Mick Ffrench decided to open his own business. He opened Mick Ffrench Pty Ltd from a 6m x 2m shed, at the back of Foster Warden in Barrier Street, Fyshwick.

Mick gets an opportunity to move to the front of the building in Barrier Street.

A big step forward. Mick moves the Mick Ffrench Pty Ltd to 29 Molonglo Mall, Fyshwick.

With the business expanding, Mick changes the sign on the front of the building to add Hitachi & ACC logos

In these photos you can see a time when Mick Ffrench pumped his own refrigerant into bottles, sold industrial gases & sold Hitachi air conditioners. You can see some familiar products and brands we still sell today - the office also looked a lot different!

This marks 30 years in the business, and still going strong.

During this time Mick started to carry a few more products & added a mezzanine floor over the stock shelves. He also began distributing MHI air conditioning.

Mick went into partnership with Brendon Scrimshaw. From here, they changed the name to Mick Ffrench Wholesalers, and updated the logo.

During the early days of the partnership, Brendon (along with his little helpers) spent a lot of spare time working in the shop, moving things around and always looking to add new products to the ever growing arsenal.

When Mick would go on an annual holiday, Brendon would seize the opportunity to find something to add or change in the warehouse, these yellow rack were installed to secure the refrigerant bottles and add additional storage.

After 38 years in business, Mick Ffrench hangs up the blue dust coat for the last time. Mick's retirement signals the end of an era - the end of the 4.30am starts and the prompt 4.30pm close. Mick Ffrench has changed the landscape of the Refrigeration industry. Here is Mick unloading our very first container of branded pair coil in his last year on the job.

MFW continues to grow, adding more people requires more work stations - the office expanded

As Canberra is growing, so is MFW. It was becoming obvious there was a need for another store to service the North of Canberra, so we set up shop in Mitchell.

Introduction of MFW's Duct Store and taking on a new lease at unit 6 Darling Street, supplying movement products including flexible duct, BTOs, outlets & everything required to install a full ducted gas, evaporative cooler & reverse cycle air conditioners

Over the years, the MFW showroom has changed a lot, and things are always improving. But this has been the biggest makeover to date, both physically and visually, and as the kids grow, they become ever more helpful with lending dad a hand around the place.

Another year passes and it's clear we needed to do more upgrades at the Fyshwick Storeroom to increase capacity within the store, we added an extra mezzanine to the warehouse and added additional shelving underneath. We found a lifetime of dust, and some hidden advertising gems along the way.

In just 4.5 years since MFW ventured out to Mitchell, we started to look for a new warehouse for the Mitchell operations. This building was perfect, now just to get the ball rolling.

With a lot of luck, we secured the new building at 5 Baillieu Court in Mitchell. This gave us the opportunity to have a drive through trade entrance to help customers with trailers and stay dry during the wet days.

What a time in history! We all have to play our part to protect all staff and customers. We ensured proper social distancing measures across both stores until the curve was flattened.

To turn this place into the full duct store and MFW warehouse we required, we had to do a lot of work. Plenty of paint and hard work went into getting the property ready for business.

With the signs up, stock in and drive through ready - MFW Mitchell is ready for business in it's new location. Lucky for us, we only had to move down the road!

Touie Smith, after 12 months in the role as General Manager at MFW, has gone into partnership with Brendon.

Brendon has taken a step back in the day to day running of the business but is keeping a keen eye on what’s happening and helping out (or giving advice) when required.

MFW customers can now use our web-store to see their account information, place orders, lookup prices and see where our stock is!


The MFW Catalogue Version 3 is huge improvement in quality and professionalism and a great asset to the business. A massive undertaking by all involved.

An opportunity to purchase and expand the Fyshwick location.

New racking, new flooring, new pergola – added storage space and delivery capability!