Install cost | About one third of doors on the same cabinets | The baseline, roughly three times the Aerofoil cost |
| Net energy outcome | The saving stays where it was made. Nothing is handed back elsewhere | The cabinet saves, but the store air conditioning picks up load the open case used to carry |
| Ongoing maintenance | None. No power, no moving parts | Gaskets, hinges and seals. Industry estimates run $300 to $750 a year per unit, and $1,200 to $1,500 a repair |
| Shopper behaviour | Unchanged. The product stays open and in reach | SBXL filmed shoppers in 2017: pack reading fell from 31 to 9 per cent, conversion fell 29 per cent, grab and go fell 13 per cent |
| Store disruption | Fitted in trade, aisle by aisle. The refrigeration system is not touched | Cabinet works, and a longer install window per aisle |
| Reversibility | Clips on and off the shelf edge | A permanent change to the cabinet |
We have monitored the doors route too. On a Queensland site where doors went on, the cabinets themselves dropped from about 110 to 41 kWh a day, more than 60 per cent. The whole building meter still rose, from 363.8 to 373.8 kWh a day, because the store air conditioning lost the free cooling the open cases had been giving it: the cabinets were using 69 kWh a day less and the building used 10 more. Those readings are seven days either side of the install, in a Brisbane summer. That is one site, and it is exactly why the answer gets measured rather than assumed.
Cost and carbon
What 20 per cent is worth in kWh, carbon and money
Built on our own readings rather than a supplier's. Nube iO read the refrigeration before fitting at 312 kWh a day on the large format NSW store and 80.1 kWh a day on the smaller one. The saving row applies the full year figure of 20 per cent. Ten stores is an illustration, not a count of anyone's estate.
| Per year | Large format store | Smaller format store | Ten large format stores |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigeration energy before fitting | 113,880 kWh | 29,236 kWh | 1,138,800 kWh |
| Avoided at 20 per cent | 22,776 kWh | 5,847 kWh | 227,760 kWh |
| Carbon avoided in NSW, at 0.64 kg per kWh | 14.6 tonnes | 3.7 tonnes | 146 tonnes |
| Power cost avoided, at an assumed 25c per kWh | $5,694 | $1,462 | $56,940 |
The daily baselines are the averages Nube iO read before the blades went on, 57 days at the large store and 37 at the smaller one, carried over 365 days. The large store's first 57 days actually came in at 31 per cent, 312 down to 215 kWh a day, and the smaller store's 37 day window at 17 to 21 per cent depending on the method. Twenty is the full year number we stand behind, so it is the one used here. Carbon uses the National Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2025 factor for NSW and the ACT. The 25c per kWh is a round number for the arithmetic, not a quoted tariff. Your cabinets, your trading hours and your rate make your number, which is what the survey is for.
Emission factors
The same store on a different grid
Location based scope 2 factors from Table 1 of the National Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2025, published by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, applied to the 22,776 kWh a year the large format store avoids.
| State or grid | kg CO2e per kWh | Carbon avoided a year |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales and the ACT | 0.64 | 14.6 tonnes |
| Victoria | 0.78 | 17.8 tonnes |
| Queensland | 0.67 | 15.3 tonnes |
| South Australia | 0.22 | 5.0 tonnes |
| Western Australia, South West Interconnected System | 0.50 | 11.4 tonnes |
| Western Australia, North Western Interconnected System | 0.56 | 12.8 tonnes |
| Tasmania | 0.20 | 4.6 tonnes |
| Northern Territory, Darwin Katherine Interconnected System | 0.56 | 12.8 tonnes |
| National | 0.62 | 14.1 tonnes |
An estate spread across states should expect the same blades to do three to four times as much for its carbon account in Victoria or Queensland as in Tasmania or South Australia.
Photos
What they look like fitted
Photographed in an Australian liquor store in November 2024. The blades go on the shelf lip in place of the ticket strip, so from the aisle the cabinet still reads as an open case, with prices where shoppers expect them.
The range
One estate is rarely all one cabinet type.
Aerofoils
Shelf edge blades for open cases. The core product, and where most estates start. Patented profile, designed with computational fluid dynamics at Williams Advanced Engineering, made from 100 per cent recycled aluminium and recyclable at end of life.
Aeromirror
The profile for meat displays and sloped shelf formats, where a standard multideck blade does not suit the shelf.
Digifoils
The same shelf edge, carrying electronic shelf labels, so the airflow fix and a label change happen in one visit.
Lumifoils
The same shelf edge, carrying product lighting.
Invisidoor
Aerofoil Energy's option for open cases where a stronger result is wanted without fitting a physical door.
JetSeal
Aerofoil Energy's product for closed cases, so a mixed estate of open and doored cabinets can be treated under one program.
Delivery
Survey, specify, install, verify.
Same order every store. The order is what makes store 40 match store 1.
Survey
We measure the case types and shelf profiles actually in the store, and take air velocity and temperature at the cabinet, before anything is ordered.
Specify
The profile is matched to the cabinet in that store rather than to a drawing. Meat displays and sloped shelves take a different profile from a standard multideck.
Install
Blades replace the ticket strip, shelf by shelf, during trading hours. No refrigeration works, no electrical works, no cabinet off line and no stock relocation.
Verify
Independent before and after monitoring quantifies the saving at that site, so the next stage of the estate is funded on your own readings and not on this page.
Supply and install
Supplied, ordered and fitted for you.
No products to order, fixings to buy or trades to chase. One call, and it arrives fitted.
Tell us the site and roughly how many. We come back with a quote within 2 business days.
