NEWS
CELEBRATING
20
Years
Multistage Cooling celebrates 20 years
By John Ackermann
After starting as a one-man industrial refrigeration contractor in 1996, Multistage Cooling( MSC) has notched up more than 500 projects and completed all within contractual time frames, of which 16 are ice rinks and the seventeenth is currently under construction.
Bob Vuletic immigrated to South Africa from Austria in 1973 as a qualified mechanical engineering technologist. He obtained his qualification in the ship building industry in 1968 in Yugoslavia with registration 159 awards( credits) of the Social Republic of Yugoslavia( SRY).
His first job was with Klaus Refrigeration.“ Klaus Neave was a hard master, but I learnt a great deal from him,” says Vuletic. He continues,“ In 1987 I joined Bronsair and my first contract was the installation of the ice plant at the East Rand Proprietary Mine( ERPM) in Boksburg. At 6 000 tonnes of ice a day, it was then the largest ice plant in Africa. Karl Klosterman of Bronsair was an excellent mentor to me. It was at Bronsair that I gained the experience as a contracts engineer on very large projects.”
Soon after starting Multistage Cooling( MSC) as a refrigeration contracting company in 1996, it was awarded a contract to install the first ammonia refrigeration plant for poultry distributor, F Dawood and Sons in Benoni. The refrigeration plant, a greenfield project, had two Gram two-stage reciprocating compressors. Vuletic was known to F Dawood and Sons at the time, because of installing a R502 plant at their Dunswart Butchery in 1981, while working as a technician at Klaus Refrigeration.
Founded on trust and good service, the relationship with F Dawood and Sons has remained firm and in 2006, Multistage Cooling designed and installed an ammonia refrigeration plant in a new cold room complex built adjacent to the original store.
The first screw compressors installed by Multistage Cooling were for General Mills, a pastry filling manufacturer in Linbro Park. One Sabroe SAB163 and a SAB123 screw
Bob Vuletic’ s( far right) first participation as a judge in refrigeration at WorldSkills was in 2007 held in Japan. Next to him is Ivan Theron, South Africa’ s competitor that year with an international counterpart.
The image of service vehicles has showcased MSC as a contractor. The first ammonia plant installed for F Dawood and Sons in Benoni in 1996.
6 www. coldlinkafrica. co. za COLD LINK AFRICA • May | June 2017