The 2.5 percent price hike is smaller than in previous years, company officials said,

Century Refrigeration announced Tuesday it was raising prices 2.5 percent on all products due to rising materials and operating costs.

The price hike is smaller than in previous years, company officials said, crediting efforts to reduce expenses through automation and updated tooling.

“We are committed to keeping our customer’s total cost of ownership to a minimum,” said Kevin Trowhill, vice president of sales for the Pryor, Okla.-based company. “Century equipment is designed to reduce installation, maintenance, and utility costs throughout the lifetime of the system. As we work harder to achieve this goal and to provide only the best systems to our customers, a price increase has been deemed necessary.”

Century officials mentioned the wide fluctuations in the price of raw materials such as copper and aluminum during 2011 and this year necessitated the price hike.