AFRICA – InspiraFarms Cooling, a leading provider of cooling solutions across Africa, has confirmed plans to acquire Celtic Cooling’s operations in Africa.
According to Julian Mitchell, InspiraFarms Cooling’s CEO, the acquisition will ensure the continued operations of the teams based in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya, who have developed a reputation for high-quality technical skills in the cold storage industry.
According to the company, the full process is expected to be complete in the next few weeks, as of 30th November 2023.
InspiraFarms Cooling is pursuing this opportunity to help expand its presence across the African market.
The company strongly believes that integrating the Celtic companies in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya into the existing infrastructure of InspiraFarms Cooling offers many advantages.
This belief is particularly drawn from the fact that the acquisition will build on the experience, skills, and technical proficiency of the teams operating for nearly 25 years.
“With this, InspiraFarms Cooling will continue to offer high-quality, energy-efficient cooling, with integrated data to improve the consistency of cooling, by allowing its customers to remotely monitor their cold rooms,” says Julian.
Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya will continue as they currently operate, providing maintenance services, repairs, site assessments, and supplying refrigeration spare parts with InspiraFarms Cooling, supporting customers with developing cold rooms, packhouses, and other cooling solutions.
Upon completion of the legal processes of acquisition, the companies will operate under the brand – InspiraFarms Cooling.
The acquisition presents an opportunity for both companies to continue their shared vision of offering high-quality cooling solutions and services to all customers across horticulture, floriculture, animal proteins, 3PLs, and more.
This will also allow more cooling systems to be deployed faster and improve the post-harvest technology that focuses on maximizing customer returns and reducing produce loss and environmental impact.
Since 2012, InspiraFarms Cooling has specialized in providing African agribusiness in the fruit and vegetable industry with the tools, technology, and expertise to significantly reduce food losses and energy costs and access higher-value markets.
In 2022, the company expanded these solutions, beyond cold rooms, packhouses, and precoolers for the fruit and vegetable industry, to solutions for flowers and into long-term storage solutions for potatoes and onions.
“Across all our solutions we have done installations across Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Benin, and more,” said Dave Zoetemelk, Director of Sales at InspiraFarms Cooling.
According to Zoetemelk, the decision to expand their solutions was primarily driven by market demand and the need for such solutions.
As the market expanded, InspiraFarms Cooling recognized the need for reliable and efficient cooling solutions specifically tailored to the unique requirements of potato producers, distributors, retailers, and traders.
“In turn, these solutions ensure optimum temperature levels and appropriate storage conditions, which ensure minimized mass loss and reduced product quality,” he explained.
Most regions in Africa, which are InspiraFarms Cooling’s focus markets are often hot, making the pace of deterioration noticeably faster, hence the critical importance and need for cold chain solutions.
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