Ivan Vergilas (FRIGO-VE): Rijeka’s Dr. House for air conditioning prepares and builds his hydroelectric power plant

The wheel of the old mill in the hamlet of Trnovici is eagerly waiting to be turned again by the water from the Rječina, the river that springs two kilometers to the north of Rijeka. This property, which he fell in love with at first sight, was purchased by Ivan Vergilas: – This is the ideal place to come here and rest my soul – he tells us as we stand above a nearby waterfall that seems to confirm this with its therapeutic gurgling.

Indeed, in about 15 minutes of driving from the headquarters of his company FRIGO-VE in Viškovo, Vergilas, while explaining his plans for the mill, transformed from a rational, ambitious entrepreneur into a nature lover, tradition, and – gin. Along with the renovation of the mill, which is now ‘preserved’ in cobwebs, there are plans for the construction of a small demonstration hydroelectric power plant, for which the previous owner has already gathered a large part of the documentation. There will also be a tasting room for gin produced according to Vergilas’s recipe, along with prosciutto and olives. But for now, this project – in untouched nature 15 minutes from Rijeka, 20 minutes from Opatija, and an hour and a half from Zagreb – is on hold, only completing the documentation, and during this period, some more mundane tasks need to be finished.

Profiting from climate change and comfort

Currently, 350 square meters are being renovated in the business zone of Marinići, where the company engaged in the distribution and servicing of air conditioning equipment and systems has been located since 2019. A new workspace with ten offices is being arranged on the upper floor to free up the ground floor for a showroom, training center, and two of Vergilas’s collections: a cabinet with about 300 bottles of gin from around the world and 38 models of authentic ships that sailed the Adriatic.

Vergilas is the general importer for Hitachi, distributes Daikin and Clivet devices, as well as more than thirty brands related to heating, equipment, and cooling. The business started twenty years ago with the opening of a craft for the installation and servicing of air conditioning devices in Malinska. He crossed the Krk Bridge for practical reasons – after finishing the Electrical Engineering and Craft School in Rijeka, he wanted to become independent as soon as possible, and Krk was until 2019 an area of special state concern, which is why opening a craft there was not conditioned by a master exam, for which Vergilas did not have enough experience at the time.

Air conditioning was then ‘in its prime’ as Chinese devices had already begun to enter the market, drastically cutting prices.

– Once, an air conditioner cost 2000 German marks, and you worked for less than 300 marks – Vergilas recalls, and today, from an average salary of 1323 euros, one can buy two cheaper devices or one decent one. Moreover, the climate is changing, summers are getting hotter.

We ask the interlocutor if he is a collateral profiteer of climate change.

– Only partially. Climate change has certainly raised temperatures somewhere, but in some areas, it has brought more precipitation. Until the beginning of June, we worked in mud all of May, and here we still hadn’t turned on the air conditioning until the second half of June – Vergilas replies, but draws attention to another element: – It was once unthinkable for every house to have a refrigerator and freezer, and then it became normal. Once we had one television in the house, today there are almost in every room. The same was true for air conditioning: one for a hundred square meters, and that was enough in terms of capacity, but you couldn’t close the doors, so you had no comfort and discretion. It’s like putting a four-meter radiator in an apartment. Today, smaller radiators and lower power air conditioning units are placed in every room. So, it is a matter of comfort, but also of possibilities, as devices have become more affordable.

What is the main driver of the air conditioning business in this area, is it better to sell one most expensive device or more of the cheapest, and what does Vergilas’s ambitious five-year plan hide, read in the new issue of the printed and digital edition of Lider.

—

;

The article is available in printed
and digital edition of Lider

SUBSCRIBE

I AM ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER

—