Our History

Establishment and development

On 09.08.2001, the Belgian Groupe Fabricom, a subsidiary of the Suez Group, takes over six independent companies of Sulzer Infra in Germany and continues to operate them under the brand name Axima. In mid-August 2003, the six companies are merged into Axima GmbH. By the end of 2008, the company is renamed Axima Deutschland GmbH and Axima Refrigeration GmbH was integrated as a subsidiary. Since November 2009, the two companies are operating under the name Cofely Deutschland GmbH and Cofely Refrigeration GmbH.

In 2015, the GDF SUEZ Group officially changes the name to ENGIE S.A. As part of the realignment of the Group under the new umbrella brand, Cofely Deutschland GmbH changes the company name in June 2016 and is now ENGIE Deutschland GmbH.

History

1834

The Gebrüder Sulzer company was founded

1878

Construction of the first chiller on the occasion of the World´s Fair in Paris

1921

Takeover by the Escher Wyss factory Zurich and beginning of the refrigeration machines’ series production

1938

Implementing of the first heat pump, development of the first cooling tower by Escher Wyss

1972

Sulzer Escher Wyss GmbH’s legal entity

1998

Development of the world’s first art train station with carbon dioxide as cooling agent in Dornbirn

2001

Sulzer Infra is sold to the Belgian company Fabricom, a subsidiary of the French SUEZ Group

2003

Axima Refrigeration receives the German Industry Innovation Award for the chiller Quantum

2004

25 000 Escher Wyss cooling towers are used worldwide

2005

Introduction of country organisations. Consolidation of the German companies under SUEZ Energy Services Germany GmbH

2006

The Axima Refrigeration has launched the QUANTUM cold water aggregate’s second generation on the market successfully

2008

At the Chillventa in Nuremberg the Axima Refrigeration had announced the collaborative development of the water turbo, which is a refrigeration machine that uses water as a natural cooling agent, with the institute for air and refrigeration technology in Dresden

2009

Since the beginning of the year 2009 the GDF SUEZ-group has been bundling multiple activities of their section Energy Services under the new brand Cofely, in order for a brand-harmonization. The Axima-Companies in Germany took over the new brand’s name as well and from the middle of November 2009 they had appeared as Cofely Deutschland GmbH and Cofely Refrigeration GmbH on the market

2013

Portfolio expansion in several steps: Cofely Refrigeration presents new chiller solutions Pensum, Marenum, Spectrum and Amonum

2015

The demand for green refrigeration on the rise - that is one of the reasons why Cofely Refrigeration GmbH is expanding its existing water cooled QUANTUM G series, which uses the refrigerant R1234ze, up to a cooling capacity of 2 megawatt (MW). Cofely Refrigeration will soon also be offering an air cooled QUANTUM G

2015

GDF Suez becomes ENGIE: In September the parent company of Cofely is officially renamed in ENGIE S.A.

2016

More powerful than ever - Cofely Refrigeration expands its QUANTUM P series to up to 6 megawatts. Launched in early 2015, QUANTUM P is Cofely Refrigeration´s answer to the growing demand for exceptionally powerful chillers

2016

Cofely becomes ENGIE: As a part of the global reorganization of the ENGIE group under the new umbrella brand, Cofely Refrigeration GmbH is renamed to ENGIE Refrigeration GmbH

2016

The Lindau based refrigeration specialist ENGIE Refrigeration moved completely to new head quarter and makes this site the basis for new growth

2018

ENGIE Refrigeration strengthens position in the field of heat pumps and acquires CO₂ high temperature heat pump activities from the insolvency assets of Hafner-Muschler

2019

ENGIE Refrigeration launches redesigned air-cooled QUANTUM chiller thus perfectly meets the current and future requirements of operating companies and end customers

2021

With the redesigned QUANTUM Water, ENGIE Refrigeration launched the most efficient water-cooled chiller series on the market

2021

We are celebrating our anniversary in 2021 – and doubly so! One hundred years ago, with the foundation of our predecessor company Sulzer Escher Wyss in Lindau, the success story of ENGIE Refrigeration began. And exactly five years ago, we moved into our state-of-the-art corporate headquarters on Josephine-Hirner-Strasse.