Advansor’s bright future in CO₂ refrigeration

With the recent announcement of Commercial Product Director Torben Hansen’s upcoming departure from Advansor, the company is taking the team’s reorganisation as an opportunity to spring the company forward for the future, with new team members, improved products and a factory opening in 2016.

As the team reorganises, Jens Kallesøe will take on the role of Director of Projects and Internal Sales. Managing Director Kim Christensen spoke on the importance of building relationships between retailers, contractors and locally placed sales teams who support customers both commercially and technically.

Local sales teams are present in Sweden, Germany, France, UK and Holland will be strengthened continuously, and teams will shift and evolve when new regions of Europe need local support. The gain in local presence across the continent will be supported by Pierre Boyer in the new role as Hillphoenix General Manager Europe, supporting the Hillphoenix European strategy.

“When we go to different markets in Europe we have to decide who we are building partnerships with; this is very important for growth. It’s the same for products. If you look into Advansor as a company, innovation is important,” said Christensen.

CO₂ innovation a driving force for Advansor’s development

Now with nearly a decade of experience, Advansor has grown to be one of the most successful (CO₂) rack manufacturers in Europe, with an operation strategy that allows freedom in both sales and innovation. While market figures suggest that the number of refrigeration racks installed in supermarkets is declining, the volume of CO₂ racks is growing. Over the last five years, the company has noticed growth rates of 30% per year for CO₂ refrigeration systems, and Advansor is eager to keep those figures rising.

From an operation and energy point of view, CO₂ racks work better. The total success of CO₂ in supermarkets relies on if we can do things better, and that’s what we’re working on everyday. It’s a market that will continue to grow, so we need to be prepared with high quality racks and reduced prices,” explained Christensen.

The reputation of success and quality has paid off, with new products being developed at a fast rate through collaborations with both parts suppliers and customers. These include the ValuePack units – a range of transcritical booster systems, launched last year, optimised in both size and cost for small stores and the SIGMA range of integrated energy packs, combining heating, refrigeration and air conditioning into one unit. In 2015, Advansor produced 190 ValuePack units, and even more volume of production is expected. To meet these expectations, Advansor will move part of production to a factory outside of Denmark and into Poland in 2016

In terms of supermarkets, growth at the moment is in convenience stores,” said Christensen, “so the major trends in technology are for smaller store formats.”
 

With a product portfolio boasting a wide range of CO₂ products, new focuses on reducing size and cost, and success for applications in high ambient temperatures with the SIGMA range, Advansor’s team balances effective, new technology with a thorough understanding of the markets surrounding them. As Christensen explained, “So far, we have done well; and there are big expectations to do even more. We have to make the retailer and the contractor happy, which makes business more demanding. Our racks have to be high quality and easier to operate.”