Gary Dangerfield's business is remanufacturing compressors. His company is called Comptec.
The remanufacturing covers the commercial and industrial arena with compressors from 1HP to Megawatts. Most of the work is carried out in the Birmingham factory but he and his employees will, when necessary, remanufacture on site. He has two other factories, one in Frankfurt, Germany and another in Amsterdam, Holland and these do exactly the same work as the UK factory.

Dangerfield takes in redundant compressors, guts them and rebuilds them with new parts, even though only about one in five is reuseable. In fact, he says it is a case of virtually reusing only the casing.

Even that is stripped, chemically cleaned, shot-blasted and everything is re-measured and re-bored. All moving parts, such as pistons and bearings are replaced.
So why wouldn't a company just buy a new one?

'Because one of our remanufactured ones will cost between a third and half the price of a new one.' And sometimes it is also availability. 'Most manufacturers do not carry the stock,' he adds. However, that said, he will also sell a customer new kit. 'It is a case of trying to be a one-stop compressor shop.'

More stock than most

Comptec, he assures, carries more compressors and stock than most manufacturers 'because if I don't then a competitor will'.

In the UK he reckons he has in stock some 500 finished remanufactured compressors and some 4000/5000 others in various stages of re-manufacturing. And the process is now so slick that most of them can be remanufactured in an average of four hours. Comptec offers a full turnkey service when required.

He says: 'If, for instance, a compressor breaks down in a central London location, a surveyor from Comptec will go to site and see what has to be done. If it is not repairable, he will take the specifications back to the factory. Here Comptec organises a replacement, takes it to site, decommissions the old one, replaces it with the refurbished compressor and commissions the new one. If we can get it in through the building we will or else arrange for it to be craned on to the roof.'

And when possible it will all happen the next day. 'We will do all the lifting, shifting, humping and lumping.' And it is not just compressors, the company will move pumps and boilers too.
It is, Dangerfield adds, a case of one telephone call and Comptec makes it happen.

All the employees are qualified and certified and only the craning is hired in, he says.
Occasionally, it is easier to rebuild in situ and here the engineering team will go to site with all the parts they (hopefully) need. Remanufacturing in these cases usually takes about a day.
'If it breaks down on a Monday, we can usually have the compressor back up and running by end of play on Tuesday.'

All have a 12-month warranty and full back-up service. And should any part fail then it is a case of 'next day we will be on site', he says.

'There is no case of taking the part away and working out why it failed, arguing the toss over who pays and only then replacing it.' And he asserts there is no extra cost involved.
'Not that there are many failures. The guys are too good at their job.'

Word of mouth

The problem is that, if the project is successful, then it is a long time before Dangerfield and his company are called in again.
So is it a case of having to find new clients week after week? For the one-off jobs it is, Dangerfield admits. 'However there are often projects where developers or contractors are replacing up to 30-odd chillers in a building or a contractor is working on replacing the chillers on several buildings one by one and with these we have virtually 100% rebookings.
He places some advertising to keep the Comptec name in the marketplace but most of the work comes through word of mouth.

'And because engineers move from company to company, if we did a good job they tell the new employers when they need a new or remanufactured compressor.


Dangerfield and his partner Allan French have been in business for 15 years. The company in England employs 32 people in the factory and eight teams (two engineers per team) are on the road. There are also three service technicians for commissioning.

The business started selling new compressors, mainly to the supermarket.
'When we looked at the market, no one was offering a fitting service They had to use their own engineers or a sub-contractor,' he says. 'We put together a team and went after the work. Our guys were the experts.'

And, Dangerfield adds, nowadays, with risk assessment and health and safety, being the
specialist sub-contractor is even more important.

Expanding abroad

The German subsidiary has been going for seven years and is just breaking even.
'It has been an uphill struggle in Germany because it has traditionally been a rich country.'
But Dangerfield saw the downturn in its economy as an opportunity for remanufactured
compressors.

He admits that, even as the recession began to bite, 'they still could not get their heads around the idea'.
It was a matter of selling the concept before they could sell the product but now the company is, he says, flying.
In Germany, there are eight engineers. But, if they cannot cope, Dangerfield will fly in a couple of engineers from the UK.

The Dutch subsidiary started 12 months ago. There are four engineers and the market seems industrial-biased and site-oriented. A lot of the remanufactured compressors are sent from the UK but there is a factory there where the work can be done.
And, as the work grows. then Dangerfield intends to mirror the work done in the UK there.
Further, he has no intention of Comptec sitting on its laurels.
He already has ideas for subsidiaries in Spain and Greece and eventually the Far and Middle East - but not yet.

'You have to walk before you can run,' he insists.
And, thankfully, he laughs, the German and Dutch offices have been financed from the profits that have been ploughed back into the company. And, as the profits roll in, they will pay for future expansion.

But Dangerfield admits: 'We have still not had our investment back from the German operation.' One niche market that is working for Comptec in Germany is that a number of manufacturers there are using Comptec engineers to install their products. 'This gives us credibility in the trade and it is happening more and more,' he says

Five-year growth predicted

Currently the company turns over around £3M in the UK and around £6M overall but Dangerfield admits some of the figures are not translating on to the bottom line.
He reckons turnover will grow to between £10M and £15M in five years. This will be helped in part by the new Refrigerant Gases Regulations. 'Many companies want new equipment or upgraded retrofitted kit.'

But Comptec will not be responsible for recovering R22. That is a job for the contractor.
And Dangerfield receives no help from government. 'We get no incentives, no help and far too much red tape.'

Indeed, there is so much paperwork that he has to employ one extra person to do the administration.

Nevertheless, Dangerfield is justifiably proud of what he and his p;artner have achieved. The company has funded its own expansion. He is also proud of the fact that none of his employees has left.

There is one question that remains to be answered: why would anyone want to buy a new compressor in the first place?

To this, Dangerfield answers: 'I don't know. They must be mad!' Then he laughs and says that it may be a quality issue. 'But I don't understand why. The parts we use are the same as they use.'