Modine is Hot

At Modine, the heat is always on — and the men and women of Modine work hard to keep it that way. Whether at its headquarters in Racine, WI, where engineers develop new products, at its two manufacturing facilities in Virginia and Rhode Island, where they build heating units, or at distributors' counters where Modine salespeople work closely with distributors and end users, Modine is committed to heating.

“Modine is focused on the heat transfer market. We're very focused on taking heat from one place and putting it in another,” says Matt McBurney, Modine's director of commercial products for North America. “We've never deviated from that. That's the core of Modine, and we don't have too many ancillary products that are not involved in the core business of heat transfer.”

Modine prides itself on innovation — developing new products that can meet the needs of customers and improving on its existing products. The company, founded in 1916, traces this spirit of innovation to its founder, Arthur B. Modine, who patented the Spirex radiator for tractors, a revolutionary design that used copper spiral fins to create a whirling action of incoming air against the side of the tubes, creating greater heat transfer. Although the company began as a manufacturer of automotive radiators, Arthur Modine's innovation led him to indoor heating: He arrived at his Racine radiator factory one cold winter morning to find that the pipe coils had frozen. So he connected a radiator to one of the plant's hot water pipes, put a fan behind the radiator and circulated the heated air around the plant. The unit heater was born, and Modine's storied history in heating systems began. From that one patent for the unit heater have come more than 2,000 additional patents, a testament to Modine's leadership in the industry.

Modine expanded into air conditioning products with its 2005 purchase of Airedale, which is based in the United Kingdom and marketed directly to specifiers. By contrast, Modine-branded products go through the wholesale distribution channel, and they gear specifically to the commercial market, including factories, warehouses and big-box/retail, as well as garages and workshops. Modine's engineered HVACR systems for buildings is known as its Commercial Products Group (CPG), and it is one of the divisions that makes up this worldwide company that recorded $1.4 billion in revenues in fiscal 2009. Other markets include light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, off-highway and industrial equipment, refrigeration systems and fuel cells.

Matt McBurney, director of commercial products North America, and Richard Boothman, sales director commercial products North America, showcase the Effinity⁹³ high-efficiency condensing unit heater at Modine’s heating laboratory in Racine, WI.

With more than 90 years in the industry, Modine is a well-known brand in the HVACR industry. “It's a strong name with very good products made in the U.S.A. that we support through top-shelf distribution,” says Richard Boothman, Modine's North American sales director for commercial products. Certainly providing quality products helps to keep that brand recognition strong, but Modine has also increased its market share over the past year by making it easier for its distributors and their customers to get the products that they want when they want them.

“Modine has some of the best lead times in the industry,” McBurney explains. “We stock nearly 200 SKUs at all times from our warehouse in Virginia, and it takes us only a day or two to ship these products to our distributors' warehouses. We also tend to have lower stocking requirements for them. Realizing that inventory is money, we try to share that burden with our stocking distributors.” Its manufacturing facility in Virginia produces its gas-fired products, while the Rhode Island facility produces its other products. Development, design and testing are performed at its Racine headquarters.

Modine is also very active in new product development, Boothman says, adding new products and capacities to its existing lines in recent years. Greater breadth and depth of products give its customers more of what they need, but they also help distributors to get what they need from just one manufacturer — and that helps them control costs.