Climate Center sees sales surge

UK: Climate Center, the UK’s largest supplier of cooling equipment, has reported surging demand for air conditioning and refrigeration.

Air conditioning sales for the year to date are reported to be up more than 16% on last year, while sales of refrigeration equipment are 6% higher, helping to offset the shock of the potential £2.6m loss as a result of WR Refrigeration’s administration.

Robert Franklin (right), national sales manager for refrigeration, said: “The warm summer provided an obvious boost in demand for cooling, but pleasingly this has continued into the cooler half of the year, with very strong demand across our product range.

“The seasonal peaks and troughs we expect in our business appear to be evening out, at least that is the current picture, probably as a result of a combination of increased involvement in large projects, an expanded product range and heightened sales activity on the ground.”

Air conditioning sales have shown particularly strong growth, reflecting recent investment by Climate Center in its technical support team, which is helping it win larger, high-value VRF projects.

George Derbyshire, who heads up Climate Center’s air conditioning business, said: “We have been working hard to build our technical support team, and the fruits of this are now coming through.

“Larger projects obviously require a high level of customer support due to the complexity of the design and sophistication of products involved. We have the experience and knowledge to deliver for customers in this area, and this is being reflected in new and repeat business.

He added: “This, combined with our specialist sales team, extensive branch network, and strong partnerships with great brands such as Daikin, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Carrier, is contributing to our success.”

Refrigeration has also performed strongly for Climate Center. It reports that sales of condensers are up by more than 20%, and its Custom Build operation, which designs and builds bespoke refrigeration equipment, reports a doubling in sales for the year to date.