A bakery runs on timing. Dough has to slow down overnight, cream fillings must stay cold, and frozen stock has to be ready for the morning bake. The cold room holds that timetable together. UK Coldroom designs, manufactures and installs walk-in chillers, freezer rooms and dough retarding rooms for artisan bakeries, wholesale bakeries and patisseries, and then keeps them running with planned maintenance.
Plan it first with Yutab. Yutab is our free online cold room designer. Draw your room, place the door and send the design straight to our engineers. Design your room with Yutab →
What a bakery cold room has to do
Most bakeries need more than one temperature:
- Chilled storage, 0 to +5 °C for butter, cream, eggs, fillings and finished cream products. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland chilled food must legally be kept at 8 °C or below. We design for 0 to +5 °C so there is a safety margin when the door is busy.
- Dough retarding, about +2 to +4 °C with high humidity, so dough rests slowly overnight without forming a dry skin.
- Frozen storage, −18 °C or colder for frozen dough, laminated pastry and finished goods.
- Blast chilling or blast freezing where products must pass quickly through the temperature danger zone.
Before choosing the room size, refrigeration capacity and air flow, we look at what you bake, how much and when.
Design points that matter for bakeries
Humidity and air speed
Fast, dry air skins dough and dries open products. We select evaporators and air throw so air moves gently over the product, while the room still pulls down quickly after loading.
Heat from warm product
Trays of freshly made products bring a lot of heat into a room. We size the refrigeration for your real loading pattern, not only for an empty room.
Door traffic
Bakery cold room doors open all day. The right door type, strip curtains and a heated door frame on freezer rooms reduce warm air entry and ice on the floor and evaporator.
Hygiene
Food-safe white panels, coved corners where needed and a floor that can be washed down.
Awkward spaces
Many London bakeries work in railway arches, basements and small units. We make panels and doors to order in our own workshop, so the room fits the space rather than the other way round. See cold room design and installation.
Bakery and patisserie projects
- Philippe Conticini, Camden, London. Walk-in chiller and freezer built inside a railway-arch patisserie; panels, doors and refrigeration designed to fit the space.
- Crazy Baker, Park Royal, London. Two walk-in cold rooms for an artisan bakery.
- Flourish Craft Bakery, Watford. Chiller and freezer systems, with ongoing maintenance.
- CakeCo, Reading. Cold room for a cake shop.
See more on our projects page.
See the Philippe Conticini cold room project, our cold room design and installation service and our maintenance contracts.
After installation: service and maintenance
A bakery cannot wait for a cold room to fail on a Friday night. Our cold room repair and maintenance cover coil cleaning, door seal checks, defrost checks and F-Gas leak checks, with repairs when they are needed. Worn door seals are one of the most common causes of ice and high energy bills; read our guide to cold room door seals.
Design your cold room online with Yutab
Yutab is the UK Coldroom online cold room designer. It is free to use and takes no payment.
- Draw your room: enter the length, width and height and position the door.
- Save it: register with your name, email and mobile number, and verify your email.
- Download a PDF design sheet with your drawing and its revision number.
- Send the design to our engineers. We review it and contact you about a site survey and quotation.
Frequently asked questions
What size cold room does a small bakery need?
It depends on daily production and how much stock you hold. We measure the space, trays and racks during the site survey and then propose a size. You can draw the room first with Yutab, our online cold room designer.
Can one room handle chilling and dough retarding?
Sometimes, if the products are compatible and the controls are right. A small separate retarding room or a partitioned room often gives better results.
Do you only work in London?
We are based in London. Most of our work is across London and the South East, and we travel further for larger projects, for example in Cambridge and Cornwall.
Ready to plan your bakery cold room? Request a site survey or quotation or call free on 0800 772 0333.