The directors present the strategic report for the year ended 31 December 2023.
Frenger has held a top three position in the U.K. for radiant heating for many decades. During 1997 to 2003, Frenger Systems set to repositioning its self in the market from being known as a heating company to being known as a cooling company. Frenger pioneered with the supply of radiant chilled beam ceilings (this is a hybrid between a convective only passive chilled beam and a radiant chilled ceiling) for call centres across the country for the likes of British Telecom, Vodafone and British Gas Centrica to name but a few.
In 2003, Frenger introduced the chilled beam technology to Australia by supplying Bovis Lend Lease's new headquarter flagship building in Sydney ('The bond' 30 Hickson Street, Sydney). In 2007 Frenger was awarded a 7 million pound sterling order for a speculative office redevelopment of Marks & Spencer's old headquarters at 55 Baker Street for some 5000 MSCBs (in excess of 11 kilometres of MSCB units) to be supplied and installed by Frenger. In the UK for 2008 Frenger secured and took the lead on many Multi Service Chilled Beam projects with varying individual order values from half a million to 1.5 million pounds. Frenger has proven to become somewhat of a specialist in chilled beam solutions for Hospital and Healthcare applications and has continued to supply chilled beams to the 1.5 billion pound redevelopment of the Royal London and Barts Hospitals over a 10 year programme for the main contractor Skanska Construction.
In 2009, Frenger secured several million pounds worth of large Multi Service Chilled Beam projects including 111 New Cavendish Street London, Bidborough House London and Skipton Building Society. Frenger also continued to secure many other orders for chilled beam solutions, each ranging from 1 million to 3 million Australian dollars across Australia, including Multi Service Chilled Beam projects for 500 Collins Street, Melbourne and the CIT Building in Canberra. In 2010, Frenger secured a 2.5 million pound order to supply and install Multi Service Chilled beams to Birmingham City Council's office redevelopment by Wates Construction. Other projects included specialist NOMS test approved radiant panels for several large new prison buildings and Multi Service Chilled beams for schools, academies and universities, such as Frenger's supply and installation of Anglia Ruskin University at Cambridge. Frenger also secured a couple of Universities in the Middle East, KSAU Medical Health Science Uni in Riyadh and also KSAU University in Jeddah.
In 2011 Frenger continued to secure most of the UK's MSCB projects including 24 Britton Street, Dominos Pizza HQ, Cisco, 65 Southwark Street and 200 Grosvenor Hill to name but a few. Frenger has continued to supply most of Australia's office tower buildings, such as 700 Bourke Street, the National Australian Bank, City Central Tower 8 and Googl e 's HQ in Sydney to name but a few. Frenger continued to supply chilled beams to more University projects in the Middle East for Medical Science University Al Ahsa Saudi Arabia. Frenger also supplied chilled beam to New Zealand for the prestigious Sudima Hotel.
In 2012 Frenger continued to secure most of the UK's MSCB projects including Bankside, Wyre Forest, Grosvenor Hill, CISCO 300 Green Park and Stafford College to name but a few. Frenger also relocated a number of Technical Sales Engineers to reside in Australia to further build upon their already strong presence in the region since 2003 and bolster up their Sydney office. Frenger also supplied in excess of 3500 radiant passive chilled beams for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia at the Darling Harbour. Frenger also supplied chilled beams for the Enhanced Bio Bank Research Centre, Saudi Arabia.
During 2014 Frenger activities in the United States progressed well as did their success in other markets. The UK market picked up again and Frenger supplied many Multi Service Chilled Beam projects (fully UK in house manufactured by Frenger) for such buildings as MOD Whitehall, 240 Blackfriars, Great West House, Birmingham City University, Northbrook College and Anglia Ruskin University to name but a few.
In 2015, Frenger supplied their in house manufactured MSCB solutions to various market sectors in the UK such as Birmingham University, Sheffield University and Queens University Belfast and for speculative office refurbishments for Proctor House, 110 High Holborn and 20 East Bourne for Land Securities. Owner occupied building MSCB solutions for Sports Direct's new HQ and healthcare chilled beams for various hospital applications including Great Ormond Street, London.
Frenger also supplied their healthcare chilled beams for the Monash Children's Hospital in Australia amongst other Australian chilled beam projects, which included 123 Albert Street, Daramalan University. In 2016 Frenger's exports to Australia included Barangaroo C2, University of Wollongong, SAE Sydney and in New Zealand the University of Canterbury, University of Otago and King Hamad University Hospital - Bahrain.
In 2017 Frenger supplied multi million pound MSCB project solutions to Lambeth Civic Centre , 35 Portman Street , Barts Square , ASOS Watford HQ, Brunel University to name but a few. Frenger's exports included University of Washington DC , Chicago University, Sky Hills Library Santiago , 68 York Street - Sydney and Red Cross HQ Perth to name but a few.
