SNDC Invests to Strengthen Its Position in the Refrigerated Vehicles Sector

SNDC (50 employees, €10 million turnover), a specialist in air conditioning for agricultural, military and industrial machinery and cable cars, is planning to undertake major works to maintain its competitive advantage as a unique French designer and manufacturer of tools for recovering and recycling refrigerants. This SME based in Labarthe-sur-Lèze (Haute-Garonne), better known in the industry by its subsidiary brand Ecoclim, decided in 2010 to stop importing and start manufacturing its own products. Since then, it has seen steady growth and a growing reputation for its after-sales service. “With us, there is no planned obsolescence,” smiles Jean-Marc Guittard, president of SNDC since 2011.

With a design studio and test centre on its premises on the outskirts of Toulouse, the company offers a high-quality moile device with complete traceability, having been assembled by a single technician. It can be used, for example, “on a tiller, right in the middle of a field”, claims Guittard. The Manitou group, one of its major customers, adopted it a long time ago, as did Airbus Helicopters. Furthermore, its expertise, which Ecoclim presents at trade fairs every year (Solutrans in Lyon, Bauma in Munich, etc.), has already reached as far as Norway and South Korea.

An investment of €800,000

Six years ago, SNDC decided to diversify by developing devices specially adapted to the refrigeration vehicle market. The devices they have developed make it possible to recover refrigerants from refrigerated tricks and immediately recycle them. The substances used in refrigeration systems are potentially dangerous and can pollute the environment and are subject to strict regulations. At the end of a complex process to obtain the NF 35-421 standard (relating to test methods for equipment for the recovery, recycling and regeneration of refrigerants used in refrigeration and heating systems) at the end of 2018, SNDC released its Ecoclim RF404 and RF452 units, which offer considerable time savings for users.

SNDC currently produces 200 to 300 machines per year and has the ambition to quickly increase its production capacity to 500 and then 1,000 machines per year all within the 5,000 m² of its headquarters. “We want to become the leading tooling specialist in the refrigerated vehicle sector,” says Jean-Marc Guittard. To do this, the company will set up new production lines with an investment of €800,000, supported by the Occitanie Region.

Alongside to these modernisation works, SNDC is also developing a training and certification facility, and the total benefit to the company is expected to be an increase in turnover of between €2 to 3 million each year. The investment will also create about fifteen jobs (technicians, sales representatives, logistics specialists, etc.) to support the business.