Strategic facility expansion
If you want to scale, you have to know when to move, both figuratively and literally. PRO Refrigeration saw that moment clearly in 2013, when it hit physical capacity limits at its Auburn, Washington facility. Most companies hesitate there. They look for stopgaps. But CEO Jim VanderGiessen Jr. didn’t hesitate. He led the company through a nationwide site search, over 30 potential locations, and landed on a future-proof option: Mocksville, North Carolina.
By 2017, PRO had relocated to a 70,000-square-foot manufacturing center in Mocksville. That move more than doubled the space available from the prior East Coast location. It wasn’t just about size. The team equipped the facility with advanced tools, CNC press brakes, laser cutters, pipe-bending systems, overhead cranes. These aren’t bells and whistles. They’re precision assets designed to improve both speed and repeatability in production. In manufacturing, product quality and throughput matter just as much as innovation. This upgrade delivered both.
In 2021, the leadership made the next bold move. They shut down their original West Coast plant and centralized all production in North Carolina. Tough decision. But it simplified logistics, boosted efficiency, and positioned the company closer to many key customers. That’s how you control quality at scale.
Any business doubling or tripling operations without tightening systems is asking for trouble. PRO didn’t just expand, they engineered for consistency and long-term throughput. The decision to consolidate and modernize operations wasn’t just a cost move. It created stability, predictability, and a better product.
Local support helped, too. From day one, state leadership and the Davie County business community welcomed PRO into the fold. That matters more than it’s often credited. When government leaders like former Governor Pat McCrory and Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker show up to your grand opening, they’re signaling alignment and long-term partnership.
The result? A production hub built for what comes next, scaling smart, staying local, and keeping output high without compromising on quality or control. That’s strategic execution.
Development of a sustainable chilling system
Let’s talk about forward momentum. If you’re in a legacy industry like agriculture or food processing, you’re probably being pulled in two directions, scale production and hit sustainability targets. Hard balance to strike. PRO Refrigeration saw the gap and decided not to wait. In 2020, they launched the PROGreen CO₂ Chiller System, which solves both challenges in one system, and with precision.
The first problem they tackled was refrigerants. Traditional chilling systems rely on synthetic chemicals, high global warming potential, increasingly regulated, and expensive to manage long-term. PRO’s solution was straightforward: switch to CO₂, specifically refrigerant-grade R744. Natural, non-toxic, and dramatically lower in emissions. In fact, the system cuts carbon impact by more than 99%. Small change in material, huge impact operationally. And it advances a larger transition underway across the sector, moving from synthetic to natural refrigerants.
The second piece was energy recovery. Cooling systems generate waste heat, that’s just physics. Most systems discard it. PRO’s design captures that heat and redirects it to replace fossil-fuel-based water heating on farms. That creates a dual benefit: lower emissions and materially reduced energy costs. For operators of energy-intensive facilities like dairy farms, these gains change how overheads are managed.
Commercial tech that checks three mission-critical boxes: it meets buyer sustainability goals, protects against future emissions regulations, and lowers operational expenses. When you hit all three, adoption brings execution speed.
PRO understood the trend lines early. Global regulations are tightening around hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Markets are being incentivized, or forced, to switch. Innovators who build systems optimized for these post-chemical environments will own the next decade of food and beverage refrigeration. The PROGreen CO₂ Chiller isn’t a gimmick product. It’s a durable response to where the market is heading, and how fast it’s getting there.
Scaling production to meet rising demand
When you’re building real systems, hardware, machines, infrastructure, you can’t rely on optimism alone. You need capacity, precision, and readiness. PRO Refrigeration understood this clearly as demand for their PROGreen CO₂ Chiller began to surge. They didn’t wait to get overwhelmed—they got ahead of it.
The shift from chemical-based systems to natural refrigerants like CO₂ isn’t speculative. It’s already happening. Increasing regulation, environmental accountability, and rising customer expectations are accelerating the transition. PRO saw that trajectory and started expanding their internal production capabilities before bottlenecks could impact performance. That kind of alignment between product development, market awareness, and operations is what makes scale actually possible.
They’re adding two new production lines. That’s a move that tells you they’re not reacting, they’re planning for exponential volume. And they’re pairing that with a technician training program. That part is critical. You don’t just flip a switch and generate expertise. Industrial tech like this requires skilled hands and systems thinking. Training internally ensures quality, consistency, and speed.
The real signal here isn’t just scale, it’s vertical strength. When a company can design, manufacture, train talent, and deliver at scale inside one ecosystem, it cuts delays and keeps quality under tight control. And for a specialized industrial solution transitioning to market-wide demand, that tight control means holding your lead.
Looking at 2025, PRO plans to triple its output of the PROGreen systems compared to 2024. That projection isn’t based on hope, it’s built on current order flow, regulatory shifts, and a strategy designed for execution. That level of growth will pressure supply chains, workforce systems, and onboarding. But instead of waiting for constraints to appear, PRO is building structure before demand peaks.
