From financial disaster, great opportunities come

As the world hurtles into global recession and anxiety rises, it’s important to remember the good that comes out of hard lessons.

In 1933 as the world began easing out of the grips of a devastating Great Depression that destroyed many economies and began slowly moving toward a Second World War, a development that would bring warmth to many, but also healing to burn victims, emerged from a farmhouse at Nordborg, southern Denmark.

Danfoss A/S is now the world’s biggest underfloor heating company, it began small and today is a global environmental leader with waterbased and solar energy and too with wireless managed underfloor heating and capacity to link to very high tech home or office automation systems.

Fifteen years ago when some scoffed at the thought of people from a cold northern climate bringing heating to one of the world’s best and warmest climates in Gauteng, some scoffed. Today Danfoss Underfloor Heating is the market leader in South Africa and despite a softening economy sales each year continue to exceed those of preceding years.

Claus Jakobsen, marketing manager of Danfoss in South Africa said they would celebrate Danfoss’ 75th birthday on 13 November in Sandton, “with a great deal of pride, our product was environmentally sensitive from the beginning and that has helped us in these very eco-aware times today. It’s 10 year guarantee and the 40% it cuts off winter heating bills means that it has the sort of reliability people are looking for today, when every cent they spend counts and has to bring in much more value than even a few months ago.

“It is never boring in South Africa, the resilient South African always seems to always pull a rabbit out of the hat and make things work anyway. On a personal note, my family and I love living here. We at Danfoss have had a very good year despite many challenges and although we do not expect high growth in 2009, we expect a year as good as that in 2008.”

The Danfoss Group produces around 250 000 items a day from 61 factories in 25 countries.
Danfoss invented the Thermostatic Radiator Valve (TRV) in 1943 and it quickly became the world leader in sales of these controls, producing over half the world’s requirements. These and its many other products quickly established a reputation for top performance and reliability.

Danfoss’ technologies create quality of life for people all over the world. Clean water, heating and cooling are vital for our well-being. With a wide range of products and high-tech solutions within refrigeration and air conditioning, heating, water and motion controls Danfoss delivers many indispensable functions in private homes and in the industrial sector. It’s underfloor heating is used in burn units globally to promote quicker healing – dust mites, as one example don’t like underfloor heating and so avoid rooms where it is present making underfloor heating a very good solution for asthmatics too.

Danfoss products meet customers’ needs within areas as diverse as food preserving, productivity, energy-saving, environmental improvement and comfort. The resource-saving products are essential for the future of a world where there is an increasing focus on consideration for the environment and the scarce resources of nature.

Ever since the company’s foundation, regard for the individual, respect for nature and its values, and environmental and social responsibility have characterised the company and its activities. Today, with the Danfoss Group as a global industrial company, they continue to be the fundamental elements of its basic values – thanks to the Clausen family.

Core values on which Danfoss has always relied are:
– Trust
– Safe and reliable choice
– Passion about technology
– Global culture, local representation
– Environmental and social responsibility

The Danfoss Group has already provided a very fruitful and beneficial 75 years for the world’s population and it looks forward to the years that lie ahead – they will be filled with challenge but none more so, we believe than those we have conquered in the past.