We maintain what we sell.
We service what we rent.
We don't just sell containers. We look after what we sell.
Our Story
Started in Durban. Built for South Africa.
AquaCat Containers started in Ballito in 2015. Greg Payne has been in refrigeration for over 35 years, most of that with Reefer containers. Years at Container Leasing Africa in Durban. Reefer Solutions before AquaCat. Different names, same work: sourcing, converting, leasing and maintaining Reefer containers for businesses that can't afford cold chain failure.
Many of our units start life at sea — international shipping containers, built to survive ocean crossings. When they come off shipping duty we inspect and service them for on-shore cold storage use. Same Carrier or Thermo King engineering, now working in a fixed location with a maintenance programme behind it.
Our domestic lease fleet is in excess of 200 units in 6m and 12m sizes and multiples thereof. We supply neighbouring countries — Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia — and have even supplied into Malawi and Tanzania. Every rental unit comes with a maintenance programme. Certified Reefer technicians on all makes of refrigerated containers.
The AquaCat Difference
Why businesses stay with us
Fleet Operator, Not a Trader
We maintain 200+ units daily. When you call for a breakdown, we already know the model, the common faults, and we're carrying the parts. Try getting that from someone who bought a shipping lot and marked it up.
Maintenance Built In
Our SLV2 and SLV3 plans include planned servicing and emergency cover. Your cold chain becomes a solved problem instead of your biggest operational vulnerability.
No Lock-In Flexibility
Month-to-month rental. Scale up for citrus season, a construction project, or a new contract. Scale back down when you're done. The unit gets collected.
35+ Years of Refrigeration Engineering
This isn't our first cold room. Our team brings decades of reefer-specific experience -- not general HVAC contractors figuring it out on the job.
Our Customers
Trusted by industry leaders
Netcare, Life Healthcare, and National Renal Care -- organisations where cold chain failure isn't a financial inconvenience, it's a patient safety issue -- trust AquaCat maintenance for their pharmaceutical storage.
WBHO, Profica, Trencon -- construction firms who need units that perform on site, every time. They don't buy from us because we're the cheapest. They buy because the unit works when it arrives and keeps working.
From Lancet Labs' specimen storage to Roots Butchery's processing cold rooms -- our solutions are designed around real operational workflows.
Looking Ahead
What's next
Cold storage is our foundation — but cold chain infrastructure gaps don't stop at Beit Bridge. We've sold units into Zambia, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, the DRC, Tanzania, and Malawi, taking the same engineering discipline that works in KZN into markets where the nearest refrigeration technician might be hours away.
The same containerised, maintainable approach that makes us good at reefer containers — precision temperature control, rapid deployment, proper servicing — applies to other infrastructure challenges too. We're exploring modular data centre solutions for edge computing and distributed IT. Same philosophy: deploy fast, maintain properly, and ja, actually pitch up when something goes wrong.
Let's talk about your cold storage.
Tell us what you need -- size, temperature, timeline. We'll give you a straight answer, not a 15-page proposal.