CCN profiles Airefrig Australia, one of the oldest family-owned refrigeration and air conditioning wholesalers in the country.
Established in 1970, Airefrig Australia has just celebrated 45 years in the business. The company has come a long way from the days when the owners, Bill and Waverley Treby, were working out of the family home in Western Australia.
Today, Airefrig Australia boasts a national network of 11 branches as well as its own assembly factory and employs more than 100 staff nationally.
As a family-owned business, staff have worked hard to maintain and keep the values that have made the company successful from the very beginning.
Airefrig Australia general manager, Stephen Cross, said the company prides itself on customer service, large stock holdings and standing by its motto of ‘Solutions, Innovation and Support’. "All of the Airefrig branches are staffed with experienced team members who have a background in refrigeration and air conditioning and can provide technical backup and solutions to our customers efficiently and effectively,” he said.
Airefrig has always placed heavy emphasis on large stock holdings at each of their branches around Australia to ensure customer’s needs are met. “This is paramount in an industry where installation, service and repairs are so often completed on a time-critical basis,” Cross said.
The company distributes many highly regarded brands from around the world and, with these global partnerships, continue to lead the market in energy efficiency, refrigerant trends and environmentally friendly products. “This means Airefrig has the latest technology and information available for customers,” Cross said.
The large Airefrig product range includes Airefrig’s own brand Enthalpy, which is a range of refrigeration condensing units. Units range in capacity from 1kw to 50kw in R134A, R404A and R507. These units come completely prewired as well as sight glass/drier, pressure control, coil treatment on the condenser and an oil separator, as standard. The unit can be picked up from any of their premises and go straight to site ready to install.
All units are labelled with a printed QR code. When the code is scanned by any smartphone or tablet, it provides information on spare parts, technical data and wiring or dimensional diagrams for the specific unit. This saves time and money as the customer isn’t required to search for data.
Airefrig Australia are also looking to the future with plans to further develop its Enthalpy units with the focus on energy efficiency which will lead to new models being fitted with VSDs and EC fans.
Refrigerants in the marketplace continue to evolve, with refrigerants such XP40 and XP10 entering the marketplace over the next 12 months. This will complement the full range of refrigerants and industrial gases Airefrig Australia already supply.
To assist customers further, Airefrig has developed an app for refrigerant cylinder management. This app enables users to scan Airefrig refrigerant or industrial bottles for tracking. Within the app, users can nominate locations for the cylinder, such as a van, warehouse or job site. It also allows users to keep track of how much refrigerant has been used and improve fleet management by undertaking a stocktake at anytime.
For customers, it translates into savings in time and money.
The Aire-Biz system allows customers to:check stock quantities for branch, state or national levels, access nett pricing, download invoices and statements, access reports on refrigerant usage as well as heat load selection. All of these features can be accessed by the customer 24/7 whether on site, in the office or at home.
And the focus for 2016? Cross said the company will continue developing business solutions for customers with an emphasis on greater connectivity and convenience. This is in addition to expanding its range of energy efficient and environmentally friendly products.