A cool, clean hero

CS Refrigeration Limited is one of the most renowned companies involved in this country’s transport refrigeration business yet Christy Swanick and his team are determined to consolidate even further the success they’ve achieved to date.

The rise and rise of C S Refrigeration Ltd since its inception just three years ago has to be one of the success stories of the nineties within the fiercely competitive, often claustrophobic world of the transport refrigeration industry. In simple terms, it’s a model of progressiveness.

Specialists in the sale, supply, installment and repair of transport and industrial refrigeration, the company was established in 1997 by the firm’s founder and managing director Christy Swanick and, over the years, business at the Roscommon place of excellence has gone from strength to strength with sales figures continuing to head skywards, year in, year out.

Assisted in the running of the company by Kieran Swanick, John Haugh and office administrator Marlene, Christy is pleased to report that business is very brisk indeed. The order books are full up, apparently.

“We can’t complain, thankfully. The combination of our own expertise and professionalism plus the effect of the famous Celtic Tiger has meant that we’ve more than enough work to cope with.

“Fortunately, business has grown in leaps and bounds since we set up in 1997 and the past year, in particular, has been really exceptional. We’re delighted with the way things are going but we’re determined not to become complacent. That would signal trouble.”

While most of the work carried out by Christy and his team is on the firm’s spacious site at Church Road, Ballinlough but, increasingly so, the team at C S Refrigeration find themselves working ‘on the road’ as demand for the company’s services expands.

Indeed, this expansion has prompted Christy and co. to seriously consider the expansion of the company’s facilities at picturesque Ballinlough.

“We’re currently working out of garage premises that suited our purposes when we set up in business but we’ve out-grown that and we’re hoping to have the construction of a purpose-built facility up and running sometime in the New Year.
“Due to the volume of orders we’re getting in, we may have to also seek to acquire a second depot but that is a bit down the line at the moment.”

With three vans ordinarily in operation for the servicing of contracts in various parts of the west, a fully-qualified and expert team back at base and state-of-the-art facilities in the pipeline, C S Refrigeration Limited is well positioned to take advantage of the burgeoning marketplace.

“If we can sustain the sort of growth we have managed over the last three years, we will be very happy.
“We started off with just one customer - a haulier in Donegal - but then gradually gained more custom in and around the counties of Roscommon, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo and Meath, plus the counties in between.

“We are a specialist operator and our customers appreciate that fact. Sales and service are our principal spheres of operation but we pride ourselves on providing customer satisfaction whatever sector of work we are engaged in.”
With a 0.1 per cent warranty rate, C S Refrigeration’s track record in customer care speaks for itself. With the Swanick outfit, the customer is definitely king.

“To have to go back and repair something which shouldn’t need repairing costs us money and time and we are pleased that we don’t have to do that too often.

“Our long-standing customers, in particular, know they can trust us to deliver on a quality service.
“We have a very good relationship with all our customers and knowing them all on an individual basis certainly helps build up a level of mutual understanding and respect which we find is good for them, and good for us.

“At C S Refrigeration, we make sure that we keep in regular correspondence with all our customers. We supply the various company transport managers with regular reports on the condition of their vehicles and we feel they appreciate that level of attention.

“We pride ourselves on the fact that we have never lost a customer and that is something which has been crucial in us achieving the success we have to date - despite the strong competition that is out there,” Christy enthuses.
Offering their customers a quality service, competitive prices and a level of workmanship second to none, the crew at C S Refrigeration has managed to build up a vast array of satisfied customers in a variety of industries such as the fishing industry, general frozen foods sector, bread and vegetables.

Such is the reputation of the Ballinlough-based firm that it can now boast such companies as Gallagher’s Bakeries, Millbrook Foods and McCabe Transport among its list of debtors.

A fitter by trade, Christy is rightly proud of the strides his brainchild has taken, in this C S Refrigeration’s fourth year of operation.

“I feel you have to show ambition and targeting a niche market helps if you want to make progress in this industry.
“Of course, there has to be room for a newcomer in the marketplace and back in 1997, I felt that there was a window of opportunity there for us to exploit and so we went for it.

“There were teething problems early on after we started the business but that is something we were prepared for.
“Making sure our cash-flow was okay and that stocks were rotated were the main problems we encountered but with hard work and a lot of diligence, we overcame them.

“Thankfully, our business took off fairly quickly and I’ve never had reason to advertise our service. I find that our reputation has been built up by ‘word of mouth’ and once you do the work as best you can, people will keep coming back to you.

“At C S Refrigeration, our word is our bond. We are competitive, price-wise but not cheap. What we promise though is what we deliver.”

Given that the volume of business at C S Refrigeration has grown by some 800 per cent since its inception, one wonders were there any external factors at work which helped propel the Ballinlough business forward?

“Certainly, the whole growth in the market for refrigerated trucks has been an enormous help to us.
“New laws and regulations have also come in which have been a godsend to us and have really given us a lift.
“Health Board enforcements in recent times have meant that all edible foods have to be transported and stored in a refrigerated environment and that has helped drive up demands for our services.

“In addition, our business has grown in direct relation to the increased demand from the consumer for convenience goods, something which has been an outstanding characteristic of the industry over the last few years.
“Business has expanded so much that we are approaching full capacity but that’s not a bad thing, of course. Our share of the market continues to increase even though we don’t actively seek additional work.

“We’re hoping to expand sooner rather than later though. We have plans in the next three or four years to have a service engineer in place in the major towns in the west of Ireland and the north-west also.

“We’ll always be driven by our custom network and within the next twelve months or so we hope to see our planed expansion take shape.”