Frostline started in 2014 with one technician, one van, and a garage on Halton Road that doubled as the workshop. Twelve years on, we run a small team of five technicians, two service vans, and a workshop the size of a small restaurant. We do one thing — cold appliances — and we have done it long enough that most call-outs are recognisable in the first thirty seconds.
Ana Marin leaves a salaried position at a national appliance chain and rents a single garage off Halton Road. One van, one tool box, one phone number printed on a magnetic sign. The first month: nine call-outs. The second month: thirty-one.
The workshop hires its first employee — Mateo Veres — and adds the second van. The 90-day warranty goes on every job, both parts and labour. We have not changed that since. It is the single most repeated line in every quote we hand to a customer.
The workshop crosses one thousand customer call-outs in a single year for the first time. We move into Unit 3 on Halton Road, the current workshop, with a proper bench for the workshop-side jobs. The bench changes everything for compressor swaps — what used to take a full day on a kitchen floor now takes four hours done properly.
Commercial contracts come on board after three restaurants in the same neighbourhood quietly recommend us to each other. The first 24/7 emergency line goes live for service-contract customers — staffed on rotation by Ana, Mateo, Ines, and Lukas. The line gets used about twice a month.
Five technicians, two vans, one workshop. 2,400 call-outs in 2025, of which 94% were fixed on the first visit. The original 2014 van is parked behind Unit 3 — Mateo bought it off the company for a dollar in 2023 and is slowly restoring it. The current vans are 2021 and 2024.
Everyone on the team works from the same workshop. When you ring the desk, the voice answering has probably been under one of these fridges in the last week. There is no offshore answering service. There is one desk and a small team.
Started the workshop in 2014. Knows every model in the catalogue by the sound of its compressor. Has personally serviced about 8,000 of the fridges we have on file. Picks up the phone Monday mornings.
Joined as employee #1 in 2016. Holds the refrigerant handling licence, runs the workshop bench. The reason 12-hour cycle tests are standard on every workshop swap. Lives behind Unit 3, weirdly.
Came over from a domestic appliance design house in 2021. Runs the PCB and controls side, handles all the Sub-Zero and Liebherr built-in work. Can read a board schematic faster than most people can read a menu.