The Friolín Group of Panama gave us a perspective of the local market that allows us to analyze the present of a country that this year will host the RefriAméricas Congress and Exhibition, on June 4 and 5.
by ACR LATINOAMÉRICA
Panama is a country that increasingly attracts the eyes of international tourists, and at the same time, continues to show its remarkable development through large infrastructure projects, construction and design of commercial and industrial spaces.
Due to its tropical conditions, the Central American nation demands a highly prepared HVAC/R industry, with companies and professionals who provide the best technologies to meet the different needs of the sector.
One of these companies is Grupo Friolín, a specialist of the guild, which under the direction of Moisés Emiliani and Oscar Ernesto Emiliani has managed to position itself in Panama. In a recent visit to Panama, ACR Latin America spoke with them to learn about their perceptions about this business in the nation, expectations for 2015, environmental issues, expansion options among other topics
ACR: How was the Friolín Group born?
Moses Emiliani: It was born from the foundation of his first company Friolín, S.A., in 1971, founded by Moisés Emiliani Villamil, a recognized pioneer of refrigeration in Panama, who returned from the United States with certain skills and academic preparation to practice the profession of refrigeration and electricity. At that time Panama was closely linked to the United States because of the issue of the Canal and the bases that existed here, and it was quite interesting to find a Panamanian person in this profession so specific and incipient in those times.
Currently, the Friolín Group is composed of ten operations and a group of collaborators of approximately 130 people. It works as an entity that houses under its commercial logo a series of operations that have different applications and specialties within the refrigeration and air conditioning segment, also have different locations to serve the main development poles of the country. We maintain direct distribution of manufacturers in commercial industrial refrigeration, domestic and air conditioning. It acts as a "master distributor" and retail distributor in a very important industry, due to the climatic configuration and the current development we enjoy.
ACR: How is the Friolín Group currently in the market in Panama?
Moses Emiliani: The year 2014 represented a series of specific challenges at the commercial level. As for the economic issue, in Panama there was a special year in which many works were completed, the cascade of need for supplies begins to have a change due to the fact that many works were finished and delivered. For 2015 there are very interesting projections for the national market: development of new structures and projects. By serving the contractor and technical group we are interested in projects and new market trends to propose the best options for refrigeration and air conditioning products.
ACR: What difficulties has the group had to overcome to get out in this very competitive market?
Moses Emiliani: Panama is one of the most competitive markets in the region, it is said that the country is fashionable and has had a great increase in real estate, constructions and new businesses developed by foreign investment that is very thriving in the national territory. To stay competitive we have had the incursion of some companies that want to have participation in this market, which we consider to be welcome because the competition only encourages and makes us better.
Competition generates something very important that we call "commercial adrenaline" which is when the market becomes monotonous and there is little activity, then one relaxes and does not do what is necessary to maintain that competitive level and excellence that distinguishes us. Keeping the first place is not easy, you have to do a very intense job, maintain correct inventories, give good service and training, have adequate personnel and meet the needs of the client.
Panama, as a market, is a great challenge for anyone who ventures into here, I think it is worth managing that commercial adrenaline for the benefit of our customers and the market.
ACR: What does the group look like in the next 10 years?
Moses Emiliani: It is seen as a thriving company, of frank growth with all the willingness to get ahead not only within the local market, but managing a well-studied regional expansion program; definitely that the experience achieved in 43 years in Panama allows us to open borders at some point soon to give benefits to other areas and be a more globalized company. Additionally, we will not neglect the local market to which we have dedicated all our experience and affection.
We have expanded some items within the refrigeration and air conditioning channel, we are specialized and we have managed to consolidate our own private brands that today have a lot of strength in the market and will be the ones that we will be interested in sharing in other markets because they are built based on the experience we have in this critical guild of high temperatures and humidity and fluctuations in the electricity supply; I think these are aspects that are shared in many areas of the region.
The own brand that we manufacture is Flouu, which we built many years ago studying the needs of the market and daring, in those dates where the subject of private label was not known much. We studied the characteristics of an ideal equipment in our market and based on that we developed some data that allowed us to access some manufacturers to give us specifications that met and were left over in front of the needs of the market we know. We are the technician's shop and here everyone arrives telling their problems and needs, looking for solutions.
ACR: How does the Friolín Group collaborate with the care of the environment?
Moses Emiliani: We are pioneers in the environmental part. In the 80s when the debate began that the ozone layer was being affected by greenhouse gases among which were chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), we were very aware of the changes that were taking place in the international industry, of the appearance of new refrigerants without the chlorine component that was one of the most harmful to the ozone layer, second-generation fluorinated refrigerants, those mixtures that have been discarding chlorine in refrigerants that become chloridics that do great damage. We create educational seminars to recycle refrigerant gases. In Panama gases were ventilated as if nothing was happening, we had to work hard to raise awareness on that issue and it has been possible to improve; We also began to promote the issue of retrofits in the case of equipment that used CFCs, we promoted that the technician make the retrofit to place compressors that used new generation refrigerants harmless to the ozone layer.
We also promoted in the automotive refrigeration and industrial refrigeration workshops, that the recycling system be used so that they can be reused and thus collaborate in that the production of this equipment was lower. Once the new products arrived, we began to import them very carefully to ensure that the market adapted, it has not been an easy task. Panama complies with all the international protocols that regulate the ozone layer and is keeping the issue of imports that are being controlled through quotas, of the refrigerants that still remain CFCs and we think that soon they will be eradicated to use the refrigerants that are less offensive to the environment.
ACR: How is the process of transforming refrigerants that affect the ozone layer going in Panama?
Moses Emiliani: It is going very well because we are on par with the international industry. To the extent that new equipment comes out with new refrigerants that are not offensive to the ozone layer we have been promoting that technicians encourage the use of technology harmless to the ozone layer, we have been very aware of the use of refrigerants and lubricants so that it is not polluted more. Taking care of the place where we live is a duty of all of us who work in the industry.
ACR: What expectations does the Friolín Group have at the Refriaméricas fair?
Moses Emiliani: RefriAméricas is a pioneer in the field of regional information with a presence in many countries, and with its magazine ACR Latin America they have a professional and interesting bibliographic development for reading and for the technician, because it contributes to the information of new products. I think it is a pioneering magazine and we are very proud that they have chosen our country to make one of the first exhibition fairs at the regional level and we are sure that this fair will be very successful and we wish them many successes.
ACR: Why is the issue of training important in this sector?
Oscar Ernesto Emiliani: We have done several trainings in refrigeration and air conditioning and we do it because in Panama, both in schools and universities, there is much to do and we feel that it is a duty to give students and technicians these trainings in which our suppliers help us to do them at no cost, and our technicians feel very happy. We feel that we are improving the intellectual part of the technician. However, here there is much to do, there are no specific careers in the guild, but we contribute our grain of sand for improvement.
