Evert’s Inspiration and Background
The two artworks displayed below, which hang in Evert Potgieter’s office, reflect the personal inspiration behind his entrepreneurial and innovation journey.
The sketch on the left, created by Keri Swift, was given to Evert by his father and hung in the family home for as long as he can remember. Evert grew up in Lambert’s Bay on South Africa’s West Coast, where his father managed the local fish factory. Fishing, the operation of the factory, and the management of fishing vessels were part of everyday conversation at home, and Evert developed a fascination with the fishing industry from an early age.
A family friend, Oom Piet Retief, who managed the nearby fish factory in Doringbaai, later inspired Evert to specialise in industrial refrigeration. After studying Mechanical Engineering, supported by Irvin & Johnson Trawling, Evert gained extensive hands-on experience servicing and maintaining refrigeration systems aboard deep-sea trawlers. This combination of engineering knowledge and practical experience laid the foundation for his later innovation in marine refrigeration.
One of the technologies identified during this journey was Flow-Ice. To the best of our knowledge, the first Flow-Ice system of its kind was installed aboard the wet-fish trawler Nerine in 1994. Over the following decades, the technology evolved through numerous design improvements and generations, establishing Everflo as a leader in Flow-Ice technology. The principles and experience developed through Flow-Ice would later also provide an important technological foundation for Everflo's move into industrial wastewater treatment.
The painting on the right, created by Lessing, was given to Evert’s parents as a wedding gift in 1966. It depicts a mining landscape with wastewater flowing through the surrounding environment. Many years later, the painting took on a new significance as Evert became increasingly focused on developing technologies to address industrial wastewater and hypersaline brine.
This vision ultimately contributed to the development of CryoDenz, Evert’s latest venture, focused on advanced freeze crystallisation technology for the treatment of challenging industrial wastewater and hypersaline solutions.
Innovation never stops. Everflo continues to innovate within its fields of expertise, developing the next generation of onboard refrigeration systems while applying decades of freeze-technology experience to new solutions for industrial wastewater treatment.
Together, these two artworks represent the two worlds that continue to shape Evert’s vision: the fishing industry that inspired Everflo, and the industrial water challenge that inspired CryoDenz.
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