CASE STUDY
Revolutionising Cold Storage Monitoring with IoT
Warehouses, Vans, and Everything In-Between
Our client, a leading food and beverage distributor based in Malta, employs over 150 people and represents a wide portfolio of renowned international brands. Servicing more than 1,200 customers weekly across Malta and Gozo, the company plays a central role in the island’s cold chain logistics.
This project focused on deploying an end-to-end IoT monitoring solution across their operations — including temperature and humidity monitoring in warehouses, real-time tracking and temperature logging in refrigerated delivery vehicles, and continuous monitoring and alerting for all stationary cold rooms and freezers. The system ensures full cold chain visibility, regulatory compliance, and rapid incident response to safeguard perishable goods across all stages of distribution.
What Prompted the Project
The project was driven by regulatory requirements for temperature-sensitive goods HACCP, along with the client’s commitment to ensuring consistent product quality and peace of mind for their business clients. By implementing a data-backed monitoring system, the company aimed to prevent undetected temperature incidents and continue growing its strong market reputation backed up by data.
Key challenges
The real-world problems that needed solving
Unintentional incidents where freezer doors were left open led to heavy frosting, operational downtime, and in many cases, the disposal of thawed goods — a significant financial loss.
There was no immediate notification mechanism in case the power to a compressor tripped, losing valuable time to clear the supply fault fridges and freezers and leaving them vulnerable, especially over weekends.
In warehouse areas, temperature and humidity were not monitored at all. This allowed insect infestations (e.g., phocids or other pantry pests) to develop in areas of high humidity, causing spoilage of sensitive goods such as powdered ingredients and spices.
Sometimes, the vans’ fridges or freezers were accidentally left unplugged after work, or the compressor didn’t work properly. By the next morning, the frozen food had thawed and had to be thrown away, causing a lot of waste and added cost.
There was no unified system to log or track temperatures in real time. Data gaps made it difficult to trace the root cause of incidents or prove cold chain integrity across storage and transport when an incident happened, leading to customer dissatisfaction, and long-term brand damage.
Temperature checks across cold rooms, delivery vans, and warehouses were performed manually, consuming time and creating room for oversight. This increased the workload and reduced responsiveness to potential issues.
Without automated monitoring and alerts, the company was exposed to non-compliance with cold chain regulations, endangering food safety and traceability.
Our Solution Architecture
Hardware
IoT Pro Temperature was used for stationary cold rooms, fridges and freezers. In this case IoT Pro was powered from the compressor cooling the fridge or freezer, and backed up by internal automatic rechargeable battery backup. The IoT Pro was installed outside of the cold room and the calibrated temperature probe with a 15 meter long cable was installed in a strategic position inside the cold room.
IoT Pro Temperature and Humidity was used for warehousing which is not refrigerated. In this case the IoT Pro was in certain cases powered from an existing distribution box, and in other cases using an internal battery lasting over 10 years, whenever a supply was not available. The calibrated 1 meter probe was placed very close to the IoT Pro enclosure.
Moving vehicles with refrigerated cabins were equipped with 3rd party location tracking hardware that also monitors temperature. The tracking hardware was wired to the van battery, and continuously monitored location, and temperature whilst moving, and continued monitoring temperature whilst on standby. The probe was extended from the driving to the refrigerated cabin.
Network
Sim-based, wireless over 4G/5G Cellular Grade NB-IoT technology, widely available throughout Malta through various network operators, even in underground areas where in some cases an extended antenna was used, working on a licensed spectrum and reliable through having multiple gateways covering each spot.
The IoT Pro communicates over the UDP protocol to IoT Solutions servers.
Software
IoT Pro Cloud Software unified all systems monitoring into one platform capable of live reporting on Google Maps and various customised site maps.
The software included a comprehensive asset management database storing name details, location, serial number, models, and maintenance history and pictures of each asset.
Historical reporting ensure that all data can be retrieved with a click of a button.
Alerts and automated reporting ensure key people are notified through various means such as Emails, SMS, and Phone Calls, and receive daily reporting of any faults.
Competitive Advantage
The proposed IoT Pro hardware allowed for both a 10+ year autonomy on battery power for areas where power was not accessible, and DC power where a fixed supply was available, to also monitor that power with the same device.
Security updates, and further features and full firmware could all be updated over the network.
For battery powered systems, the IoT Pro has an internal microampere current meter that could ensure detection and recovery from possible faults that could shorten the battery lifetime, and advise of any faults and allow for preventive maintenance.
A unified cloud software platform that incorporates all sensors into one platform, that could be easily integrated to 3rd party software in the future via well documented Rest API.
Internal or external antenna that allows the IoT Pro to be installed underground with an extended coaxial cable and antenna.
Waterproof IP68 and IK10 Industrial housing.
Results and Impact
Key Performance Indicators & Achievements
75
assets
actively monitored, including cold rooms, freezers, refrigerated vans, and warehouse zones.
Over 30
real-time alerts
triggered in the first 6 months, with incident response time reduced from 6+ hours to under 60 minutes on average.
1
major incident
prevented where frozen stock would have been lost, saving an estimated €25,000–€30,000 in spoiled goods in the first year alone.
10 hours
per week
of manual temperature checks eliminated, freeing up staff time, improving focus on core tasks, and removing human error.
10%
reduction
in unnecessary compressor overrun (e.g., due to doors left open), contributing to lower maintenance costs and energy consumption.
100%
temperature
logging achieved, meeting food safety regulatory standards HACCP with automated reporting and full historical traceability.
99.8%
uptime
was achieved in cold storage, with rapid issue detection and resolution reducing downtime across storage and transport units.
