In March 2024, JARN visited LU-VE’s headquarters in Uboldo, Varese, Italy, and interviewed Fabio Liberali, chief identity and communication officer, member of the board of directors, and chief communications officer (CCO), LU-VE, who spoke in detail about LU-VE’s success with its green and high-quality approaches.
JARN (J): Firstly, could you introduce LU-VE’s history?
Fabio Liberali (L): LU-VE was established in 1985 by Iginio Liberali, my father, along with the acquisition of an Italian heat exchange coil manufacturer, Contardo. At that time, he and his family and friends secured 51% of the capital and financed the remaining 49% with venture capital. It was a really big challenge for them, and when they named the new company, they decided on LU-VE that stands for ‘LUcky-VEnture’, by strongly wishing it success.
That wish came true, and over a period of almost 40 years, we have grown into a successful global company. In fact, the first turnover of LU-VE in 1986 was only about €10 million (about US$ 11 million), but it reached €618 million (about US$ 669 million) in 2022, growing about 60-fold.
The most important reason underlying such success is that we already had a green approach from the beginning, aiming to manufacture green products such as air heat exchangers with lower energy consumption, less refrigerant use, and smaller environmental footprints. To develop such green products, we firstly built a cooperative research and development (R&D) relationship in 1986 with the Politecnico di Milano, which is an Italian top-level scientific-technological university and had the largest laboratory for heat exchange in the country. Together with the university, we successfully developed green products that can reduce energy consumption by up to 50%, reduce refrigerant use by 30 to 50%, etc. Our collaboration is still continuing now, with renewed projects every three years.
The Politecnico di Mila no also provided excellent human resources for our laboratories, R&D department, and so on. Based on this successful experience, we have expanded collaborative relationships with other universities on a global level and in other sectors such as economics, along with our expansion and growth. Now, we are cooperating with about 30 universities in 13 countries.
J: Could you tell us about your global production system?
L: Currently, LU-VE Group has 20 manufacturing facilities in nine countries, which are Italy, China, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. We established these factories based on our local production for local market philosophy.
We have been further strengthening our production capability by expanding these existing plants. In Poland, we more than doubled the production area of our facility by adding a new 20,000-m2 plant, on land with an area of 60,000 m2, becoming our largest plant with 1,100 people. In China, we initially established our factory in Jiangsu Province, but we moved to Tianmen City, Hubei Province a few years ago. In 2023, we began to expand the plant to a total of over 43,000 m2 from 19,000 m2, and we expect the expansion to be completed by the end of May this year. With this expansion, we will enlarge our targets from existing commercial refrigeration to data centers and other projects that need large-capacity units.
J: You are also strengthening your production capability through mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
L: Yes. Starting from 2016, we acquired many companies. As our first M&A, in 2016, we acquired India-based Spirotech Heat Exchangers that manufactures heat exchangers for dry coolers. Its Indian factory is now serving German drying cooler manufacturers as a special case within our local production for the local market philosophy.
In 2018, we acquired another heat exchanger manufacturer, Zyklus, which is located in Texas, the United States, and we renamed it LU-VE US. As one of our strategic markets, we are investing to develop U.S. operations with our CO2 products and we plan to expand the LUVE US factory this year to produce CO2 products for commercial and industrial refrigeration.
In 2019, we finalized the acquisition of the Air Division of Alfa Laval, a Swedish multinational. Through this acquisition, we acquired their plants in Italy, Finland, and India as well as the European commercial network and the wellknown Fincoil and Helpman brands. In 2022, we also completed two acquisitions, 75% of Refrion Group that has strength in the data center cooling, process cooling, and industrial refrigeration sectors, thanks its heat exchangers with oval tubes and the branch of Italia Wanbao-ACC that has a heat exchanger plant in Mel, Belluno, and an integrated logistics center.
J: At these plants, what products do you mainly manufacture?
L: We have three main product categories: air-cooled heat exchangers such as the finned-tube type, air-cooled equipment such as unit coolers, condensers, gas coolers, and liquid coolers, and glass doors for refrigerated counters and display cabinets. At the end of 2023, heat exchangers accounted for 49.4%, air-cooled equipment 46.2%, and doors 2.7% of our total turnover.
