In 1994, Thore Andreassen started the company TermoRens as, and today can look back on 25 exciting years characterized by high industry knowledge and innovation.
– Yes, a lot has been about being at the forefront of the needs and development in the industry, says the founder of VVSforum. The company is based in Skien, has 10 employees and has taken a leading position in the market within its segments.
Andreassen is a trained master plumber and plumbing engineer and has been almost a lifetime in the industry, which has given him broad experience in most branches of the profession.
However, it is in heating and sanitation that he has the longest experience with both onshore and offshore.
In apprenticeship with Ingeborg Markussen
Thore was apprenticed to Norway’s first female master plumber, Ingeborg Markussen. Markussen was 61 years old when she took a journeyman’s certificate as a plumber to be able to run the business after her husband died, and is considered a great pioneer for women in the industry.
When she retired, he took over the company, but later sold it to the company that is today called Sentrum Rør in Drammen. Thore had then accepted the job as sales manager at Witt & Borgen’s pump department in Oslo.
He was then hired by Blücher in Denmark to build up their plumbing investment in Norway.
Termorens
After five years, Blücher was represented throughout Norway both on land and at sea, and he found the origin of the Termorens product at a trade fair in Sweden.
– This was a cleaning fluid that could dissolve all types of coatings in pipe systems, and I quickly understood that this could be a large market in Norway as well.
As a plumber, I had replaced many boilers, water heaters and pipes, and seen that it was internal growth that was the reason why these no longer worked.
By removing this coating in a simple way, the life of the plants would be extended and not least save a lot of energy. In sum, it would provide great savings for the user.
Declined
– TermoRens was initially started with the aim of cleaning heating systems. Not least pipes for underfloor heating without diffusion barrier were a big problem in the industry, he recalls.
A major problem facility at the time was Sloreåsen in Oslo, which consisted of several blocks and terraced houses with a common central heating system. Here, the underfloor heating system was almost completely tight. The problem was easily solved with Termorens.
This was the first million project, and the ball really started to roll.
Several areas
The product also proved effective in cooling systems and in water mains, which significantly expanded the horizon. The results attracted a lot of attention, and satisfied customers became good marketers, he says.
Soon they had customers all over Norway, but that did not stop there.
– A customer from Skien who produces plants for induction heating on the global market had problems with cooling due to clogged pipes. The thermorens solved the problem, which also made foreign customers familiar with the product.
Today it is sold in all continents, with Korea and the Emirates as the largest markets.
The offshore industry
The offshore industry also opened its eyes to the product and the company was asked if it was not possible to make a similar product for external use on stainless steel surfaces. This led to the development of Termorens Gel, and the first major project here was the Gudrun platform – where about 30,000 liters were used to clean it after the trip through the Persian Gulf. Gudrun was the first new Statoil-operated platform in operation on the Norwegian shelf since 2005, and received much attention.
Today, other large oil companies have also hung on, including Saudi Aramco, also known by the English name Saudi Arabian Oil Company, which is the state-owned oil company in Saudi Arabia. According to Wikipedia, Saudi Aramco is the largest oil company in the world, both in terms of oil production and proven oil reserves.
To meet the demand here, and with the special expertise required, TermoRens Offshore Service was started. The company is headquartered at Os outside Bergen.
From here, the offshore market is currently served and today has many large assignments out in the field, on Håkonsvern and the Norwegian Navy’s vessels.
TermoRens as was in such a period of strong growth that it gained status as a Gaselle company for four years in a row.
Legionella outbreak
After the great legionella outbreak in Stavanger in 2001, Andreassen was on the market to find a solution to this without adding chemicals or heavy metals to the water. He finally found this at ISH in Frankfurt in 2005 and within a few years TermoRens as became one of the largest players in this market. They have so far delivered more than 500 legionella-safe facilities and have more than 1000 customers they help with the problem. That is, they map, take water samples and deliver all types of systems available on today’s market. This has also contributed to them gaining broad experience of what works and does not work in this market.
Andreassen believes that the success of Termorens is that it is a unique product.
– It is not difficult to remove coatings in pipes. What is difficult is to do this without damaging pipes and gaskets or other components in the facilities in addition to being environmentally friendly.
It is worth mentioning that Andreassen has also developed a special inhibitor that Termorens is completely alone in. A product that neutralizes the negative aspects of “acid washing” to the positive. The product recently received approval corresponding to the Nordic Ecolabel in Korea, which has far stricter requirements for products than Norway.
– It has undeniably been 25 years characterized by great development and high pace. An exciting journey that is far from over, there are still many challenges in the industry we would like to help solve, he says to VVSforum.
Source: VVSFORUM
