Grow bigger. Stay special.

Acquiring local champions is the key to Nordic Climate Group’s enviable growth over the past four years. A deep and enduring respect for the entrepreneurs who built those champions has been essential to winning their trust and building strong relationships that fuel further expansion.

Nordic Climate Group is all about keeping the temperature right while simultaneously lowering the emissions of its clients. They are one of the crucial business services operating behind the scenes in our daily lives, ensuring that the food in our grocery stores is kept at the ideal temperature, making sure no food goes to waste. The same goes for all industries they support, from offices to ice hockey stadiums. There is always a need to cool or heat. As a growing leader in the Nordics and Europe, Nordic Climate Group offers energy-efficient climate solutions for heating and cooling, providing full-service offerings from planning and installation to maintenance and service.

Since 2021, the company has grown to include more than 100 local branches and 2,000 employees across Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and, most recently, the United Kingdom.

Impressive growth in a dynamic market

Sustainability is a strong growth driver in the European heating and cooling sector, as most companies’ largest emissions come from their buildings. Rising energy costs and tougher EU regulations are also increasing demand for new technology. In stark contrast to much of the competition, Nordic Climate Group has succeeded in maintaining strong profitability and ~8-9% organic growth annually. Fredrik Gren, the company’s CEO, credits these achievements to the company’s focus on acquiring local champions that year after year continue to take market share, combined with growing customer demand for support in reducing their emissions and costs via more efficient energy use. “The regulatory shift towards natural refrigerants pushes the group’s customers to invest in modern solutions, but it also helps our expansion into Europe as the Nordic companies are leading the way in that transition”.

 

How do Fredrik and his team find them? Before entering a new country, Nordic Climate Group meets with dozens of potential acquisition targets selecting those with the best reputation, financial performance and entrepreneurial drive. Fredrik stresses the importance of quickly establishing a large enough group of companies in each market to achieve good geographic and customer-segment coverage. Early revenue synergies ensure that the entrepreneurs quickly experience the benefits of being part of the group. “For us, growth isn’t just about adding companies – it’s about preserving what makes them special while growing stronger together,” he adds. “We’re committed to adding real value to each company that joins Nordic Climate Group.”

The strategy is working, since its founding, Nordic Climate Group has entered a new market every nine months and is now #1 in all the Nordic countries, #2 in the Netherlands, and off to a promising start in the UK.

 

Decentralized but close

When asked to describe the operating model, Fredrik emphasizes the importance of a servant leadership and supporting where necessary. “My job is to listen and ensure they have what they need to become even more successful” He continues “As a group, we add stability and collaboration benefits, since the larger network is never further than a phone call away,” he says. Local entities maintain their independence, and brand while gaining access to business tools and supportive peer network, resource sharing and collaboration to win new customers. The collaboration starts immediately as the companies see significant benefits. In recently entered markets like Denmark and Netherlands all companies have been involved in collaboration already in their first year in the group. And the estimated added benefits amounts to over 5% incremental organic sales growth in the first half of 2025. The company also reports benefits from procurement as they can pool significant purchases and share learnings in a wide range of other areas.

In internal surveys, the entrepreneurs confirm that joining Nordic Climate Group has allowed them to keep what makes them special while gaining scale advantages. “In the yearly surveys we’ve conducted since the start of Nordic Climate Group, we ask whether the local CEOs would recommend joining the Group to a fellow entrepreneur and we have had scores of 9.5-9.8 on a scale of one to ten,” Fredrik explains. “It feels reassuring that we can tell potential new entrepreneurs thinking about joining Nordic Climate Group that they are free to reach out to any of the current companies to verify the attractiveness of our operating model.”

 

A broader European rollout on the horizon

After establishing a strong position in the Nordics as the home of experts in sustainable cooling and heating and quickly building a solid base in the Netherlands with 13 companies to date. The next major move is into the UK – a market that is three times larger than the Nordic countries combined.

“We weren’t certain if the Nordic culture and ‘decentralized but close’ model would appeal to the UK market, but they have embraced us wholeheartedly,” Fredrik says. “We will soon welcome a handful of local champions within cooling and heating in the UK, and we see large potential for continued expansion in the market.”

In parallel with the ongoing rollout in the UK, Fredrik and his team are also planning their next moves on the continent. “The underlying growth drivers are strong all across Europe – the need for energy efficiency, the shift to modern climate-friendly solutions and regulatory requirements banning older technology,” he enthuses. “With that in mind, we’re planning a broader European rollout in the coming years and aim to be in more than 12 countries by 2030.”