New partners: Lumikko and CareUnit

• Monitoring system for optimized service
• Strategic collaboration
• Option for contract extension

Sindelfingen/Bochum, 10/30/2014. BITZER subsidiary Lumikko entered into a contract with the leading service provider for the commissioning, maintenance and repair of commercial cooling systems in August 2014, making CareUnit Service GmbH Lumikko’s new, exclusive sales and service partner.

For the time being, the agreement between Lumikko and CareUnit, a service company based in Bochum, applies to Germany and Austria for a period of two years, with an option to extend the contract for a further three years. CareUnit’s unique advantage is its ID number system, which makes it possible to promptly identify each serviced device and contains all relevant data, including the complete maintenance history. This monitoring system promotes greater servicing efficiency and minimizes expensive shut-off periods. More than 50 certified partner centers have been developed over the years and provide CareUnit service throughout Germany and Austria.

“These are benefits that complement the Lumikko approach,” says Helmut Meyer, CEO at Lumikko. “Because we also offer exceptional energy efficiency and superior reliability – for example, with the new L7 transport cooling system.” Lumikko has decades of experience successfully working with partners. Take for instance the 4NTF compressor, which BITZER constructed specifically for the L7 system in close collaboration with Lumikko. The compressor has significantly optimized the cooling capacity and the cooling period of the entire system.

Strategic partnership
“We see this exclusive collaboration with CareUnit as the beginning of a long-term partnership, which is why we’ve agreed to extend the term and expand the scope of validity should it prove successful,” explains Meyer. “That basically means we can meet with CareUnit representatives Benjamin Ollbrink (CFO) and Sebastian Ollbrink (CEO) to discuss incorporating Switzerland and the Netherlands into the contract.”

A successful team
At the end of 2012, BITZER acquired all the shares in the transport cooling division of Finnish company Lumikko Oy, establishing itself as a system supplier in the truck and trailer cooling market. “Because both companies represent quality and reliability around the world, it only seemed fitting to expand the business relationship, which had existed since the 1980s, and incorporate Lumikko into the BITZER Group. Our shared goal is to bundle the strengths of Lumikko and BITZER and offer intelligent solutions from a single source,” explains Meyer. “We’re a successful team: Lumikko now only uses BITZER compressors and supplies cooling units.”