#FRIGAIR2018
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Bitzer celebrates
25 years in SA
By Ilana Koegelenberg
On 6 June 2018, Bitzer South Africa invited customers and international visitors to the
Protea Hotel in Midrand to celebrate 25 years of doing business in the country.
Bernhard Blaeser, Bitzer SA managing director,
during his speech.
The Bitzer team, from left: José Marques; Jo-Anne Dietrich; Torsten Steinborn; Tobias Fuhrer; Erik Bucher; and Bernhard Blaeser.
T
he event took place after the closing African continent at its Johannesburg relationship with the local subsidiary and
of the first day of the FRIGAIR exhibition, branch. Since then, further compressor the significance of this for the Bitzer brand.
and most of the guests headed straight repair centres have been opened in
He also spoke about natural refrigerants
to the celebrations from the exhibition Morocco, Tunisia, and earlier this year, an and the company’s ability to assist in
showgrounds. Formalities were kept to a authorised service centre in Kenya. In the lowering operating costs for these systems.
minimum so guests could enjoy some snacks past two years, Bitzer has also opened “Especially you in South Africa, with your
and a couple of drinks with the Bitzer team. another three branch-offices in Kenya, good knowledge, have participated
Senegal, and Nigeria. very early in the trend towards natural
Bitzer South Africa managing director,
Bernhard Blaeser, welcomed guests to
This year, Bitzer further increased its
refrigerants,” said Bucher. “You have the
the event and elaborated on how the footprint in Africa, by signing a distribution skills to follow the global trends in the retail
company has grown over the years … agreement with Eurocool, effective as industry. The top retailers go natural to
On 1 June 1993, Theo van Driel opened
of 1 July, to make its compressors and
the first South African subsidiary of Bitzer pressure vessels even more accessible to
in Paarden Eiland, Cape Town. Shortly its customers.
thereafter, in August of the same year,
“As you can see, Bitzer is committed
Van Driel opened a second branch to steadily growing its footprint on the
in Park Central, Johannesburg, which African continent, by placing stock and
was subsequently run by José Marques. spares in more locations in Africa than
Van Driel moved back to Cape Town ever before, as well as offering more
the following year. Marques is still with technical support and repair service
the company and was at the event to centres, from year to year,” said Blaeser.
celebrate the 25th anniversary. “Our Johannesburg and Cape Town
“From our humble beginnings 25 years
offices will continue to offer customer and
ago, we have enjoyed ever-increasing spares support, as well as training to our
support from our regional OEMs, agents, OEMs and distributors, as we have done
contractors, and installers, across southern for the past 25 years.”
Africa; many of them for decades, many
of them here tonight,” said Blaeser.
In 2013, Bitzer opened its first Green
Point compressor repair centre on the
18
Erik Bucher came all the way from Bitzer’s
office in Germany to celebrate with the local
team and say a few words.
Blaeser was followed by Erik Bucher,
Bitzer director: sales refrigeration, who
was in the country to celebrate alongside
the local team. He spoke about the
From left: Shaun Hadfield (CRS); Tobias Fuhrer (Bitzer Germany); and Douglas Scott (HCM).
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
COLD LINK AFRICA • July/August 2018