ACR Journal

April | May 2020 REFRIGERATION 42 Volume 6 No.3 On the shop floor at Arctic Circle Arctic Circle has been taking on apprentices for 25 years and these employees all entered the business that way strategic sta are ex- apprentices. Our Engineering Director, Chris Green, started as an apprentice at 16; he was definitely my Dad’s protege in terms of engineering. “We are always trying to find the next best way of doing things and not accept what everyone else does as the way forward. We do that by driving energy eciency and performance and trialling new technologies.’’ Arctic Circle was early to adopt natural refrigerants and has been producing transcritical CO2 systems for the retail sector since 2012, catering for stores ranging from convenience up to 10,000 sq ft, and some distribution centres. Long-term view Mike said: “If our competitors are moving manufacturing to Eastern Europe and other places, and if we still want to manufacture in the UK - which is something we are very passionate about - then we have to do things a bit di erently and add more value. So, we listen to our customers and match their requirements. “We are very happy to work with CO2 and it is still very much our bread and butter but we can never think it is the only option. One of the reasons we have our technology centre is so we can listen to our customers and trial the alternatives.’’ The Natural Refrigerant Training Centre began life as a joint venture with supermarket group Morrisons, who remain one of Arctic Circle’s main customers. “They obviously knew about the F-Gas regulations coming in and needed to know which way to go,’’ says Mike. “We basically built a mock supermarket with cabinets, cold rooms and freezers and produced lots of di erent packs and were able to give them real-life data to make those decisions.’’ The centre is now an in-house testing, training and R&D facility as the company looks to do things ‘the right way’. “We don’t want it to be ‘greenwash’ with the way the climate is now, it’s something that we live and breathe and we want to help encourage change,’’ says Mike. “Some of the decisions we make might mean less profit or less turnover, but If we don’t change now, we might not have a business in 10 years. Because we are a privately-owned business, perhaps we can take a more long-term view. “We are also looking at standalone heat pumps for the industrial sector because decarbonising heating systems is one of the biggest challenges out there. It’s an area we really want to get into because so much of our experience is in heat transfer and heat recovery.’’ www.arctic-circle-ltd