Derek Moore honoured at ACR News Awards

UK: Derek Moore of Sabroe was named winner of the Alan Moor Award at last night’s ACR News Awards in London.

Derek, who retires this year after a refrigeration career spanning 50 years, was a worthy winner on a night of awards to celebrate the achievements of the air conditioning and refrigeration industry.

Hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr, the awards night also saw Steve Gill pick up another trophy for his social media marketing campaign and Frigesco receive further acclaim for its flash defrost system in the Refrigeration Product of the Year category.

The popular Customer Service Award, decided by an online reader vote, this year went to Laurence Zeyen, the customer communicator at Emerson Climate Technologies in Belgium.

The hotly-contested Wholesaler/Distributor of the Year Award was won by Sunderland-based Toshiba distributor Cool Designs, with Toshiba itself amongst the awards picking up the Training Initiative trophy.

Traditionally the final award of the night, the Alan Moor Award is designed to honour the achievements of the industry’s unsung heroes. This year’s winner Derek Moore started his career in the refrigeration industry in 1965, first as an end-user with Sainsbury’s and, later, Baxters Butchers. During this time he gained an HND in mechanical and refrigeration engineering at Grimsby college. The next ten years were spent in refrigeration contracting, first with Prestcold working with commercial air-conditioning and a wide variety of commercial and light industrial refrigeration applications. This was followed by six years with Stal-Levin, first as a sales engineer and then as branch manager.

He joined Sabroe in 1984 to establish a UK product sales organisation. Aside from a 14 month sabbatical with Cryotech Systems, he continued his career with Sabroe, managing the sale and support of Sabroe’s industrial refrigeration products in the UK and Ireland, including the transition of the Sabroe brand through the acquisitions by York and then Johnson Controls.

A fellow of the Institute of Refrigeration, Derek has served on the Institute’s executive council and regularly attends main and regional meetings and events.

The full list of winners:

Air Conditioning Product of the Year – Advanced Engineering, Imperial Manifold

Consultant of the Year – Business Edge

Contractor of the Year – ColdControl Services

Environmental Initiative of the Year – Sainsbury’s Triple Zero Stores

Marketing Initiative of the Year – Stephen Gill Associates

Refrigeration Product of the Year – Frigesco low-energy flash defrost system

Training Initiative of the Year – Toshiba

Wholesaler/Distributor of the Year – Cool Designs Ltd

Customer service Award – Laurence Zeyen.

Alan Moor Award – Derek Moore