J: You said that LU-VE has been focusing on green approaches from the beginning. Please tell us about your approaches.
L: Looking at our products, we are a pioneer of natural refrigerants. In fact, we supplied a large-capacity condensing unit that firstly adopted CO2 refrigerant to a supermarket in Switzerland in 2004. Currently, most of our heat exchangers use natural refrigerants such as CO2, ammonia, propane (R290), and water.
LU-VE Group has established a track record of highly successful CO2 installations in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. In Europe, CO2 products are among our main products. In the United States, there is a lot of old refrigeration equipment which has been in use for 20 to 30 years, which is now being switched to natural refrigerant equipment and giving us a big opportunity. In the near future, we will be starting to introduce our CO2 products to China, and the Asia-Pacific region including Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Besides our product approaches, we set up ‘Sustainability Ambassadors’ training sessions last year to create shared and informed culture on climate change. We started the training sessions with our top management. Then we selected 80 persons out of 4,200 employees of LUVE Group in various positions and various regions around the world to train them as internal ambassadors of environment, social, and governance (ESG) principles. This year, these members will distribute the ESG approaches for their colleagues within LU-VE Group.
J: How about your sales system?
L: We have a network of 35 sales companies and representative offices in 23 countries. Currently, our main sales target is European Union (EU) countries, which comprise about 83% of the total. We want to expand sales outside the EU, focusing on China and other Asian countries as well as the United States.
J: Market characteristics differ depending on the region. Does LUVE have different sales strategies for each region?
L: Our sales strategy is based on the theory of providing high-performance, green products. This strategy is the same worldwide, whether in Europe, China, India, or the United States.
We are confident in the high quality of our products. In fact, in 2000, LU-VE Group became the first European group to obtain the coveted ‘Certify All’ certification from Eurovent for its entire range of products: condensers, dry coolers, and air coolers. In 2015, LU-VE’s heat exchangers for refrigeration were also certified, and they never recorded a single negative test result over three different test cycles. No other company in the Eurovent program has ever achieved this milestone.
With these high-quality and green products as well as our global presence backed by 600 years of experience totaling the operational years of our subsidiaries, LU-VE Group is further upgrading its business performance.
JARN (J): Firstly, could you introduce LU-VE’s history?
Fabio Liberali (L): LU-VE was established in 1985 by Iginio Liberali, my father, along with the acquisition of an Italian heat exchange coil manufacturer, Contardo. At that time, he and his family and friends secured 51% of the capital and financed the remaining 49% with venture capital. It was a really big challenge for them, and when they named the new company, they decided on LU-VE that stands for ‘LUcky-VEnture’, by strongly wishing it success.
That wish came true, and over a period of almost 40 years, we have grown into a successful global company. In fact, the first turnover of LU-VE in 1986 was only about €10 million (about US$ 11 million), but it reached €618 million (about US$ 669 million) in 2022, growing about 60-fold.
The most important reason underlying such success is that we already had a green approach from the beginning, aiming to manufacture green products such as air heat exchangers with lower energy consumption, less refrigerant use, and smaller environmental footprints. To develop such green products, we firstly built a cooperative research and development (R&D) relationship in 1986 with the Politecnico di Milano, which is an Italian top-level scientific-technological university and had the largest laboratory for heat exchange in the country. Together with the university, we successfully developed green products that can reduce energy consumption by up to 50%, reduce refrigerant use by 30 to 50%, etc. Our collaboration is still continuing now, with renewed projects every three years.
The Politecnico di Mila no also provided excellent human resources for our laboratories, R&D department, and so on. Based on this successful experience, we have expanded collaborative relationships with other universities on a global level and in other sectors such as economics, along with our expansion and growth. Now, we are cooperating with about 30 universities in 13 countries.
J: Could you tell us about your global production system?
L: Currently, LU-VE Group has 20 manufacturing facilities in nine countries, which are Italy, China, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. We established these factories based on our local production for local market philosophy.
