Le Chameleon, a restaurant in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape, was announced the winner on Friday of Staycold’s Wanted Alive! competition.
The restaurant uses a twenty-seven-year-old Staycold beverage cooler manufactured in 1994, the SD1140, displaying waters, fruit juices and ice teas for sale in their bakery section. Their prize is a brand new beverage cooler in exchange for theirs, which will be taken back to Staycold’s factory in Parys.
The competition was launched by Staycold in August last year in their hunt for the oldest beverage coolers in South Africa that are still in working order. As the winner of the competition, the Le Chameleon unit will be replaced with a brand new SD1140 by Staycold and their original unit will go back to the factory next month. This model will then be proudly showcased together with their newer models at their head office showroom in the Free State.
The cooler belongs to Rudi and Helga van Wyk who bought this unit as one of the first pieces of equipment when they opened their “farmstal”. Since then the whole building underwent a metamorphosis to become Le Chameleon, in Humansdorp, a daytime restaurant. They were extremely pleased to have won and Rudi commented: “This Staycold SD1140 can still be found keeping drinks cool in our bakery section to this day and we invite anyone driving past, to visit our shop and restaurant that is a hidden gem and will take you back to a Victorian era.”
Staycold launched this competition during their birthday month last year. Since then, they have been canvassing their customers to see who may know of any of their clients, i.e. restaurants, cafes, farm stores, supermarkets, hotels, chefs etc who may still be using one of Staycold’s original beverage coolers, manufactured in the 1980’s.
Entries arrived in and it was a close contest at the eleventh hour when an entry arrived from a unit from 1988 that has been operating for thirty three years in East London. It however unfortunately did not comply with all the rules of the competition.
Lena le Roux, Staycold’s Managing Director had this to say: “We enjoyed receiving the entries and seeing how well our units have performed over the years and are still in operation since the 80’s. We are known for our durability and reliability and Staycold fridges can often be found still working hard long after others have fallen away so this is why we have named this the Wanted Alive! Competition.
We hope that Rudi and Helga will enjoy many more years’ service from the new top of the range replacement unit, as well as enjoying the additional benefits that it offers in terms of energy efficiency, sustainability and design that have been developed in the twenty-seven years since their winning unit was built.”
Staycold has been manufacturing self-contained commercial fridges and freezers from their factory in Parys, in South Africa for 40 years. They pride themselves in making reliable, durable energy efficient fridges and freezers which are more cost-effective over the unit’s lifetime.
For more information visit www.staycold.co.za or contact them on 056 819 8097.
