Empowering Data-Driven Decisions: How Foyle Food Group Slashed Energy & Gas Consumption with EpiSensor IoT
370+ meters installed across 16 networks in 7 locations, driving a 14% reduction in gas intensity and ISO 50001 certification.
Foyle Food Group is one of the largest meat processors in the UK. They employ over 1,350 employees on sites across the UK and Ireland. It is a family-owned business, with over 40 years’ experience in the beef supply chain and processing sector. With a steadfast dedication to sustainability, the group is committed to ensuring their operations are environmentally responsible.
Project
Foyle Food Group comprises 7 distinct and separate meat processing facilities with a capacity of 300,000 cattle per year. The annual energy spend across the group is in excess of €6M.
The initiative to install EpiSensor’s Industrial IoT solutions was led by the group CEO, who recognised that it was imperative to obtain granular insights on electricity, gas, and water usage in each facility if they were to make a significant impact on reducing energy consumption and enhancing sustainability efforts. They also wanted to monitor system conditions both from a predictive maintenance perspective and to detect anomalies.
Why EpiSensor
EpiSensor technology was not only selected because of its accuracy and reliability, a deciding factor was the durability of our sensor enclosures, which are manufactured from polycarbonate and meet IP67 standards, meaning pressure washing and stringent cleaning agents do not impact their performance and reliability. The system also integrated seamlessly with third-party equipment and the existing Building Management System (BMS), simplifying system integration. Lastly, scalability— the system’s design allows for ease of expansion by employees (from 250 to 370+ products thus far), with no requirement for specialised training, ensuring the energy management programme can evolve and grow with the company’s needs.
About the Project
Foyle Food Group began monitoring electricity usage, gas intensity, water consumption, and temperature, using EpiSensor’s range of IoT meters and sensors, combined with our powerful API-enabled Gateways. The management team was kept abreast of live energy and temperature data through user-friendly dashboards and reports, establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to relate energy usage with production outputs. Customised reports, designed for different departments and audiences, were generated daily and weekly. To enhance transparency and motivate efficiency on the production floor, public dashboards displayed real-time data on electricity and water use. Crucially, Foyle Food Group maintains complete control over the data, which is securely encrypted from sensor to server.
Access to this system was granted to various users, from shift supervisors to the CEO with permissions customised to each user’s role. This enabled informed decision-making and facilitated the achievement of the ISO 50001 Energy Management certification on selected sites.
Our Contribution
Approximately 370 wireless products are installed across all facilities, producing millions of data points per year. This includes calibrated monitoring of chill temperatures for compliance and auditing, as well as electricity tracking across incoming supplies, compressors, condenser fans, chillers, effluent plants, pumps, fat processing plants, meat boning areas, and the chilled warehouse. The system also included monitoring of gas intensity and water usage (45-degree water and 82-degree water) on all machines and processes.
Results
Key achievements from deploying EpiSensor Industrial IoT infrastructure include:
Conclusion
By utilising EpiSensor’s accurate, reliable, and rugged IoT infrastructure, Foyle Food Group has implemented an impactful energy management programme driven by real-time granular insights and data-driven decision making. This approach has not only led to reduced costs and increased operational efficiency, the group has surpassed its 2025 emissions reduction targets 2 years ahead of schedule, demonstrating the impact of effective energy management.
* Foyle Food Group’s Sustainability Report 2023, publicly available, is quoted throughout this document to demonstrate Foyle Food Group’s commitment to sustainability and the results achieved through leveraging EpiSensor IoT solutions.
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