I want a great company!

by: Natalia Ríos

It was at the University of Florida in Gainesville that Francisco Tarud received his degree as a Mechanical Engineer in 1974. Right there was born a natural interest in the industrial sector of cold and two years later he obtained there the title of Master in Thermal Sciences.

To receive the master's degree, Tarud carried out an important and outstanding project as a degree thesis, which consisted of the development of an air conditioning system of the type of absorption which used solar energy as its primary power. This idea that obtained successful results in practice immersed him in a definitive way in the world of technical innovation and research. Thanks to this, he was appointed Director of the Solar Energy Laboratory at the University of Florida.

Also, and cultivating his professional work, he joined the Florida Heat Pump Company, dedicated to air conditioning and operating in the city of Miami, in the following two years.

Having very clear the purpose of applying what he learned in his native country, Francisco Tarud returned in 1978 to Colombia and firmly set out to make a dream come true. Tarud says, "I want a great company" and dreamed of a company dedicated to refrigeration and air conditioning. Today that air conditioning firm is called Industrias Thermo-Tar Ltda. and the refrigeration company was called Thermo-Coil Ltda.

Birth
Seeing how in the country the roads were not yet completely clear for the refrigeration company, but the needs were very clearly stated, Tarud insisted on giving life to his dream and founding Industrias Thermo-Tar Ltda.

This company was born with the purpose of manufacturing central air conditioning equipment for use in the industrial, commercial and residential sector with export quality and the highest technology in the market, in order to favor its national and foreign customers to those countries that have free trade agreements with Colombia.

"At first it was not a big company, since we were only two employees and I, however we were penetrating the Colombian market quickly, because all the equipment we installed was imported from the United States and the installations were made according to the American standards of air conditioning," Tarud proudly tells us.

In about 1984, when imports were controlled by the national government, Industrias Thermo-Tar became unavoidable to resort to its own manufacturing plant and began to market equipment manufactured in Colombia, with domestic products and some parts that were allowed to import. "The success of this first stage as manufacturers was that these equipment were produced with the same quality as those imported, so that customers did not notice the difference between both equipment and continued to buy our products."

The organization today has three production plants, one of which produces heat exchangers made of aluminum fins and copper pipe, the other manufactures heat exchangers manufactured in parallel flow for the automotive industry, condensers for air conditioning and refrigeration equipment focused on the use of new ecological refrigerants, while the third floor produces the air conditioning equipment and supply grids.

The challenge of technology and trust
For Francisco Tarud, the industry does not stop its constant transformation and technological evolution, and for this reason he believes that the task of updating must be constant and effective, going hand in hand with world markets.

"Education, training and updating of personnel is fundamental, you have to prepare very well since the new air conditioning equipment, no matter how small, already comes with electronic systems, for example you have to be well trained with the use of the new ecological refrigerant R-410A, which is barely penetrating the Colombian market", emphasizes our guest.

"Now is the time to grow in Colombia since many foreign investors see Colombia as a solid and easy to negotiate country, you always have to be prepared because the time to grow is now for Latin America. Japan in its time began with the manufacture of cheap products and after many exports its currency became strong and its products were not so economical, then it was Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and China, but already China is starting to have problems with its employees and its currency is gaining strength and that is why the products are already more expensive every day. " explains our Professional of the Month.

Similarly, Tarud spoke about his vision of the markets in the world: "If the Free Trade Agreement with the United States were to be signed, many North American investors would come to Colombia to set up their companies instead of going to China, for example, because we are closer and have the ease of the globalization of English, for all this we have to be prepared for whatever it is that can come to us."

In Colombia and Latin America, according to Tarud, the great threat may be the countries of Asia, such as Japan and China, which are very updated with variable flow equipment, Inverter, equipment with digital compressors, expansion valves with automatic regulation and remote damage controllers and detectors, however it highlights that the industries of the cluster are quite updated with technological applications, such as Themo-Tar which is on the project of developing variable refrigerant equipment using digital compressors and remote damage detection.

For the founder of Thermo-Tar the reasons why his products have achieved trajectory and recognition are mainly quality, being able to solve the needs of customers in Colombia and abroad, having the capacity for shorter delivery times, and most importantly, always being at the forefront of technology, providing all the technical and warranty support that the teams need.

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Francis, the man
Our guest has not been made only in the history we are knowing, he has a family life quite well formed and focused on the growth of his company. He is married to Sofia Vallejo, a great woman business administrator, who in the beginnings of Thermo-Tar was manager of an important financial institution in the country and influenced the acquisition of the first economic support funds to start the company.

"We have four children, the eldest, Sofy, is a mechanical engineer with a Master's Degree in Thermal Sciences and a graduate of MIT University in Massachusetts; Karen, who is an administrator graduated from Northeastern University in Boston; Cindy is a Mechanical Engineer from Boston University and has a Master's Degree in Systematized Industrial Engineering from the University of South California, and Francisco, who is the youngest, will begin his career as a Mechanical Engineer at Boston University, all of them constitute an important pillar for the development of the company. "