Keun-ok Yoo Receives Presidential Commendation

Keun-ok Yoo, Chairman of Samyoung Machinery, was honored with a Presidential Commendation at the “2024 Machinery, Robotics, and Aerospace Industry Development Merit Awards (Machinery Sector)” in recognition of his contributions to the development of Korea’s refrigeration and cold-storage industry, which was once considered virtually undeveloped.

Chairman Yoo first entered the refrigeration and cold-storage industry in 1977 by establishing Samyoung Trading Company, a distributor of industrial refrigeration materials including refrigeration parts, compressors, and control components.

In 1987, the company signed a Korean agency agreement with global refrigeration compressor manufacturer BITZER, laying the foundation for both the company’s growth and the advancement of Korea’s refrigeration and cold-storage industry through the supply of high-efficiency and environmentally friendly refrigeration systems.

In addition to BITZER, the company strengthened and expanded its refrigeration business by signing agency agreements with LU-VE, an Italian specialist in unit coolers, in 1994, and FU SHENG, a Taiwanese HVAC screw compressor company, in 2003.

Furthermore, in September 2012, Samyoung signed a licensing agreement with the LU-VE Group of Italy for domestic assembly production. Through the transfer of advanced technologies, the company began directly manufacturing “LU-VE unit coolers (evaporators),” contributing to the development of domestic unit cooler design and production technologies.

In particular, in August 2015, Chairman Yoo expanded and relocated the company’s headquarters and manufacturing facilities to Hwaseong. The relocation included the expansion of R&D infrastructure and the establishment of advanced production lines to respond to changing global and domestic refrigeration and HVAC market trends, including environmental pollution reduction and energy-saving demands, while preparing for the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Today, Samyoung Machinery is recognized as a leading industrial and commercial refrigeration equipment company, manufacturing condensing units optimized for food processing, agricultural and fishery products, supermarkets, low-temperature refrigeration facilities, large logistics cold-storage warehouses, and HVAC applications, as well as unit coolers, screw chillers, and heat pumps.

Strengthening Global Competitiveness Through Quality Management

▲ Deokho Yoo (right), accepting the Presidential Commendation on behalf of Keun-ok Yoo.

Samyoung Machinery achieved its highest-ever performance in 2022, recording KRW 46.159 billion in sales and KRW 2.868 billion in operating profit. Compared to the previous year, sales increased by 18% while operating profit surged by 110%.

This represents a 70.4% increase compared to the company’s 2018 sales of KRW 27.084 billion.

The company’s rapid growth was driven by Chairman Keun-ok Yoo’s timely investments in response to the expansion of large-scale logistics warehouses, combined with strong quality management and aggressive sales strategies.

Through large-scale investments in facilities such as semi-automated production lines, Samyoung improved productivity while continuously strengthening quality management to enhance customer satisfaction.

The company also actively reflected employee opinions, concerns, and requests through both direct and indirect communication, improving workplace satisfaction. These efforts ultimately contributed to enhanced product quality and productivity, strengthening the company’s external competitiveness and driving further sales growth.

As production volume increased alongside rising sales, most of the company’s profits were reinvested into manufacturing equipment, automation facilities, and employee welfare infrastructure. In particular, facility investments over the past five years alone exceeded KRW 7 billion.

Development of Energy-Saving High-Efficiency Inverter Systems

In response to the global energy crisis and rising electricity costs, Samyoung is actively expanding the market for inverter-type refrigeration units equipped with BITZER’s highly energy-efficient VARIPACK inverter drive.

Since launching units equipped with the high-efficiency VARIPACK system module and CM-RC-01 IQ module, the company has received strong market response.

Although inverter units involve higher initial purchase costs, they are considered highly effective solutions for reducing long-term electricity expenses and carbon emissions, while also helping customers adapt to Korea’s increasing electricity rates.

Samyoung continues to carry out marketing activities to ensure the stable market adoption of BITZER inverter compressor units.

In addition, the company’s SY and KE series evaporators — designed using proprietary engineering technology and integrated fan motors from ebm-papst — have received positive market response due to significantly improved airflow reach, making them well suited for the growing scale of logistics warehouses.

The company is also responding to customer needs not only with medium- and large-scale units and unit coolers, but also with compact unit products offering high quality and reliable service.

Developing Carbon-Neutral Products for Future Growth

To address abnormal climate phenomena caused by global warming, the international community is striving to achieve carbon neutrality, while the Korean government is pursuing its “2050 Carbon Neutrality” strategy.

In line with these initiatives, Samyoung is actively developing refrigeration systems utilizing natural refrigerants such as CO₂, which have low Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and Global Warming Potential (GWP), as alternatives to conventional HFC refrigerants. The company is also building the necessary infrastructure for these next-generation systems.

Although various natural refrigerants exist — including ammonia, propane, and isobutane — CO₂ is attracting particular attention as an environmentally friendly, high-efficiency refrigerant because it is non-toxic and non-flammable.

CO₂ has an ODP of 0 and a GWP of 1, making it one of the most ideal refrigerants for achieving the government’s target of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

To prepare for the upcoming CO₂ market, Samyoung is focusing heavily on the localization of CO₂ products through close collaboration with BITZER.

In particular, the company is developing manufacturing technologies for CO₂ condensing units and CO₂ heat pumps through engineering design technologies, technical benchmarking, and the establishment of testing chambers based on natural refrigerant compressors.

To support these efforts, company employees participated in technical training programs covering CO₂ refrigerants and overall system technologies at the Schaufler Academy in Germany in December 2022.

The products currently under development by Samyoung utilize BITZER CO₂ compressors and inverter-based IQ modules in a booster system configuration, making them highly suitable as long-term alternatives to conventional Freon refrigerants and for the future refrigeration market.

Chairman Keun-ok Yoo stated:

“In addition to developing natural refrigerant-based units, we plan to actively contribute to the advancement and wider adoption of natural refrigerant technologies within Korea’s refrigeration and HVAC industry by operating educational programs on CO₂ transcritical refrigeration systems for customers, utilizing a test chamber designed for trial operation of BITZER’s sub-critical units.”

Contributing to Talent Development and Job Creation

Samyoung Machinery is also actively working to address the labor shortage in Korea’s refrigeration and cold-storage industry through professional workforce development.

Since 2017, the company has provided annual field-training programs for students preparing for employment in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Department at Chungnam Maritime High School, later recruiting them after graduation.

In recognition of these efforts to create employment opportunities for vocational high school students, Samyoung was selected as a “Dream Achievement Angel Company” by the Chungnam Office of Education.

As a result, the average age of Samyoung employees is relatively younger compared to many other companies in the industry.

Chairman Yoo commented:

“We actively share and embrace the ideas and diverse interests of younger generations to create an enjoyable working culture. This has resulted in faster decision-making and a more progressive approach in areas such as investment and sales.”

He further emphasized:

“I always keep in mind the goal of building a company that can last for 100 years. While corporate growth is important, it is only possible when the human rights and safety of employees growing alongside the company are prioritized above all else.”

He added:

“With employee happiness and customer trust at the center of our management philosophy, we are committed to continuously nurturing young talent and becoming a company where people truly want to work.”