He was brought up in the greenhouse industry and it was during the 1970s that he was an electronics whizz at school and he first started getting requests for ways to produce greenhouse data readouts, digital controls and temperature alarms.By the 1980s, Labbate had incorporated his early systems into Commodore 32 and Commodore 64 computers, machines that many people of a certain age will remember as an 80s’ games console; and Labbate admits that at the time, “A lot of these growers thought we were crazy that these boxes could control temperature or irrigation in the greenhouse; they just didn’t believe it back then.”
In 1984 when Dutch firm Priva wanted to break into the North American Market, Priva’s founder, Jan Prins, approached Eric to market their systems in Canada. For the next ten years, Climate Control Systems installed more than 100 greenhouse computer systems in Leamington area alone, and it was only when he was restricted from selling into the US market directly, that the two firms parted company (on good terms), and Labbate and his team started their own development.
Since then, Climate Control Systems have gone from strength to strength. “We have a climate computer system, a fertilizer injector system that’s patented in Canada and the US - what is called a single element control feed system where we can control each individual elements independently going into the irrigation water.
“It’s not like an A&B tank system when you pump from a batch into your irrigation line, we actually control the ppm levels of each nutrient going into the line; that’s what’s so unique about it,” says Eric.
While their injector system can be self contained, Eric is keen to emphasise it can also be triggered by any other competitors computer, and “right now our product is being sold in about 18 different countries. We just sent four systems to Nigeria in January, and two more were sent to Qatar,” he says.
Labbate is happy to acknowledge they are not trying to emulate Priva’s growth. “Most of our projects go from about 2 hectares to 10 hectares, although the biggest one we’ve done is about 20 acres and mainly concentrating on vegetable crops, lettuce, tomato, pepper, cucumber and cut flowers.”
The company’s website is the source of many of their leads, and Eric says they are often approached by dealers in different countries involved with new projects, but perhaps where Climate Control Systems really stands out from other greenhouse technology firms, is their desire to remain small and exclusive, and really focused on customer satisfaction.
So after all these years in the business, what is he most proud of?
“I am proud of one thing,” he says. “You don’t measure it in dollars and cents, you measure it in a way that your products are helping people and growers all over the world to achieve their livelihoods goals.
“And if you master this technology it will change the way you grow, and how much production you will get. This technology is changing people’s lives,” he concludes.
For more information:
Climate Control Systems Inc.
Eric Labbate
Tel +1 519 322 2515
www.climatecontrol.com
climate@mnsi.net