Check out a copy of The Coolest Thing, a very cool read from cover to cover.

Any relative newcomer to the international frozen food business who wants to quickly learn about the major trends that moved and shaped the industry from 1962 until the turn of the last century can do so getting a copy of The Coolest Thing, a 109-page book compiled, largely written and edited by Leif Rynnel (ISBN 978-91-633-0864-2). Its focus is on the building of one of the strongest brands on the global frozen food scene today.

No, not Birds Eye, Findus or Nichirei. Rynnel tells the story of Frigoscandia, concentrating especially on its first 30 years of designing and selling industrial freezer systems. As the head of marketing at Frigoscandia Equipment for three decades, until retiring in 2002, he provides an insider's detailed view of the people who motivated the company, and the bright ideas that molded the successful enterprise.

From its formation by founder Tore Lauritzson as an independent technical department within the confines of the Helsingborg Fryshus harborside cold storage complex in Sweden, to its evolution into Frigoscandia Contracting in the late 1960s and subsequent renaming as Frigoscandia Equipment, to its acquisition by USA-headquartered FMC FoodTech Inc. in 1996, the company has continuously been on the cutting edge of food freezing science and technology.

Its impressive catalog of innovations extends from the 1962 introduction of the FLoFREEZE in-line IQF freezer system for small-size products such as peas and coldwater prawns, to the GYRoFREEZE spiral freezer in 1965, to patented ADVANTEC impingement technology in 1998, followed by Nautica impingement technology for at-sea freezing of fishery products in 1999.

Richly illustrated with vintage photographs of personnel and installations, plus drawings, charts and other graphics, the historical reference chronicles Frigoscandia's expansion from a regional Scandinavian cold storage and industrial freezing systems designer to an international player which by the mid-1980s had installed 2,000 freezers around the world.

"One day an astounding and incontrovertible fact suddenly became apparent," notes Rynnel in the book's preface. "Haft the global production of frozen food passes through freezers from Frigoscandia."

Quick Frozen Foods International, which was launched in 1959 and has covered Frigoscandia's progress from its very beginning, recognized that the company was going places at the outset. Ed Williams, the magazine's founder, as well as its first chief editor and publisher, filed a report which appeared in the October 1965 edition and has been reproduced in The Coolest Thing. It reads, in part:

"No company in Europe has been more progressive, both in the building of coldstores and in the installation of freezing equipment, than Frigoscandia ... Tore Lauritzson, founder of the complex, is one of Sweden's fastest growing industrialists, whose expansion it seems, never stops. He is ably assisted by Per-Oskar Persson, managing director of Frigoscandia ..."

Mr. Persson, a heat- and mass-transfer scientist by training, was in charge of the company's strategy and tactics in the marketplace and on the drawing board for 10 years before opting to become Technical Director for the entire Frigoscandia Group. That role allowed him to have greater input on overall development. In 1979 he returned as managing director on an interim basis for two years, prior to the hiring of Folke Plymouth for the position.

Thereafter Mr. Persson served as chairman of the board until reaching retirement age in 1989. Ever energetic, he continues to act as an advisor and consultant to Frigoscandia to this day, and recently started up a private health care company specializing in blood freezing.

In addition to profiling Frigoscandia's rise, which interestingly is graphically charted in an almost mirror-like progression of the increase in world frozen food consumption over four decades, the book is loaded with pearls of business wisdom and meaningful mantras from the company's founding fathers, as well as anecdotes from engineers and sales staff.

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Here are a few quotations from Chairman Persson:

* "If you don't have the passion, forget the vision."

* "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

* "An entrepreneur without a mean accountant won't survive, because he'll run out of money."

* "If you're short of hooks, go for big fish."

Per-Oscar Persson, affectionately referred to by his initials POP, was truly a man for every season eternally brimming with sharp intellectual reason during the heady days of Frigoscandia's forward march. Mways thinking about tomorrow and with no time to waste, he inspired several generations of the company's key players.

"The only problem with Per-Oskar was that if you ran into him for 10 minutes, you'd come away with enough work for two weeks," said Frigoscandian Stefan Goransson.

Perhaps some folks at FMC FoodTech are still working on POP's progressive projects.

Congratulations to Leif Rynnel, for skillfully capturing the essence of the pioneering spirit and thoroughly professional zeal of Frigoscandia and presenting it in such a readable, colorful and visually appealing format.--Reviewed by John M. Saulnier