Thermo King and Hussmann warming up
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When Thermo King announced recently that it was closing its main plant in Ireland some commentators assumed it was due to falling demand for its refrigeration gear. But nothing could be further from the truth according to Yves Henson, vice-president for sales and service of Thermo King Europe. In fact, he says: "We expect the market to grow a little over the next three years."
In an exclusive interview, Ronson has explained that the Dublin closure was simply part of a worldwide rationalisation programme.
In 1997 Thermo King was bought from Westinghouse by industrial giant Ingersoll-Rand, whose Climate Control division now also includes refrigerated food cabinet maker Hussmann International.
According to Ronson, the division is "aimed at giving the customer a full service for the cold chain". The logic of the move is attractive, and of course there have been opportunities to save money: Thermo King had 16 plants around the world and Hussmann had another 25, so some mergers and plant closures were inevitable.
But ending duplication is not the only change, says Benson: "We have entered a different era of manufacturing in recent years—demand flow and subcontracting mean that we can produce more from one plant than we used to from two or three. And when you have one plant producing more you can Improve the quality at the same time."
Ranson has some distinct ideas about the temperature control market: he is convinced that new features such as remote communication will become much more prominent in the next few years, but adds: "It's easy to lose sight of the most important thing, which is protecting the load."
Thermo King is also developing a pan-European service and maintenance network called TotalKare; Reason says features such as centralised billing "will take away bureaucracy and administration, lowering cost. We aim to make it easy for the customer to do business with us." TotalKare will also offer a remote load monitoring service.
One issue that will become prominent in the near future is noise. Benson believes that cryogenic cooling (using frozen CO2 systems) will be necessary to meet the ultra-low noise limits coming into force in countries like the Netherlands.
Another development which has become popular in the last five years is multi-temperature transport, but it is not without its problems: "The logistics are difficult and the cost is fairly high," he says. However, some specific customers such as McDonalds demand multi-temp capability, and Ranson says that this will drive the market: "In this industry, standards are ultimately driven by big customers such as the supermarkets."