Buyer case study · worked example
Cold storage RFQ example: the issued RFQ and the three proposals it produced
An anonymised +2 °C dairy project (600 pallets, 1,100 m², USD $0.9M–$1.6M) showing the complete RFQ as issued — design basis, scope and exclusions — and the three matched supplier proposals normalised onto one scope before award.
A senior cold-chain specialist stays with your project from first brief to commissioning.
Short answer
A cold storage RFQ example has six parts: project identification, a design basis (duty in kW, temperature band, throughput, redundancy), scope of supply, a named exclusions register, commercial/evaluation requirements and required bid documents. In this anonymised +2 °C dairy case, three pre-qualified suppliers priced one identical pack; raw bids spread about 19%, and after normalising exclusions the genuine difference was roughly 7% — the award went to the lowest ten-year cost, not the lowest raw price.
1. What was fixed before suppliers were contacted
The design basis that made the three proposals comparable at all.
- Design cooling duty of 118 kW (base) calculated from room size, insulation, ambient and 18 t/day throughput — with optimistic and pessimistic bounds
- Temperature band (+2 °C ±1.5 K), pull-down requirement and door traffic written into the technical annex
- Redundancy (N+1) and refrigerant position agreed internally before bidders could assume their own
- Exclusions register named line by line: electrical infeed, civils, floor heating, racking, drainage
2. How the proposals were matched and compared
One identical pack to three pre-qualified manufacturers, then normalisation before any commercial discussion.
- Pre-qualification on same-temperature-class references, refrigerant capability and regional service coverage
- Clarifications answered once in writing and reissued to all three bidders
- Each bidder's exclusions priced back onto one common scope before ranking
- Energy and 10-year total cost compared alongside the lump sum — the cheapest raw bid finished most expensive
3. What ColdMatch did — and did not do
Supplier-neutral procurement infrastructure around the buyer's own engineering decisions.
- Structured the RFQ pack, pre-qualified and matched the suppliers, and normalised the proposals
- The buyer's engineer signed the design basis and made the award decision
- ColdMatch is not a manufacturer, installer, contractor or certifier — and does not take margin on equipment
- Representative, anonymised case; figures are indicative, not quotations
Who this is for and how ColdMatch works
Best for
Commercial and industrial cold chain projects, typically from USD 250,000 upward: cold rooms, refrigerated warehouses, blast freezers, processing plant refrigeration and distribution hubs.
Not a fit: domestic refrigerators, household or office air conditioning, small repair call-outs, or spare-parts-only enquiries.
Typical cold chain project types
- Fruit, vegetable and horticulture cold storage with pre-cooling
- Meat, poultry and fish chilling plus blast freezing
- Dairy and beverage process cooling
- Pharma and vaccine GDP cold chain (2–8 °C, −20 °C, −70 °C)
- Refrigerated warehouses, 3PL hubs and mobile cold rooms
Cold room vs refrigerated warehouse
A cold room is a single insulated chamber, usually under ~500 m³, serving one process or storage step. A refrigerated warehouse is a multi-zone facility with racking, docks, air locks and a central refrigeration plant, sized by pallet positions and daily throughput rather than by room volume.
What affects project cost
- Storage volume, pallet positions and daily throughput
- Target temperature and ambient design conditions
- Refrigerant choice (NH₃, CO₂, HFC) and plant redundancy
- Panel thickness, doors, air locks and civil works
- Backup power, solar, freight, duties and commissioning
Temperature range checklist
- +12 to +16 °C — bananas, potatoes, curing
- +2 to +8 °C — pharma GDP, dairy, fresh produce
- 0 to +4 °C — meat, fish and chilled distribution
- −18 to −25 °C — frozen storage
- −35 to −40 °C — blast freezing and IQF
RFQ checklist
- Product, temperature and daily intake
- Room dimensions or required pallet positions
- Site location, ambient conditions and power supply
- Backup autonomy and redundancy level
- Budget range, timeline and scope exclusions
Supplier matching process
You define the project once — capacity, temperature and technical requirements. ColdMatch structures it into a supplier-ready RFQ, reviews it with a human specialist, then approaches suitable refrigeration manufacturers, EPC contractors and installers. Offers come back normalised so scope, price and lead time are comparable.
Buyer is not charged
Using ColdMatch to scope a project, run calculators and receive supplier quotations is free for buyers. ColdMatch helps buyers compare suppliers and request quotes; it is an intermediary and does not manufacture equipment, install systems, or provide financing directly. Costs shown are indicative planning figures — only supplier quotations are binding.
Cold chain project types, temperatures and budgets
Use these reference clusters to place a project before contacting suppliers. Figures are indicative planning ranges for commercial and industrial projects from USD 250,000 upward — only supplier quotations are binding.
Project type cluster
- Agriculture and horticulture cold storage
- Pre-cooling plus storage for fruit, vegetables and flowers, usually +2 to +12 °C with high humidity control and fast pull-down after harvest. Sized by daily intake in tonnes, not only by room volume.
- Meat, poultry and fish cold storage
- Chilling at 0 to +4 °C combined with blast freezing at −35 to −40 °C and frozen holding at −18 to −25 °C. Hygienic panels, drainage and separate dirty/clean flows are part of scope.
