L&R Refrigeration: Review 2024 and outlook 2025

L&R Kältetechnik's review of the 2024 financial year is unreservedly positive. Sebastian Rüßmann, Commercial Director (CFO) of the company, explains: "We had the best financial year since the company was founded in 1991." And the prospects are just as good: "We started the new year with a very good and high order backlog and are also working on numerous large and technically challenging projects that are still in the tender phase." For a (special) mechanical engineering company, this is both a pleasing and unusual business situation, for which there are several explanations: "Firstly, we are currently planning and building many refrigeration systems for plastics processing companies. This is the largest market for industrial refrigeration technology and as all users of refrigeration systems have to implement the requirements of the F-Gas Regulation, according to which, for example, only a very limited service of refrigeration systems with refrigerants containing fluorine will be possible from 2030, many companies will have to convert by then." The second particularly fast-growing market is special systems for deep-freeze technology.

A third (albeit still smaller) field of application with above-average growth is energy technology with a focus on "green" energy sources such as hydrogen. L&R's fourth growth market also belongs to the energy technology application area. Rüßmann: "More and more companies are interested in the coupling of temperature-controlled processes with the help of industrial heat pumps. They offer great energy-saving potential and also minimize the CO2 footprint. Among other things, we are currently planning two systems with a heat output of 800 kW each and are very confident that heat pumps will become established in industry, including for supplying neighborhoods with local heating - especially as there are also higher BAFA funding rates for such systems than for energy-efficient cooling systems." What challenges does such growth pose? Rüßmann: "Even if these may be luxury problems in view of the general situation, we are suffering from bureaucracy and increasing regulation just like the rest of the industry. And anyone who grows naturally feels the effects of the shortage of skilled workers. We are very committed here, but we also have to be - with a high training rate, cooperation with schools and many benefits for employees."