Hitema

HVAC industrial solutions by Hitema International: 30 years driven by innovation

Hitema International, an important international player specialized in HVAC solutions that in 2021 celebrates its first thirty years of activity.
1. Could you explain when/who Hitema was created?
Hitema® has been created over 30 years ago from my father, Mr. Burba, a person with great knowledge and experience of the HVAC and Refrigeration products and market.

A person committed to work with method and with a mental attitude capable of “create”, build and always innovate.
This year we celebrate an important milestone for Hitema ®: the 30th years anniversary and we are so grateful for the current market response to our products and our Brand.

2. 2020 Turnover, employees, countries (or continents) involved in production and sales.
We are glad to say that Hitema® is still growing – both in facilities and in people (despite the current pandemic situation).
We have just completed the construction of the last manufacturing plant, the 6th for us, with a total of more than 19.000 sqm of indoor space.
We are now hiring new staff – we strongly believe in the importance of investing in young people, young minds capable of creating and thinking “out of the box”.

We are grateful for the result achieved in 2020, which are the result of a great collaboration of our Team and our Partners.
It is very important for us to point out that during the year 2020 Hitema® has invested over 20% of the turnover to improve its products and services.
We sell our products on all continents, all over the world.
We have recently expanded into Australia and New Zealand as well, and we are very proud of this important new achievement.

3. Describe Hitema. Why you should choose Hitema?
In my opinion there are three keywords/concept able to describe Hitema.
The first keyword able to describe Hitema is without any doubt the word CUSTOMIZATION.
We are able to offer to our customers a complete range of possibilities of customization, starting from the mainframe of the machines, to the color, the refrigerant, as well as all the special requirements upon customers/ projects demands.
We are a complete industrial reality, with a new renewed carpentry and laser machine department, made up of people and machines with very different skills and knowledge, but always interconnected, able to quickly change the production and to increase the customization of semi-finished products using onboard the Hitema® machines.
The second keyword able to describe Hitema® is TRUST. Hitema® is really a trusted Partner for its customers.
We have started our business as a small familiar reality more than 30 years ago, we have maintained a working approach based on trust and solid relationship with our Partners and on the reliability and high quality of our products.
Our new Spare Parts and After Sales department offer a continuous support to the customers representing a real point of reference.
This department manages the after-sales & spare parts service for all the units: every single request received by the Hitema Team is recorded in a “Diary”. It is associated with all the data of the machine but also the specific codes of the spare parts requested.

The function of the “Service Recovery” is that to record and catalog all the reports of problems and malfunctions received from our customers. The reports are managed through a procedure interconnected with the company management system: In this way our company has a real “thermometer” that constantly measures customer satisfaction.
The third concept able to describe Hitema® is CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT.
This is really the key concept of Hitema® work philosophy.
Continuous improvement allows us to always have a future-oriented approach, and to always give a better service to our customers.

4. How important is innovation technology in your company?
Innovation is essential for us. It is the key that allow us to play an important role in the market and that differentiates our Company from other market proposals.
As I told you before, during the year 2020, Hitema has invested over 20% of the turnover to improve its products and services for customers more and more.

5. How sustainable are the solutions you propose and how much attention you pay to the environmental sustainability of your industrial proposal?
This is another fundamental point for us: the sustainability and eco-friendly design of our products.
I’m a father before I’m a business man. I feel the responsibility of my behavior towards future generations.
I strongly believe that the vision of a sustainable development is the right choice, respecting future generations.

It is with this approach, and also considering the market demand and the new standards in force, that Hitema has expanded its Chiller portfolio with new Series, not only using eco-friendly refrigerants like HFO R1234ze, HFC with low GWP like R513A, R32, R454B, R449A and the natural fluid PROPANE (R290), but also developing the new TURBOCOR Series.
Environmental sustainability and high energy efficiency, are the main goals achieved by our technical department during the development of our products, in compliance with new regulations and with ethics towards the environment and the next generations.

6. In your opinion, what are the most interesting trends for the next two years?
Considering the pandemic, which has had during last year and is having now a strong impact globally, I believe there will be an ever stronger advance towards low environmental impact and eco-sustainable solutions.
We have all understood the importance of a sustainable development and we are ready to support our customers with this new challenge as well.
We are already able to provide these solutions, with dedicated customized production, for our projects.
In addition, we are now developing new standard Series of Chillers with configuration and refrigerant specifically designed for low environmental impact solutions.

7. What are the most important events of the year in which normally you need to participate? (fair, openhouse, meeting, conference, other)
Like everyone else, due to the current pandemic, we have had to cancel the participation in the exhibitions last year. I am thinking for example of the Chillventa exhibition in Nuremberg – Germany.
However, we have continued to have an ongoing relationship – face to face – with our customers and partners thanks to the communication tools now available.
We organize weekly videomeetings with our Dealers – using this tools we maintain an active relationship, we introduce the news of our products, we provide support when needed and we train new staff on our products. It is very important for us to be constantly present to support our Partners. It is essential to achieve the goals
together!

However, we can’t wait to see our customers in person, we are already planning the events/fairs to attend next year.