We have been further strengthening our production capability by expanding these existing plants. In Poland, we more than doubled the production area of our facility by adding a new 20,000-m2 plant, on land with an area of 60,000 m2, becoming our largest plant with 1,100 people. In China, we initially established our factory in Jiangsu Province, but we moved to Tianmen City, Hubei Province a few years ago. In 2023, we began to expand the plant to a total of over 43,000 m2 from 19,000 m2, and we expect the expansion to be completed by the end of May this year. With this expansion, we will enlarge our targets from existing commercial refrigeration to data centers and other projects that need large-capacity units.
J: You are also strengthening your production capability through mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
L: Yes. Starting from 2016, we acquired many companies. As our first M&A, in 2016, we acquired India-based Spirotech Heat Exchangers that manufactures heat exchangers for dry coolers. Its Indian factory is now serving German drying cooler manufacturers as a special case within our local production for the local market philosophy.
In 2018, we acquired another heat exchanger manufacturer, Zyklus, which is located in Texas, the United States, and we renamed it LU-VE US. As one of our strategic markets, we are investing to develop U.S. operations with our CO2 products and we plan to expand the LUVE US factory this year to produce CO2 products for commercial and industrial refrigeration.
In 2019, we finalized the acquisition of the Air Division of Alfa Laval, a Swedish multinational. Through this acquisition, we acquired their plants in Italy, Finland, and India as well as the European commercial network and the wellknown Fincoil and Helpman brands. In 2022, we also completed two acquisitions, 75% of Refrion Group that has strength in the data center cooling, process cooling, and industrial refrigeration sectors, thanks its heat exchangers with oval tubes and the branch of Italia Wanbao-ACC that has a heat exchanger plant in Mel, Belluno, and an integrated logistics center.
J: At these plants, what products do you mainly manufacture?
L: We have three main product categories: air-cooled heat exchangers such as the finned-tube type, air-cooled equipment such as unit coolers, condensers, gas coolers, and liquid coolers, and glass doors for refrigerated counters and display cabinets. At the end of 2023, heat exchangers accounted for 49.4%, air-cooled equipment 46.2%, and doors 2.7% of our total turnover.
J: You said that LU-VE has been focusing on green approaches from the beginning. Please tell us about your approaches.
L: Looking at our products, we are a pioneer of natural refrigerants. In fact, we supplied a large-capacity condensing unit that firstly adopted CO2 refrigerant to a supermarket in Switzerland in 2004. Currently, most of our heat exchangers use natural refrigerants such as CO2, ammonia, propane (R290), and water.
LU-VE Group has established a track record of highly successful CO2 installations in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. In Europe, CO2 products are among our main products. In the United States, there is a lot of old refrigeration equipment which has been in use for 20 to 30 years, which is now being switched to natural refrigerant equipment and giving us a big opportunity. In the near future, we will be starting to introduce our CO2 products to China, and the Asia-Pacific region including Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Besides our product approaches, we set up ‘Sustainability Ambassadors’ training sessions last year to create shared and informed culture on climate change. We started the training sessions with our top management. Then we selected 80 persons out of 4,200 employees of LUVE Group in various positions and various regions around the world to train them as internal ambassadors of environment, social, and governance (ESG) principles. This year, these members will distribute the ESG approaches for their colleagues within LU-VE Group.
J: How about your sales system?
L: We have a network of 35 sales companies and representative offices in 23 countries. Currently, our main sales target is European Union (EU) countries, which comprise about 83% of the total. We want to expand sales outside the EU, focusing on China and other Asian countries as well as the United States.
J: Market characteristics differ depending on the region. Does LUVE have different sales strategies for each region?
We are confident in the high quality of our products. In fact, in 2000, LU-VE Group became the first European group to obtain the coveted ‘Certify All’ certification from Eurovent for its entire range of products: condensers, dry coolers, and air coolers. In 2015, LU-VE’s heat exchangers for refrigeration were also certified, and they never recorded a single negative test result over three different test cycles. No other company in the Eurovent program has ever achieved this milestone.
With these high-quality and green products as well as our global presence backed by 600 years of experience totaling the operational years of our subsidiaries, LU-VE Group is further upgrading its business performance.
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