Latin America. Sofanor Alarcón Rojas spoke exclusively with ACR Latin America about his particular vision of the current and future challenges of the regional HVAC market, backed by his 30 years of experience and knowledge of the industry.
"The HVAC market is currently growing 21% annually. There is no other market that grows at that speed, not even mobile telephony. However, professional growth is negative, because companies are losing almost 20% of their staff each year, which leaves the HVAC market for other disciplines, "says Sofanor Alarcón.
This Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineer from the Universidad Austral de Chile, and Electrical Engineer from the same University, also has an MBA from the University of Buenos Aires, as well as multiple international certifications in areas such as projects, finance and sales, among others.
Asked about the possible causes of this labor phenomenon, the employer considers that several factors influence. First, it points to the serious inadequacy of university programmes related to the sector in the region.
"This race is only offered in countries like the United States, Brazil and Chile. That causes new industry talent to be engineers in other areas who are coming to learn about HVAC. In addition, a professional in England has to train with 20 certified hours a year, just to keep his current job. In contrast to the Latino world which on average trains about 25 certified hours throughout their professional lives."
Promotion of the consolidation of better markets
With the aim of helping HVAC companies and contractors in the sector to grow operationally and financially, Sofanor Alarcón founded a decade ago the company NDL Business Growth, dedicated to offering consulting services, memberships, training and software specifically designed for the growth of companies in this market in a sustained and profitable manner.
"In Latin America we have many fleeting companies because of the great problems that exist between being a real entrepreneur or being the self-employed of the same company: 60% of the air conditioning companies within the Latin American market do not last even two years and the remaining 40% are financially bankrupt. It may be almost incredible to see at first glance, but here we charge the same, or more for our project or maintenance services, than what the United States market pays, so why do we make less money on them?" he asks, before answering himself: "because we are dedicated to selling kilos of iron and not engineering."
In his opinion, another situation that affects the adverse market conditions is that the large manufacturers of HVAC equipment have turned air conditioning companies into their sales force, and this is not their fault, but the HVAC companies themselves have preferred this more comfortable situation of selling a brand that solves everything, instead of charging for their engineering and know-how, which should be the value to sell."
"Selling equipment and not our engineering solutions has created a disproportion between what HVAC companies earn (5% net maximum) versus what they earn.
Won equipment manufacturers. Although the situation has improved, we are still at least ten years behind the United States in technology and solutions, because although almost all North American equipment manufacturing plants are located in Mexico, we continue to do things as we do.
we understand," he points out, before adding that "it is useless for us to teach HVAC companies what an expansion valve is, or a compressor, if we do not then know how to sell them well."
Collaborator of ACR Latin America
Sofanor Alarcón Rojas has worked as a developer, consultant, advisor and trainer of engineering, construction, services and sales teams in countries such as Germany, Spain, England, China, Korea, USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica and South America. In addition, he has served as a manager, director, consultant and vice president of companies such as Wal-Mart International, Novar Controls, Johnson Controls (JCI) and ABM Franchising Group.
In the next editions of ACR Latin America, readers will be able to access content of their authorship, on topics relevant to the HVAC sector.
