MONTREAL and MELBOURNE, Australia — A new global chiller
engineering and manufacturing group has been formed in Montreal with the merger
of the Australian PowerPax chiller business with its North American Smardt
sister company, creating the new Smardt Chiller Group. Gaetan Morin, executive
vice president of investments of the FTQ Solidarity Fund of Montreal and Roger
Richmond-Smith, chairman of the Smardt Chiller Group, disclosed an FTQ minority
investment of $15 million in the new entity.
According to the company, Smardt chillers are delivering major
reductions in energy consumption in buildings as diverse as the Sydney Opera
House, process cooling operations in remote Sinkiang, China, an airport in
Colombia, hotels in Hawaii, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and large hospitals in
several different countries.
“Companies like Sears, Deutsche Bank, Hilton, and Baxter are
demanding lowest lifetime operating costs against a background of high energy
costs and rapidly deepening concern for the environment and climate change,”
said Richmond-Smith.
“We have installed more than 1,200 chillers in 15 countries so
far, with more on the way,” he continued. “Our core strength lies in our
oil-free centrifugal technology, which gives us a clear energy and ecological
advantage over traditional lubricated chillers. Our magnetic bearings and
integral variable-speed drives also increase reliability over lubricated
machines and, with no oil system to maintain, maintenance costs drop away
rapidly.”
He added, “Even though the Smardt Group’s total sales this year
have yet to reach USD 100 million, making us a distant number five behind the
big four centrifugal chiller brands, we have attracted a strong groundswell of
support from building owners, managers, and consultants, which augurs well for
the near future. Much of this growing appetite for the Smardt oil-free
technology is from new markets — where a patient financial partner like FTQ
gives us added momentum.”
For more information, visit www.smardt.com.
Publication date: 11/02/2009
