It was announced late last month that A-Gas had made a new acquisition. This time they purchased a German based company known as Arthur Friedrichs Kaeltemittel GmbH. The company, headquartered out of Seevetal, has been supplying refrigerant and supplies since 1955. Arthur Friedrichs is a key player in the automotive market in both the aftermarket side and the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) side.
It seems that the automotive side of the business is kind of the forgotten brother to other refrigerant/air conditioning applications. When most people think of refrigerant or air conditioning their minds immediately go to home or commercial cooling. There is a whole other side of the industry on the automotive side. Heck, you even need your own certification to work on automotive applications. (609 Cert.)
A-Gas has already announced that they plan to open a new refrigerant reclamation facility at Arthur Friedrich’s Seevetal’s headquarters. These acquisitions are becoming a tend. A-Gas also purchased a refrigerant company based out of the Netherlands late last summer. The company, known as BTC, is a specialist when it comes to refrigerant reclamation as well as disposal of refrigerant gases. This acquisition and the recent acquisition in Germany adds to the distribution power, but more importantly, the reclamation power and network of A-Gas. A-Gas is quickly becoming a dominant player in the global refrigerant distribution marketplace.
Over here in America they do have competition. Their biggest rival is Hudson Technologies who just recently purchased AirGas (Now Aspen) Refrigerants. These two giants are nearly neck and neck when it comes to revenue. Hudson ended 2017 with around one-hundred and forty million in revenue and A-Gas ended 2016 with one-hundred and sixty million. Both of these companies have been purchasing and expanding like crazy over the past few years. Time will only tell how much the market will consolidate in the future and who will come out on top.