Zudek, an Italian manufacturer of ammonia (R717)-based industrial refrigeration systems, has established Zudek International, a new subsidiary based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Ivan Zudek, formerly a Partner at the parent company, is the Managing Director of Zudek International. He told NaturalRefrigerants.com that the new subsidiary recently began operations and has a team of five people at its Cambridge office that will sell Zudek equipment directly to contractors and end users.
Zudek produces an ammonia heat pump and several ammonia chillers, including models using absorption, air-cooled and water-cooled technologies. It also manufactures a system for the purification and liquefaction of CO2 gas, capable of producing food-grade CO2 from organic biomass.
“To cover technical aspects, Zudek International is hiring refrigeration engineers and project managers so we can sell to everyone and bring value to our customers,” Ivan said.
“Instead of working with a distributor in the U.K., we have decided to invest directly in the high-potential market,” Ivan said. “Project management and service teams working with end users will give us a local presence, cut distributor competition and allow us to grow.”
From the experience gained in the U.K., Zudek International plans to move into additional global markets, selling and servicing equipment manufactured by its parent company in Italy to its customers abroad.
Expanding opportunities
With the EU HFC phase out, Zudek sees “tons of potential” for natural refrigerant equipment and is building another manufacturing facility in Italy. According to Ivan, most of Zudek’s sales are in Europe.
Zudek International’s current focus capitalizes on Brexit. “With Brexit, the U.K. has to manufacture a lot of things domestically instead of importing,” Ivan said. “We’re very strong in food and beverage and also in cold storage. There is an increased demand for our equipment there.”
For other global markets, Ivan indicated that Zudek would continue to work with industry leaders and distributors in some regions, including its existing connections in Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and the Philippines. However, the growth stages he outlined for Zudek International included working directly with contractors in India, the U.S. and South Africa.
“We are constantly looking for partners to help us break into the U.S. market,” Ivan said, noting the growth potential for large-scale ammonia refrigeration and HVAC.
New air-cooled chiller
Zudek has announced that it will showcase a prototype of its latest air-cooled ammonia chiller, Windmatik, at ISH 2025. The event will be held March 17‒21 in Frankfurt, Germany.
The new unit, capable of operating in ambient temperatures as high as 50°C (122°F), features semi-hermetic inverter-driven compressors, EC fans, aluminum microchannel condenser coils and a PLC-based control system with remote monitoring.
“This prototype will go to our distributor, Rütgers, in Germany for a full year of testing,” Ivan said, indicating it will most likely cool servers in a data center. However, he noted that Rütgers could use it in a large-scale HVAC application. “We get a lot of requests for data-center cooling because they consume so much electricity, and our systems are 20 to 30% more efficient than synthetic options.” He added that the company would share the unit’s specifications at ISH.
At Chillventa 2024, held last October, Jakob Terčon, Business Development Manager at Zudek, told NaturalRefrigerants.com that the company planned to release an ammonia chiller for commercial HVAC applications in 2025 with a capacity range of 200kW to 1MW (57 to 284TR). Terčon indicated that the chiller would be a lighter version of Zudek’s Airmatik air-cooled chiller that employs semi-hermetic screw compressors.
Recently, Zudek was reapproved for the third time by ATMOsphere for the ATMO Approved Natural Refrigerants Label. The label identifies the company as a leading manufacturer of natural refrigerant systems and components. ATMOsphere is the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com.
