Cold-chain buying guides & checklists
Every ColdMatch guide in one place — the RFQ preparation checklist, refrigeration cost benchmarks, and country-by-country buying guides. Built from live sourcing projects, not marketing copy.
RFQ preparation checklist
A 5-part checklist covering technical scope, timeline, Incoterms, certifications, warranty and spares — the same structure ColdMatch uses to shortlist suppliers for buyers worldwide.
Cost guides
Real-world price ranges from active ColdMatch sourcing projects — for cold storage, cold rooms, industrial plants, smart cold chain and energy upgrades.
Cost Center — all price guides
Landing hub for every ColdMatch cost benchmark: warehouses, cold rooms, plants, IoT and energy upgrades.
Read guideCold Storage Cost Guide
Per-m³ benchmarks for chilled, frozen and multi-temp warehouses across regions.
Read guideCold Room Cost Guide
Modular cold rooms, blast freezers and walk-ins — capex, installation and lead times.
Read guideIndustrial Refrigeration Cost
Ammonia, CO₂ and HFC plant pricing per kW of cooling capacity.
Read guideRefrigeration Project Cost
End-to-end project economics from concept design to commissioning.
Read guideSmart Cold Chain Guide
What IoT, monitoring and automation cost — and the ROI they deliver.
Read guideEnergy Efficient Refrigeration
Upgrades, natural refrigerants and solar — payback periods and tariff impact.
Read guideCountry & city buying guides
Local supplier landscape, lead times, import duties and financing routes for each market ColdMatch operates in.
Middle East
Africa
Americas
How to run a cold-chain procurement with ColdMatch
Five steps to move from concept to shortlisted, comparable supplier quotes for a cold storage, cold room or industrial refrigeration project.
- 1Define scope & specifications
Nail down capacity (m³ or pallets), temperature bands, product mix, throughput, site constraints and utilities. Use the RFQ preparation checklist as the template.
- 2Benchmark the budget
Open the relevant cost guide (cold storage, cold room, industrial refrigeration, smart cold chain or energy upgrades) to bracket capex, installation and lifetime energy costs.
- 3Choose the market & shortlist suppliers
Read the country/city buying guide to understand local suppliers, lead times, duties, certifications and financing routes. Shortlist 3–5 suitable suppliers.
- 4Issue RFQ / RFP / Tender
Send the same structured RFQ to every shortlisted supplier — scope, timeline, Incoterms, certifications, warranty and spares — so quotes are directly comparable.
- 5Compare, negotiate & close
Compare quotes on total cost of ownership (not just capex), align on payment terms and financing, and close with commissioning, training and spare-parts plan agreed up-front.
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+, where the ColdMatch team reviews each buyer brief, contacts suitable third-party suppliers on the buyer's behalf and organizes their responses.
Buyer-side references for every RFQ
Nine evergreen guides covering the RFQ lifecycle — from writing the brief to scoring vendors. Each one connects back to the free ColdMatch RFQ Builder.
Plan, budget, build and run a cold-chain project
Evergreen guides for the full project lifecycle — planning, budgeting, installation, maintenance and the mistakes to avoid. Each one leads to the free ColdMatch RFQ Builder.
All ColdMatch calculators & planning tools
Every cooling load, cold room sizing, CAPEX, OPEX, energy, financing and project planning tool on ColdMatch. Results are planning-grade estimates, not engineering designs.
Keep exploring
Cold room & blast freezer case studies
Six anonymised projects with cooling load in kW, annual energy in kWh/m³ and kWh per tonne, and delivered CAPEX and OPEX.
OpenHACCP Plan for Cold Storage
Step-by-step HACCP plan template for refrigerated warehouses: CCPs, critical limits and the audit document pack.
OpenISO 22000 for Cold Storage
ISO 22000:2018 requirements, the seven-stage certification path, timeline, audit cost and the temperature evidence Stage 2 needs.
OpenSourcing by country
How a cold-chain project in each country moves from brief to comparable supplier responses.
OpenIndustry hubs
Food, pharma, logistics, agri, retail, airports and ports.
OpenIslands & remote markets
Logistics-heavy refrigeration guides for island economies.
OpenCold storage troubleshooting
Diagnose temperature shortfalls, fluctuations, high electricity use and ice or frost build-up.
OpenProduct storage temperatures
Planning-level storage temperature and humidity data for fish, meat, dairy, produce and frozen food.
OpenFinancing options
Leasing, project finance, DFI and export credit — matched to your project.
OpenBuyer portal — your RFQs, quotes & project history
Registered clients sign in to track their own RFQs, supplier proposals, project stage and past projects in one private view.
OpenCalculadoras — Brasil (PT)
Carga térmica, CAPEX e OPEX com tarifas brasileiras, ligadas ao briefing de RFQ.
Openकोल्ड स्टोरेज कैलकुलेटर — भारत (HI)
भारतीय टैरिफ के साथ कूलिंग लोड, CAPEX और OPEX; सीधे RFQ ब्रीफ तक।
Open冷库计算器 — 中国 (ZH)
结合中国电价的冷负荷、CAPEX 与 OPEX 计算，并直达 RFQ 简报。
OpenProduce precooling methods
Forced-air, hydrocooling, vacuum and ice cooling compared, with what to specify in a packhouse RFQ (EN, ES, FR, PT).
OpenRefrigeration safety standards
EN 378, ISO 5149, ASHRAE 15/34, IIAR and national rules: what applies and what suppliers should document (EN, ES, FR, DE).
OpenCold chain glossary
CAPEX, OPEX, grid reliability, ammonia retrofits, blast freezing and 55+ terms — in English, Arabic, French and Portuguese.
Open