In 2018 Frenger supplied multi million value of its MSBC units for the refurbishment of Ofcom’s 10 storey Head Offices at Riverside House London also MSCB units to NFUM Mutuals Head Quaters at Stratford , New Look HQ at Kings Cross London and 262 High Holborn Road London. Frenger also supplied another Phase of Great Ormond Street Hospital with Healthcare Chilled Beams and many schools, hospitals, leisure centres and prisons with its radiant panel solutions. Exports to Australia included the University of Melbourne, Google Building Sydney and Duruma House Barangaroo (Building C1)
In 2019 Frenger supplied Healthcare Chilled beams for a third Phase of Great Ormond Street Hospital and Multi Service Chilled Beams (MSCB’s) for a number of major projects such as Ashland’s Blue Light Hub , University of Bournemouth and Riverside House Salford commercial offices and MSCB’s for Haddington House multi story commercial office development in Ireland. Other Chilled Beam export projects included University of Illinois USA , John Medley University Austrailia and 183 Clarence Street commercial offices In Australia to name but a few and in addition to Frenger’s usual radiant heating solutions with and without integrated lighting.
In 2020, Frenger was like many other companies negatively affected for the vast majority of the year by the effects of the World Wide Pandemic COVID-19.
The UK Government imposed National Lockdowns as from 20th March 2020 which caused numerous projects within our operational sector (Schools, Prisons, Commercial Office blocks, Leisure Centres and Hotels) to be postponed which resulted in a reduction in need for production and as such a reduction in our revenue for the given year. Lockdowns in Australia, New Zealand , America and Canada have also delayed export projects that Frenger would ordinarily supply.
Frenger continued to operate throughout the Pandemic with skeleton staff and made use of the UK Government Furlough scheme and also continued to manufacture heating and cooling products for Hospitals projects already in their system and also for new COVID pop up emergency Hospital Centres amongst other HVAC projects.
Fortunately Frenger have a high level of retained profits from previous trading years and as such remains a financially strong company.
In 2021, this was similar to the previous year, the Covid-19 Pandemic continued to slow business operations due to Government Imposed lockdown restrictions. Also other countries similarly suffering from the Pandemic , causing a reduction in exports that Frenger would ordinarily supply.
Frenger did however use 2020 and 2021 wisely by further streamlining and increased automation of its operations.
In 2022 Frenger manufactured and supplied a number of landmark and high profile chilled beam and multi service chilled beam projects in the UK, such as Wimbledon Tennis Club, Dogger Bank, 20 Finsbury Circus, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for example. Frenger also exported their Chilled Beams to Mercedes College Australia, Ashburton Civic Centre New Zealand, North Delaware USA and also manufactured Eco Healthcare chilled beams for the Rehabilitation Centre Hospital in Jerusalem.
In 2023 Frenger manufactured and supplied a number of multi service chilled beam projects including a multi million pound order to Frenger for Aston Martin's new Formula One building and factory at Racing Point, Silverstone and Spirax Sarco’s new head quarters in Cheltenham. Frenger supplied healthcare chilled beams to the new Bournemouth Hospital and Newham Hospital, Radaint Passive chilled beams for Bloomberg’s London HQ. Frenger supplied its NOMS approved LTHW radiant panels to several prisons including HMP Birmingham and HMP Liverpool, its electric radiant heating solutions to John Lewis Stores and manufactured and supplied replacement LED lighting retro fit kits for the MSCB units previously supplied by Frenger over a decade ago to replace the T5 lamps for more energy efficient lighting solutions, the Harlequin building London for reference.
The main risks and uncertainties to Frenger are foreign currency exchange rates and duties applied by other countries on their imports. The weaker GBP is good for Frenger with regards to exporting UK manufactured goods, although some raw materials have increased in price as sourced from overseas and to mitigate this risk we have now duel source from UK. On balance the weaker GBP is good for Frenger not only on exports but also for the home ( UK) Market as the majority of Frenger's competitors are from Europe (non UK). A strong GBP could prove difficult for exports and increased competition on home market from European countries. Changes to legislation regards improvement to energy efficiency requirements for air conditioning of commercial (non domestic) buildings would be good for Frenger, although if no improvements planned this would not promote market growth for Chilled Beam technology. Hospitals, Prisons, Schools, Universities, Office Blocks etc. represents a considerable proportion of Frenger's core business applications and Government investment in these areas is an uncertainty.
For our exports to the US there is uncertainty in the extent of duty to be applied on imported goods manufactured from non US Steel and/or Aluminium, although for now the UK and Europe are exempt from increased tax.
Brexit slowed government building projects and blue chip client new buildings - many projects put back until certainty is restored.
The impacts of COVID-19 was the greatest risk to the business, although the UK Government supported into 2021 with the extension of the furlough scheme should help to reduce the impacts of the lock downs and the slowing of the commercial construction sector.
The management of Frenger made provisions in readiness for when the commercial construction sector starts to recover as Frenger would need to be able to increase production expediently and as such the improvements in automation of its bussiness processes has increased possible throughput without proportional extra manpower.