We measure
A site walk sets what goes where, and how many.
We order
The right product, size and quantity, delivered to site.
We organise
Access, inductions and timing around your trading hours.
We install and photograph
Fitted by our crews, with before and after photos when it is done.
What Nextage does
- Authorised Aerofoil Energy partner in Australia, supplying the genuine current product
- Site measurement first: air velocity and temperature at the cabinet, before and after
- Profile specified to the cabinet type actually in that store, not to a drawing
- Supply and installation, in trade hours, with no cabinet downtime
- Independent energy monitoring arranged where a site level number is wanted
- A per site price so the estate can be staged across capital cycles
- Before and after readings and photos per store, in one completion pack
What this is not
- Anywhere a guaranteed saving percentage is wanted up front. We measure, we do not promise a number in advance
- Refrigeration plant design, replacement or servicing, which is a different trade
- Closed cabinets, which are a JetSeal conversation rather than an Aerofoil one
- A single cabinet in a single store with no estate behind it
About the published figures
Every figure above is labelled with whose it is, and that is deliberate. Aerofoil Energy's numbers are their installations. The laboratory and academic figures are test cabinets. The Australian result is ours, from stores we fitted, read by Nube iO rather than by us. None of the three is a forecast for your estate. What we will tell you about your stores is what we read at your cabinets, before and after. If the readings do not support the spend, that is a useful answer too, and you will get it.
FAQ
About Aerofoil
What is an Aerofoil on a fridge?
A profiled aluminium blade that clips onto the front lip of each shelf in an open refrigeration cabinet, in place of the ticket strip. It holds the curtain of cold air against the face of the case instead of letting it spill into the aisle. It is passive, so there is nothing to power and nothing to service.
How much energy do Aerofoils save?
Aerofoil Energy publish 25 to 38 per cent off cabinet energy from their own installations. On the Australian sites Nextage has fitted and had monitored by Nube iO, the full year figure settles at about 20 per cent. Both are other people's cabinets until we have measured yours, which is where any real number comes from. In energy terms, the large format NSW store was using 312 kWh a day on refrigeration before fitting, so 20 per cent is about 22,800 kWh a year.
How much carbon does an Aerofoil fit save?
On the large format NSW store we fitted, about 14.6 tonnes a year: 22,776 kWh avoided at the Australian Government's 2025 factor for NSW and the ACT, 0.64 kg per kWh. The same store would avoid 17.8 tonnes in Victoria and 4.6 in Tasmania, because the grid behind it differs. The kWh is our own Nube iO reading carried over a year, not a forecast for your cabinets.
Are Aerofoils better than fitting fridge doors?
On an open case, usually yes, for three reasons: about one third of the install cost, no maintenance liability on gaskets and hinges, and no barrier between the shopper and the product. Doors save more at the cabinet, but part of that comes back as extra load on the store air conditioning, which the open case had been helping to cool.
Do Aerofoils need power or servicing?
No. They are passive. There is nothing to wire in, nothing that moves and no maintenance schedule once they are fitted.
Can they be fitted while the store is trading?
Yes, that is normally how we do it. The blades go on shelf by shelf, the cabinet does not come off line, and there is no overnight shutdown and no stock relocation.
Will they fit our cabinets?
Most open case models are covered, and there are separate profiles for meat displays and sloped shelf formats. That is exactly what the site measure establishes, which is why we measure before anyone orders anything.
What do Aerofoils cost, and what is the payback?
Price depends on the cabinet count and the profiles that suit them, so it is quoted per site after the survey. As a shape: the install runs at about a third of fitting doors to the same cabinets, and the manufacturer publishes payback under 18 months even in cheap power markets. For a sense of scale, 22,776 kWh a year at an assumed 25c per kWh is about $5,700 a year on one large format store; your own contracted rate replaces the 25c.
Who makes Aerofoils, and where do they come from?
Aerofoil Energy in the United Kingdom, a company that came out of Williams Advanced Engineering and uses the same aerodynamic work as the Formula One side of that business. The blades are made from 100 per cent recycled aluminium and are recyclable at end of life.
Are you an authorised supplier, or are you buying these on the open market?
Authorised. Nextage is an appointed Aerofoil Energy partner in Australia, so the product is genuine, the profiles are the current ones and the manufacturer stands behind them.
What is the difference between Aerofoils, Invisidoor and JetSeal?
Aerofoils are the shelf edge blade for open cases. Invisidoor goes further on an open case where a stronger result is wanted without fitting a physical door. JetSeal is for cabinets that already have doors. A mixed estate can be treated with all three under one program.
Can this run across several states at once?
Yes. It is specified once and delivered as a program under one accountable team, the same as every other Nextage line.
Often runs alongside
Aerofoil shelf edge blades
Recycled aluminium shelf edge blades for open refrigerated cabinets. No power, no moving parts, fitted in place of the ticket strip without clearing the shelves.
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Fixed price condition and safety assessment across a store fleet, producing a costed remediation scope.
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Aerofoil blades on refrigeration cabinets and air curtains at cool room and entry doors. Measured on site before capital is committed, then staged across the estate.
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How Aerofoil blades keep cold air in open multideck cases, and why the saving should be measured on your own cases before a fleet retrofit.
Read the guide
Energy efficiency
Aerofoils or fridge doors: the comparison that decides an open case retrofit
Doors cut more at the cabinet but shift load to store air conditioning, cost upkeep and measurably cut sales. How the two compare, with sources.
Read the guideStart with one store.
We measure the cabinets before anyone orders a blade.