Brussels (Belgium)/Sindelfingen (Germany), 1 February 2018. On 12 January, during the annual general meeting of the Association of European Refrigeration Component Manufacturers (ASERCOM), Rainer Große-Kracht was elected as its new chairman of the board. With a degree in mechanical engineering, he has worked for more than two decades in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. As the Chief Technology Officer and a member of board at BITZER, the specialist in refrigeration compressors, he has now represented the company in the ASERCOM association for 6 years. Große-Kracht follows on at ASERCOM from Stephane Nassau from Danfoss.

‘I am very happy and feel honoured that the association has entrusted me, as the chairman of ASERCOM, with leading the refrigeration and air conditioning sector in this time of far-reaching changes with which we are currently confronted,’ said Rainer Große-Kracht, Chief Technology Officer at BITZER. ‘The legal regulations on the protection of our climate are currently going through major changes and that presents us all with significant challenges. In 2018 alone, we have to reduce the CO₂ equivalent of the refrigerants used in Europe by 44 per cent compared to 2015 while at the same time meeting a higher minimum efficiency standard. That is a big task for our member companies but it is an even greater task for the entire industry. Particularly the smaller OEMs and installers frequently cannot cope with the legislation. Here, we want to communicate more effectively with our local associations and to further improve our recommendations and guidelines, making them easier to understand. And ASERCOM is just the right platform for that.’