- Pharmaceutical and API cold storage
- GDP-compliant 2–8 °C rooms, −20 °C and, for some active pharmaceutical ingredients and biologics, −70 °C. Requires mapping, IQ/OQ/PQ, N+1 refrigeration, backup power and alarm escalation.
- Refrigerated warehouse and 3PL distribution
- Multi-zone facilities sized by pallet positions, dock doors and daily throughput. Typical scope covers racking, air locks, dock levellers, a central plant and an energy strategy.
- Food processing plant refrigeration
- Process cooling, chillers, spiral or tunnel freezers and glycol loops integrated with production lines. Usually specified alongside ISO 22000 and HACCP food safety requirements.
- Mobile and containerised cold rooms
- Plug-and-play 20 ft or 40 ft refrigerated units for seasonal peaks, remote sites and temporary capacity, typically −25 to +8 °C with optional solar or generator support.
Temperature range cluster
| Range | Typical use |
|---|---|
| +12 to +16 °C | Bananas, potatoes, onions, curing and ripening rooms |
| +8 to +12 °C | Tropical fruit and chill-sensitive produce |
| +2 to +8 °C | Pharma GDP storage, vaccines, dairy, fresh produce |
| 0 to +4 °C | Meat, fish and chilled distribution |
| −18 to −25 °C | Frozen food storage and frozen distribution hubs |
| −35 to −40 °C | Blast freezing, IQF tunnels and spiral freezers |
| −70 °C and below | Biologics, clinical trial material and ultra-low pharma |
Budget band cluster
- USD 250K – 750K
- Single or twin cold rooms, a small blast freezer, or a containerised installation with basic backup power.
- USD 750K – 2M
- Multi-zone cold store of roughly 500–1,500 m² with racking, dock doors, a packaged plant and a generator.
- USD 2M – 8M
- Refrigerated warehouse or processing plant refrigeration with NH₃ or CO₂ central plant, redundancy and automation.
- USD 8M – 100M+
- Turnkey distribution hubs, national cold chain programmes and multi-site pharma or export infrastructure.
The RFQ as it was actually issued
The same six-part structure as the downloadable template, but filled in with the buyer's real project data — design duty calculated before any supplier was contacted. Anonymised; figures are indicative planning values.
- Project name: New chilled store — 600 pallet positions
- Buyer / end user: [anonymised dairy producer], Netherlands
- Project type: New build, refrigerated warehouse
- Indicative budget band (USD): $900,000 – $1,600,000
- Target operational date: within 10 months of award
- Clarification deadline: day 14 · Bid deadline: day 28
- Room: 40 m × 27.5 m × 9 m clear — 1,100 m²
- Target room temperature: +2 °C, tolerance ±1.5 K
- Design ambient: 32 °C dry bulb / 55% RH summer
- Insulation: 120 mm PIR walls, 160 mm roof, insulated floor
- Throughput: dairy, 18 t/day inbound at +8 °C, pull-down to +2 °C within 12 h
- Doors: ~180 openings/day, high-speed doors with air curtains
- Estimated design cooling duty: 118 kW (base) · 96 kW optimistic · 141 kW pessimistic — calculator output attached
- Redundancy: N+1 compressors · Refrigerant: NH3 or low-GWP HFO acceptable
- Refrigeration plant, evaporators, condensers, pipework and insulation
- Control system, alarms and temperature monitoring with data logging
- Installation, commissioning and witnessed performance test
- Operator training and O&M documentation
- Warranty: 24 months, with 3-year service agreement pricing
- Electrical infeed, transformer and main switchboard: by buyer
- Civil works, foundations and floor heating: by buyer
- Racking, dock levellers and internal fit-out: by buyer
- Condensate and defrost drainage: to be confirmed line by line
- Any assumption the price depends on must be listed as a numbered exclusion
- Price breakdown: equipment / installation / commissioning / spares / service
- EUR pricing, 90-day validity, payment milestones stated
- Delivery and installation programme in weeks
- Modelled annual energy (kWh/year) at the stated design conditions
- Three comparable references in the same temperature class
- Award basis: normalised scope, 10-year total cost of ownership, service coverage
- Heat-load calculation supporting the offered duty
- P&ID / schematic and equipment list with makes and models
- Electrical load schedule (kW and starting current)
- Commissioning and performance-test protocol
- Signed exclusions register and clarification log
Three matched proposals, compared on one scope
ColdMatch pre-qualified three manufacturers on chilled-store references, refrigerant capability and local service coverage, and issued one identical pack to all three. Raw prices spread about 19%; after pricing each bidder's exclusions back onto one common baseline, the genuine spread narrowed to roughly 7% — and the cheapest raw bid became the most expensive normalised offer.