The companies that win in transitions like this are the ones that build capacity before the curve hits. PRO’s leadership understands that. They’re investing precisely where it matters, expanding with intent, and preparing their team to meet the next phase of scaled, sustainable refrigeration demand without lag.
Using a family-oriented company culture
You want speed? Build trust first. At PRO Refrigeration, trust isn’t outsourced, it’s embedded in the structure. Jim VanderGiessen Jr., CEO and co-founder, didn’t just create a company with his father in 1990. He built a business that openly embraces family as a strength, not a liability. Six family members work in the organization today, including him. But it doesn’t stop there, employees bring in their own families too. Siblings, spouses, parents. That’s intentional.
This model drives internal cohesion. When team members know each other beyond the usual function titles, collaboration moves faster and frictions drop. The result? A group that rarely needs to be pushed, because alignment is already in place. You get consistency across teams, stronger long-term retention, and a workforce that’s personally invested in company outcomes.
But loyalty without performance is pointless. PRO’s leadership gets that. They don’t hire based on résumés filled with prior experience in refrigeration. They bring in motivated people and train them hands-on to build PRO Systems. This has two effects: it widens the talent pool beyond industry veterans, and it ensures that every technician is aligned with PRO’s exacting standards. Systems get built better, not just by the book, but according to the company’s own continuous learning process.
For executives, this approach straight-lines recruitment, increases institutional knowledge, and reduces the risk of performance drop due to high turnover or over-reliance on external specialists. It’s a high-trust model that accelerates operational maturity.
There’s also a long-term mindset behind these choices. PRO is not focused on short-term hiring fixes. They’re developing a workforce capable of scaling with the company over the next decade. Family alignment is at the core, but the competency-building method is what ensures sustainability and technical depth.
Jim VanderGiessen Jr. made it clear: growth comes from making bold moves, sometimes wrong ones, but always learning fast. This internal culture reflects that principle. It’s built to move forward, together, without waiting for perfect conditions.
Strategic community engagement and talent development
If you want to build for the long term, start with the people closest to the work. PRO Refrigeration understands this completely. They’re shaping the ecosystem that supports them. That starts with talent, and that’s where most companies fall short. PRO took a direct path: partner with local high schools and trade schools to create the skilled workforce they need, instead of relying on outside markets to fill gaps.
This is operational logic. By embedding with local education institutions, they ensure a steady supply of workers trained in the specific skills needed on the factory floor. Welding, machining, electrical assembly, these are technical tasks requiring execution precision. When you train people before they hit your facility, you don’t have to slow down to accommodate learning curves.
At the same time, PRO strengthened its position inside key customer markets. The company supports the North Carolina Wine Guild and North Carolina Brewers Guild, two major regional industry voices. They they handle logistics by collecting and storing these customers’ products from several events each year. That real-world support helps smaller producers scale quality output in highly regulated industries. And it earns loyalty.
This kind of strategic involvement does more than drive good press. It builds long-term trust with industry partners that often operate on reputation and referral over price competition. That trust translates into word-of-mouth growth and higher barriers to entry for competitors. It’s a low-cost, high-impact positioning move, executed consistently.
Senior leaders should note what this actually delivers. Talent development happens in your local pipeline. Market presence is built through operational relevance, not brand marketing. And competitive advantage increases when you make yourself indispensable across multiple parts of your supply chain and customer base.
PRO didn’t wait for a skilled workforce to materialize. They built it. They didn’t just sell refrigeration systems to niche industries. They partnered with them. That’s how a company grows and stays relevant.
Main highlights
- Strategic scaling requires bold facility decisions: Leaders should proactively expand and consolidate operations when existing capacity limits growth. PRO’s move to a fully equipped 70,000-square-foot manufacturing hub with advanced tools positioned them to control product quality and scale with precision.
- Sustainability is a competitive differentiator: Replacing chemical refrigerants with natural CO₂ (R744) and integrating heat recovery positions companies to meet environmental goals while lowering operational costs. Executives should invest in tech that reduces emissions and increases long-term regulatory resilience.
- Operational readiness must match market demand: PRO is tripling production capacity and launching technician training to meet accelerating demand for sustainable systems. Strategic leaders should scale infrastructure and workforce capabilities in parallel to avoid missed growth opportunities.
- Culture-driven hiring accelerates performance: By focusing on internal talent development and fostering a strong family-oriented culture, PRO boosts retention and operational alignment. Business leaders should prioritize trust-based hiring and in-house skill-building to sustain agility and output quality.
- Embedded community engagement builds resilience: Partnering with local schools and industry groups helps PRO secure talent pipelines and deepen ties with customer ecosystems. Executives should align workforce development and market involvement to strengthen long-term competitive positioning.
