"We are seeing a trend towards dry ice cold chains for home deliveries"

ESL has been a long-standing partner of ASCO. Please tell us about your company.

ESL is the exclusive UK distributor of industrial cleaning equipment from leading European manufacturers, including dry ice machines, industrial vacuum systems, industrial high-pressure cleaners, dry steam cleaners and dust-free blasting systems. We offer a one-stop shop and a wide range of industrial cleaning equipment designed for high reliability and top performance. Our extensive range has been carefully selected to meet all requirements and applications, saving time and costs whilst ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations. We are proud to have been working with the world’s leading specialist, ASCO, since 2008 to exclusively distribute dry ice equipment in the UK. This Swiss precision technology offers innovative solutions to provide the world’s most advanced dry ice production systems and dry ice blasting equipment.
 

Which ASCO products are the most successful in the UK? And why?

We regularly receive orders for all ASCO machines. Two of our most popular machines in the UK are the P28i dry ice pelletiser and the NANOJET dry ice blasting machine. The P28i pelletiser (pictured below) was recently installed by the ESL team with vacuum-sealed piping connecting the CO2 tank to the pelletiser. This enables our customer to diversify and expand their dry ice production to produce large volumes of up to 280 kg/hr. The machine also features an internet connection utilising world-leading Siemens technology, which enables remote monitoring. This ensures optimum performance and availability at all times. The NANOJET is the most popular dry ice blasting machine in the UK. It cleans without damaging surfaces and reduces the overall cleaning time, resulting in significant savings in working hours, without the use of hazardous chemicals. This process also reduces downtime through minimal dismantling and avoids secondary waste from blasting media.

Which sectors are your main customers in the field of dry ice production?

We offer our dry ice production machines to customers across many sectors, including logistics, the food industry, medical transport and airlines. They are perfect for transporting chilled products and represent a cost-effective logistics solution. Food delivery is a rapidly growing sector, and ASCO’s dry ice production is ideal for transporting meat, fruit and vegetables over long distances to maintain freshness. Dry ice is capable of maintaining the cold chain throughout the entire supply chain, from production to the end consumer, and our ASCO dry ice can be used to package biological samples and temperature-sensitive biomedical/pharmaceutical products during transport. Dry ice is also cost-effective for transporting food on long-haul flights, which can aid planning and help prevent waste.
 

Are you seeing a trend towards increasing dry ice consumption? What are the reasons for this?

We have recently observed a massive increase in dry ice consumption and we predict that this trend will continue to grow. With ASCO’s advanced dry ice production solutions, businesses can save time, money and resources. Dry ice production is environmentally friendly and the ultimate cooling solution, being safe, non-toxic, colourless, and odourless. Changing customer habits are driving up demand for dry ice production, including in the food and beverage industry, where the trend is towards closed cold chains for home deliveries. On-site dry ice production can also reduce waste and cut costs. Airlines, for example, consume large quantities of dry ice every day, but complex scheduling, as well as changes and delays on routes, can lead to inefficiency and waste. By using our ASCO dry ice pelletisers, airline caterers can produce exact quantities of dry ice, as and when they are needed.
 

Are you busy with lots of dry ice blasting demonstrations?

In recent months, we have had more dry ice leads than ever before, including dry ice blasting demonstrations. Our proactive sales approach, combined with increased marketing activities and new initiatives, is helping us generate more leads. We recently visited a food production facility with the ASCOJET 1708 and blasted burnt-on food deposits with impressive results. The customer was delighted and is now conducting further trials with a view to purchasing this blasting system for several sites. The image below shows the exterior of the food preparation machine before and after dry ice blasting.

In which industries has dry ice blasting achieved the best results?

Dry ice blasting is suitable for many applications as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional blasting methods and is often used to comply with health and safety standards and regulations. This process is growing in popularity as it is cost-effective and non-toxic, leaving surfaces dry and free from abrasion. We have achieved some of the best results in the food and beverage industry with a dry, in-situ cleaning solution that is non-destructive and requires no chemicals. This has enabled the removal of hard-to-remove residues that traditionally take a long time to clean, thereby eliminating the need for costly shutdowns for cleaning. We have also provided dry ice blasting solutions to customers for cleaning the undersides of high-speed cars after racing events, and to foundries for cleaning moulds and core boxes, leaving a high-quality finish with a significant reduction in cleaning time.
 

How has Covid-19 affected your business?

Like many other businesses, we were also affected by the impact of Covid, but through careful planning we were able to create a more solid foundation for the future. During the most difficult months, we utilised a furlough scheme for some of our staff, and we are pleased to be back to full capacity. During this time, we invested in our marketing to take the next step and generate further leads for our sales team. We feel that the market has recovered significantly in recent months and we are now receiving a similar number of customer enquiries as before Covid. At the height of Covid, there were restrictions on customer visits and demonstrations, but with the new guidelines, visits are now possible in most places. We are also actively looking to expand our sales team to continue providing our customers with the best possible service, support our strategy and break into new areas.

Peter Woodward
, Marketing Manager at ESL

T: 01543 449259
W: ecoblastsupplies.co.uk E: info@ecoblastsupplies.co.uk