ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 29 DISTRIBUTION Supporting the customer Technical and product support was fundamental to the company’s approach in the early years, and it is no different today. Management of specific product lines such as commercial refrigeration, electronic controls, industrial refrigeration and air conditioning is carried out by dedicated Product Managers, who interface with the sales, technical and marketing teams to bring the company’s product portfolio to market in the most effective way possible. In addition, the company employs specialist application engineers in both refrigeration and air conditioning disciplines. The aim is to offer comprehensive pre-sale application engineering support, coupled with excellent post-sale technical back-up. Staffing over the years has shown remarkable stability, leading to high levels of relevant experience. 40% of current staff have more than 20 years of service and there are a significant number of staff who have left the company at some stage but re-joined later in their careers with broadened experience. In recent years, competition in the market sector has become ever more fierce, with the company competing with new entrants and group-backed suppliers with multiple outlets. This has required the firm to adapt to market conditions and endeavour to differentiate the product line-up and service, offering the trade something different. Over the last 50 years, sales of compressors and componentry, which was the original lifeblood of the company, has been maintained but there has been a marked shift towards volume sales of capital equipment. This is reflected in the company mission statement: “To be the trade supplier of choice for refrigeration and air conditioning engineered solutions”. A greater emphasis has been placed on marketing in recent times and a new website was launched in 2019, offering customers the ability to access stock levels, net pricing and place orders online. This has proved very successful and is an increasingly important component in the company’s route to market. Stability the key As well as new communication technology, the old ways are still in evidence and the company prides itself in always answering phone calls with a real person! There are no “auto-attendants” and option menus to navigate before speaking to one of the sales order processing team. From there, calls are re-routed, if required, to the relevant person or department. As for many companies in the sector, the last two years during the Covid-19 pandemic have been a challenge. However, with experienced staff and compatible systems, the move to home-working was remarkably seamless. The company is now seeing a healthy increase in sales and is confident in its future. The London office, whilst serving the company well in the past, was deemed to have become geographically unfit for purpose and started a phased closure in 2019. Now, there are plans to relocate the main Birmingham office and warehouse to a larger central facility in the coming months. This will give Thermofrost an increased stockholding capability in a location more suitable for distribution. A key factor in the history of Thermofrost Cryo has been stability. Unlike much of its immediate competition, the company has remained in family ownership for the entirety of its existence. At his untimely death, co- founder Bob Fawkes’ wife Margaret assumed greater involvement until daughter Vicky D’Cruz became chairman at the retirement of Bengt Lindgren in 1994. Vicky is still in post today and her son and step-son now serve on the Board to ensure continuity going forward. The longevity of the company has demonstrated that there is room for a diverse range of suppliers in the industry offering the refrigeration and air conditioning trade a real choice of where it wishes to source its equipment. The company has been on quite a journey over the last 50 years and is busy adapting and evolving to continue to make its mark during the next 50! Staff at the London branch The Manchester trade counter