After over twenty years of operation the Dutch company Celtic Cooling, in Nieuw-Vennep, has been building cooling and storage units all over the world, focusing mostly on Europe, Africa, and Central Asia (CIS-countries).
General director, Joost van Klink, spoke about innovation and international business – the most important topics were, saving energy and retaining the quality of products.
Celtic Cooling started in the Netherlands two decades ago, and now has local offices in various countries in Africa and the CIS countries (former states of the Soviet Union). At the moment, the company is building a cooling unit at the airport of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
“This is a project in which six of our permanent employees are working, together with twenty external employees, over the course of one year,” says director Joost van Klink.
Ethiopia is one of the countries were Celtic Cooling has been working for a few years, where one of their local offices is established.
“We have focused on Europe, Africa, and the CIS countries, where we have offices that offer swift service if there are any problems with the installations.”
Apart from Ethiopia, we have offices in Ghana and Kenya and another regional office has been opened in Dubai. In all local offices, such as the one here in Ethiopia, Van Klink collaborates with local employees.
Distinctive
The construction of cooling installations imposes high demands; that is where the strengths of Celtic Cooling are, according to Van Klink. “Many countries are able to build their own cooling systems and to maintain them.
That is no longer as complicated as it used to be. We are only building them, while the companies in those countries do the maintenance, or we come by once a year for major maintenance. We want to distinguish ourselves by developing more innovative techniques to maintain product quality and to save energy.”
There is much more attention on energy-saving in cooling installations. “This often goes together with building solar panels. This is different for all countries, but it mainly depends on the costs of electricity. In many African countries, the price for electricity is high. In Ghana, for example, one kWh costs 26 cents, while in other countries, it only costs 3 cents.”
Long-term investments
Van Klink also notes that the focus on energy saving is strongly linked to the view of companies on long-term investments. “In Africa, it is more difficult to obtain equity and the costs for this are higher.
In that case, the companies want to earn their money back quickly. For European businesses, it is different. They are more focused on the long-term. That is partly because the costs of capital are lower here.”
Innovating in techniques for maintaining the product quality and for energy saving is a priority for Celtic Cooling. There is much development going on in Europe, which will be used in other countries.
“In Europe, we can try the new techniques and monitor them properly, because it is close to home. Then, we can use these techniques in other countries.” Innovation is mainly a combination of our own development in combination with a manufacturer.
Source: Agroberichten Buitenland
