For this edition we have chosen as our professional of the month a representative of the high caste industry of the Southern Cone of Latin America. Nothing more and nothing less than one of the founders and today still director of Frymon S.A., Jorge Loeff.
by: Natalia Ríos
Graduated in 1976 as an engineer from the UDELAR (University of the Republic of Uruguay), Jorge A. Loeff is since 1978 the Director of Frymon S.A. one of the most recognized companies in the industry in Uruguay. The long history has made this a brand in everything that in the south of the continent refers to providing refrigeration equipment and accessories, cameras, air conditioners and enclosures.
But the story has a different beginning and our guest and his company were not always dedicated to the cold sector. By the time Jorge A. Loeff graduated from the University as an engineer and finished a postgraduate degree in Vienna, Austria, he was already working in the thermoplastics processing industry. And not far from this, in 1978, he was part of the founding team of Frymon S.A. that originally produced and marketed industrial and domestic adhesives.
Loeff tells us: "There I was a founding partner and its creation was a challenge for all its members. The commercial area was developed and then manufactured in adhesives and in a few years it came to have more than 40% of the market of the adhesives that it commercialized". Since then and until now, this 59-year-old professional decided to work tirelessly for the improvement of the processes in his company in Montevideo.
The entrance to the world of cold
Mr. José Loeff, father of our character, is really to whom Frymon S.A. owes the fact of dedicating itself today to the refrigeration sector.
Owner since 1956 of a company in Uruguay dedicated to the import of refrigeration compressors from a prestigious German manufacturer, in 1982 Loeff Sr., decides to retire and offers Frymon S.A. the possibility of continuing with the commercial operation that he himself had been directing for so many years.
"That was the entrance to the world of cold," says Jorge A. Loeff proudly, "in a short time the commercial structure was reorganized and began to add top-of-the-line brands that allowed to offer the customer complete installations that included the compressor, condenser, evaporator and even control accessories."
In a short time Frymon S.A, goes from offering systems of 30 HP to industrial systems of up to 500 HP with racks, assisting in the country the fishing, dairy, meat industry and also refrigerators and the different stages of the cold chain that all these products support. Jorge A. Loeff, together with his human team, turns Frymon S.A. into one of the companies with the greatest evolution and best quality of service in the area of thermal conditioning, a fact not only relevant for Uruguay but for South America.
The priority: quality service
Loeff tells us how his work has made prestigious companies with international brands have trusted Frymon S.A, for their representation and distribution, which today allows them to have a wide portfolio in industrial, commercial and domestic products. "Throughout this process, challenges were constantly posed in terms of our customer service and satisfaction, and our technical preparation to achieve adequate results in the application of the products we provided to our customers," he says.
The challenge was to live up to the service, quality, technique and innovations of the industry and Loeff was aware of each process: "From almost the beginning of this new period, we seek to prepare ourselves in the best way to respond adequately to the requirements of customers," says this dedicated professional, as all the staff did general and particular courses of the topics that corresponded to them, deepening the knowledge about the components that were offered, their maintenance, their operation and logistics. All with the aim of being at the forefront of the industry and being able to provide the best and most appropriate service to each client.
And regarding quality, the recognitions were not long in coming, several years ago Frymon S.A. was certified in quality management, an achievement obtained after an adaptation process in compliance with ISO 9001-2000/2008 standards. "With this we ensure that we have a management of standardized internal and external processes, guaranteeing the client an expected result and without surprises," says Loeff.
Frymon S.A. was the first company in the area to obtain certification in Uruguay.
Wanting to be closer
Our Professional of the Month has not only dedicated his life to the industry, today he has a great personal support that is his family. Married to Betty, as he calls his wife, and with two children, Nicolás, 31 years old today PhD in Artificial Intelligence, and Adriana, 30 years old today Master in Journalism, he is very clear that they constitute a fundamental part in life and the constant evolution of his career and his company.
Precisely because he considered it a priority to be close to his own, his customers, his employees, it was that Loeff understood that an important part of the service is proximity. "Even though Uruguay is a country of short distances, we felt that we were not providing the best customer service, the best response. That is why we established a strategy of being closer to them, opening branches in the interior of the country."
And this is how Frymon S.A. arrived in cities such as Maldonado/Punta del Este in 1992 and then in the cities of Salto (Litoral del país), Colonia (Litoral Sur), Rivera (Norte del país), Paysandú (Litoral del país) with which it managed to give a more appropriate response to the needs of its customers.
The new challenges
About what the future is and the cutting-edge challenges of Frymon S.A., Loeff explained: "Today we are deepening the issue of ecology in our area, persisting in the use of refrigerant gases as least polluting as possible, for example: R507, R407 and R410, as well as mixed systems in CO2/R717. That allows us to offer solutions to customer needs that are compatible in the long term with the country's environmental programs."
"Our obsession is customer service and meeting their requirements, as well as improving the knowledge of professionals in the area in our country, thus optimizing the results for customers and for installers who do the assembly and subsequent service," says Loeff, referring, by way of closure, to the philosophy of Frymon S.A., in which a great human team trained and united with the common purpose of providing the cold in all its possibilities and responsible advice to the user is the slogan that has led them to success.
However, for our Professional of the Month, with a great history and trajectory in the industry, the greatest of the challenges ahead is to continue working and strengthening knowledge to achieve total customer satisfaction with a highly professional service.
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