Developments and performance
In 1962 Frenger Troughton Young completed the world's largest water driven radiant "chilled ceiling" for Shell Oil consisting of 175,000 meters squared in two 27 storey tower blocks situated on the River Thames, London. In the late 1990s in the UK, Frenger repositioned themselves as a Chilled Beam supplier. The core business is now chilled beams for export and multi service chilled beams, (hereafter referred to as MSCBs) prominently in the UK market which include added value such as architectural metalwork and lighting solutions.
As previously stated in 2003, Frenger introduced the chilled beam technology to Australia by supplying Bovis Lend Lease's new headquarter flagship building in Sydney ('The bond' 30 Hickson Street, Sydney). This later became the first large scale 5 star rated commercial building in Australia and won many awards for energy efficiency and reductions in embodied carbon. Since then, Frenger has supplied chilled beams to many tower blocks in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide and was unrivalled in that market.
An independent survey undertaken by BSRIA (Building Services Research Association) in 2007 revealed Frenger to be the UK market leader for MSCBs and it was in this year Frenger was awarded a 7 million pound sterling order for a speculative office redevelopment of Marks & Spencer's old headquarters at 55 Baker Street, ordinarily most individual MSCB’s project orders to Frenger are between 1 and 2 million pounds, and are for building owner occupiers and governmental buildings.
Frenger also pioneered in 2008 to supply the first ever Multi Service Chilled Beam project to Australia. This was for 'Transport House', (this Australian equivalent of the UK's DVLA) for over 2 million Australian dollars, amongst other projects.
In 2013 Frenger invested circa a Million Pounds in new and additional plant, machinery, R&D and rolling out various different Patents to Europe, the Gulf Region, Australia and the United States of America. Amongst many other exports and UK projects, Frenger supplied its newly developed X-Wing radiant passive chilled beams to Christ College, New Zealand. Throughout 2013 Frenger commenced the setup of a distribution network for the United States and have continued to secure major projects in the UK, Australia and other exports. To give additional comfort to both customers and distributors all Frengers chilled beam product range has been independently performance tested and Certified by EuroVent and all products retested and re Certified annually.
During 2014 Frenger supplied multi million dollars of their UK in house manufactured radiant chilled beam product (X-Wing®) for projects in Australia including tower buildings such as 50 Flinders Street, 6-12 George Street to name but a few.
During 2015-2023 Frenger (trading as FTF Group Climate) in the United States of America have supplied chilled beams to Ocean City School - Atlanta, Skyline Hills library California, University of Washington DC , Chicago University and America's first MSCB project, the "Skywalk Building", Alaska. Frenger have operated a Quality Management System (QMS) in accordance with BS EN ISO 9001 for in excess of 20 years and more recently in accordance with the latest edition of the standard (9001:2015). this BS EN ISO 9001:2015 QM System contains amongst many protocols and check points a host of KPI's (key performance indicators) all of which are independently audited by the BSI (British Standards Institute) every 6 months.
Frenger had several patents granted that are utilised on their in house manufactured MSCB solutions to various market sectors in the UK such as Newcastle Civic Centre, National Film & TV Studios , National Automotive Innovation Centre, South Bucks Hospital , tower Building R7 at Kings Cross, the new Lambeth Civic Centre, London and 262 High Holborn Offices, London to name but a few. Frenger continues to design develop new HVAC product solutions to keep at the forefront on product solution performance , comfort and efficiency , whilst also increasing the companies HVAC product solutions portfolio.
For more information on the companies HVAC product portfolio visit www.frenger.co.uk or www.frenger.com.au or www.ftfgroup.us.
Frenger are a financially strong company, built upon decades of providing quality products and service that meet and exceeds customer expectations, hence a low level of customer complaints and a high level of customer satisfaction ratings.
Frenger want to maintain a strong balance sheet and a reasonable level of profitability, whilst still being competitive given the automation of processes , extremely customer focused. Customer satisfaction, on-time delivery, goods to function correctly etc are all KPI's which Frenger takes very seriously and monitors in real time. All Frenger goods carry a 12 month warranty as standard.
On behalf of the board
The directors have pleasure in presenting their report on the affairs of the company, together with the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.
The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
During 2023 the management of Frenger ensured high levels of customer satisfaction when serving production orders whilst in parallel continued with streamlining the company with further automation of the operations and improvements to future product solutions being offered /manufactured. New additional product lines in progress.
This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption.
Frenger Systems Limited is a private company limited by shares incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 14 Park Row, Nottingham, NG1 6GR.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is credited or charged to profit or loss.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors, are initially recognised at transaction price. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price.
Share capital issued by the company are recorded at the proceeds received, net of transaction costs. Dividends payable on share capital are recognised as liabilities once they are no longer at the discretion of the company.
The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:
Transactions in relation to loans from M Ainley during the year are aggregated in the table below:
The loan from M Ainley is interest free and repayable on demand.