Thermo King, the Minneapolis-based refrigeration systems subsidiary of the Ingersoll-Rand Co., has acquired Grenco TK, a transport refrigeration equipment sales and service business, from GEA AG of Germany. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Grenco, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, sells and services trailer and truck refrigeration units, for which it also supplies associated parts. The business has been a Thermo King dealership for nearly 40 years.
With 11 facilities and approximately 110 employees located throughout the Netherlands, Grenco comprised Thermo King's fourth largest dealership in Europe. Grenco had sales revenues of $19 million in 2000, with some 40% of its revenues derived from service, parts and maintenance-related activities, Thermo King said.
The Netherlands has also been a key proving ground for a Thermo King prototype – a transport refrigeration system that enables food distributors to address environmental concerns related to atmospheric ozone-depletion, and diesel fuel and noise pollution.
Specifically, Thermo King's new environmentally friendly, cryogenic-powered SB-III CR temperature control system enables refrigerated transporters to meet a Dutch regulation stipulating that noise levels not exceed 60 decibels – the equivalent of normal conversation – from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Conventional temperature control systems typically operate between 74 and 78 decibels.