Scala Scientific in the Volkskrant

In the Volkskrant today an article about Scala Scientific and their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Orgininal text has been translated;

Scala Scientific's ultra-freezers cannot be dragged around thanks to the Pfizer vaccine
It was a madhouse at Scala Scientific when Pfizer announced that its vaccine should be kept ice cold. The company's ultra-freezers cannot be dragged. "Our double-thickness order book is temporary."

There is no ilShin Biobase -86ºC freezer in stock anymore. The Scala Scientific warehouse in Ede is empty. All ultra-freezers have been sold now that the Netherlands has started the vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at this temperature. There is only one showroom model left in the office that must be towed together to the warehouse to at least let the photographer do his job. "On January 21, another hundred will arrive," says Michel Keijzer (37), director of the company in the industrial area of the Gelderland municipality. "But almost all of them have already been sold."

He founded the trading company together with Jordy van Hoesen (38) in 2009 as a wholesaler in specialized laboratory products. They had met at Den Hartog Scientific in Terschuur near Barneveld.

When they started their own business, the goal was to achieve stable growth and not go too fast. Because it required specialized personnel who knew about refrigeration and the operation of other laboratory equipment that is sold. And that went well in recent years. Ultra-freezers became the core business, accounting for 60 percent of the turnover. Every year, a few more were sold.

But in November everything changed. Keijzer still remembers the day Pfizer announced that it would be the first to market an approved vaccine for covid-19. "There was only one. The vaccine had to be stored at a temperature of at least -70 degrees Celsius. The ultra freezers guarantee a temperature of -86 degrees Celsius. Because the temperature always rises a few degrees when the door is opened due to the warm air, there is some reserve. "

Immediately the phone was ringing off the hook. Municipal health services and nursing homes wanted the equipment. RTL and NOS wanted to make reports at the company. It was a complete madhouse, while at the same time there was hardly anyone in the office or in the workshop, because the Scala Scientific staff also worked from home as much as possible.

The ultra-freezers that Scala Scientific sells are made by the Korean company ilShin. For that company, Scala is not only a distributor in the Netherlands, but also in various other countries in Europe. It's not just buying and selling the equipment. They are first unpacked and tested per container after arrival. Then they are installed at customers. And then Scala is also responsible for the service. "If a freezer breaks down in a hospital at three o'clock at night, we will immediately send a technician," says Keijzer.

And that is important. The purpose of ultra-freezers is to completely stop the aging process of products. "If you leave a glass of milk at room temperature for a day, it will be acidic because the molecules jump back and forth," he explains. "If you put the milk in the fridge at 3 to 5 degrees, you can keep it for a week and if you put it in a normal home, garden and kitchen freezer at 18 degrees below zero, it will keep for months. But if it is stored at 70 degrees below zero, the aging process will stop completely. The milk retains the same taste, the same odor and the same vitamins for years. "That may not be so important for milk - cows provide new supplies every day - but it is for the storage of human tissue or DNA. They are essential for microbiological research but also for IVF treatments. It is known that some men, who have the money for this, have their sperm frozen, so that in a thousand years' time they could conceive a child with their own DNA.

The technology of ultra-freezers is simple. A regular freezer has one cooling compressor - a black metal motor in the back of the appliance. An ultra freezer has two. The first ensures that the second can reach the low temperature. An advantage with the ilShin Biobase ultra freezers is that if one should fail, the second one is always on standby until the technician arrives. Customers are not only hospitals in the Netherlands, but also universities, biotech and pharmaceutical companies and the petrochemical industry. A standard ultra freezer, such as the Ilshin ilShin Biobase -86 degrees freezer with 600 liters of storage space costs about 13 thousand euros. There are also ultra freezers that can go down to -130 degrees. There is a price tag of 20 thousand euros. This is too high an investment for many GP practices. They are also energy guzzlers. In 24 hours they use between 8 and 12 kilowatt hours of electricity. For comparison: a normal freezer only needs half a kilowatt hour. Special safety featuresare also required for use. Anyone who wants to get something out of the closet needs special cryo gloves to prevent frostbite.

In total there are now about five thousand ultra-freezers in the Netherlands. About 350 are sold each year, with Scala Scientific having a 20 percent market share. There is stiff competition. In the world, the American company Thermo and the Japanese Sanyo are the largest, in the Netherlands there is competition from Snijders in Tilburg, which, among other things, supplied the ultra-freezers to the central storage of the Pfizer vaccine in Oss. ilShin is one of the top five producers. "The big advantage in this crisis was that Korea was the first country after China to be hit by corona. When the country went into a lockdown, the company could immediately start working on an extra stock, "says Keijzer.

In addition to ultra-freezers, Scala now also trades microbiological safety cabinets made by the Polish company Alpina. This so-called Biohazard Class II Biosafety Cabinet protects people who perform tests against the virus. In addition, storage space is also rented for products that are stored at ultra-low temperatures.

By the way, Keijzer does not immediately feel like one of the winners of the crisis. "We now have a double-sized order book. But it is clear that the extra sales are temporary. When everyone is vaccinated, the demand for the ultra-freezers and testing cabinets will immediately decline. And we also lose sales. Sales to universities have come to a standstill because they are empty due to the lockdown and hardly any equipment has been replaced.