KENYA – Bitzer, the German-based specialist in refrigeration compressors, is convinced of the growth opportunities in East Africa has proved its commitment to the region by opening an office in Nairobi today.

The opening ceremony for the new BITZER Kenya office is held today at the Crowne Plaza Nairobi hotel on Thursday, 17 November 2016. The office in Nairobi reports to BITZER Middle East.

Close proximity to users

BITZER would like to get better acquainted with the market situation in East Africa and is therefore opening its own office in Kenya for the first time. Thanks to its increasing population and improved prosperity, Kenya offers enormous growth opportunities. This, in turn, has led to a high demand for reliable refrigeration and air conditioning technology for a whole range of applications, including supermarket refrigeration, floriculture and horticulture industry, meat and fish processing, restaurant chains, catering and dairy production. Hospitals, administrative buildings and hotels also require refrigeration and air conditioning technology that they can rely on. Reciprocating compressors tend to be the most common solution, followed by the rarer screw and scroll compressors.

New service centre

In addition to the new office, BITZER is also planning to build a certified service centre within a year, so that users can have access to BITZER’s world-renowned quality in service, maintenance, spare parts and training. ‘We have recently facilitated the direct import of BITZER goods from Germany through our local partner Frigitec Supplies Ltd. Users will therefore have access to a large volume of certified BITZER products at reasonable prices,’ says Stefan Leitl, Managing Director of BITZER Middle East. BITZER would also like to support its local partners in the region. Some of them feel subjected to unfair competition with compressors from China, which undercuts German-made BITZER compressors with dumping prices. Counterfeit compressors and refrigerants, as well as the sale of damaged goods, are a major problem in Kenya and in Africa as a whole.