- Duty offered
- 125 kW
- Refrigerant
- NH3
- Raw price
- USD $1,120,000
- Normalisation adjustment
- + $85,000
- Normalised total
- USD $1,205,000
- Modelled annual energy
- 412,000 kWh/yr
- 10-year total cost
- USD $1,690,000
- Lead time
- 22 weeks
- Service coverage
- Engineers 90 min away · 8 h response
- Floor heating excluded
- Condensate drainage excluded
- Duty offered
- 132 kW
- Refrigerant
- Low-GWP HFO
- Raw price
- USD $1,180,000
- Normalisation adjustment
- + $40,000
- Normalised total
- USD $1,220,000
- Modelled annual energy
- 446,000 kWh/yr
- 10-year total cost
- USD $1,730,000
- Lead time
- 20 weeks
- Service coverage
- Local office · 4 h response
- Controls integration partially excluded
- Duty offered
- 118 kW
- Refrigerant
- NH3
- Raw price
- USD $1,010,000
- Normalisation adjustment
- + $255,000
- Normalised total
- USD $1,265,000
- Modelled annual energy
- 438,000 kWh/yr
- 10-year total cost
- USD $1,785,000
- Lead time
- 26 weeks
- Service coverage
- Nearest engineers 3 h away · next-day response
- Floor heating excluded
- Condensate drainage excluded
- Commissioning excluded
- Monitoring alarms excluded
Award went to Proposal A: not the cheapest raw bid, but the lowest normalised ten-year cost with the strongest service response — decided only after exclusions and energy were compared like-for-like. Indicative figures from an anonymised project; not quotations or guaranteed outcomes.
Cold storage RFQ example and refrigeration RFQ template
This is the structure the buyer in the case study used: a design basis fixed before supplier contact, a named exclusions register and one comparison sheet. Download it, replace the bracketed fields with your project data and issue the same pack to every bidder. No email required.
- Project name: [New chilled store — 600 pallet positions]
- Buyer / end user: [Legal entity name]
- Site address and country: [Street, city, country]
- Project type: [New build / extension / replacement]
- Indicative budget band (USD): [$900,000 – $1,600,000]
- +2 more in the download
- Room dimensions: [40 m x 27.5 m x 9 m clear height] — [1,100] m²
- Target room temperature: [+2 °C], tolerance [±1.5 K]
- Design ambient: [32 °C dry bulb / 55% RH summer]
- Insulation assumption: [120 mm PIR walls, 160 mm roof, insulated floor]
- Product and daily throughput: [dairy, 18 t/day inbound at +8 °C]
- +5 more in the download
- Refrigeration plant, evaporators, condensers, pipework and insulation
- Control system, alarms and temperature monitoring with data logging
- Panels, doors, floor build-up: [included / by others]
- Installation, commissioning and performance test
- Operator training and O&M documentation
- +1 more in the download
- Electrical infeed, transformer and main switchboard: [by buyer / by supplier]
- Civil works, foundations and floor heating: [by buyer / by supplier]
- Racking, dock levellers and internal fit-out: [by buyer / by supplier]
- Condensate and defrost drainage
- Permits, F-gas / ammonia safety documentation and local approvals
- +1 more in the download
- Price breakdown: equipment / installation / commissioning / spares / service
- Currency, validity period and payment milestones
- Delivery lead time and installation programme in weeks
- Modelled annual energy consumption (kWh/year) at stated design conditions
- Local service coverage: nearest engineers and response time
- +2 more in the download
- Heat-load calculation supporting the offered duty
- P&ID / schematic and equipment list with makes and models
- Electrical load schedule (kW and starting current)
- Commissioning and performance-test protocol
- Compliance statement (pressure equipment, refrigerant safety, local codes)
- +1 more in the download
- 1. Fix the design duty before contacting suppliers — Model the cooling load from room size, temperature, insulation, ambient and throughput. Without a written duty each bidder sizes a different plant and the prices cannot be compared.
- 2. Write the scope and the exclusions in the same document — Most price spread comes from scope, not equipment. Name electrical infeed, civils, floor heating, racking, drainage and commissioning explicitly.
- 3. Pre-qualify a short list — Three to six suppliers with references in the same temperature class and application. More bidders rarely improve the outcome.
- 4. Issue one identical pack to everyone — Same annex, same deadline, same response format so proposals arrive in a comparable structure.
- 5. Answer clarifications once, in writing, to all bidders — Keeps the comparison like-for-like and protects the tender from informal side agreements.
- 6. Normalise before comparing — Price missing scope back onto one common baseline, then compare lump sum, annual energy and 10-year cost together.
Templates are planning documents for buyers and consultants. They are not engineering designs, quotations or compliance certification; final duty, refrigerant selection and code compliance must be confirmed by the selected manufacturer and your engineer.
Move from comparison to quotes
Send one structured request and compare like-for-like offers from qualified suppliers. Free for buyers — ColdMatch is independent and supplier-neutral.
Frequently asked questions
How ColdMatch Group works — independent B2B procurement and sourcing platform — ColdMatch Group is an independent B2B procurement and sourcing platform for industrial refrigeration, cold storage and cold-chain projects from USD $250K+, connecting buyers with qualified third-party suppliers, EPC contractors and independent financing providers.
Related resources
- How to Write a Cold Storage RFQ
- Cold Room Cost Benchmarks
- Cold Chain Project Financing Options
- All Cold Chain Calculators