Refrigerated vans firm reports strong annual results progress
Annual revenues and profits have shown strong progress at CoolKit, the Burnley-based temperature-controlled van manufacturer.
Results for the year ending June 2022, showed a 50% boost to sales, of £17.5m, while pre-tax profits of more than £1m represent a 233% improvement.
CoolKit converts light commercial vans into temperature-controlled vehicles and provides temperature management products and services for fleet operators within the foodservice, food testing and wholesaling, pharmaceutical, clinical and home delivery industries, where maintaining precise load temperatures is critical.
The company is pioneering new manufacturing methods and introducing new, more sustainable materials to optimise van productivity.
Founder and CEO, Rupert Gatty, says growth can be attributed to further penetration of the specialist markets that the company serves, as well as resurgence in demand for its products as customers recover from the pandemic.
He said: “Demand over the past 12 months was particularly strong for van conversions for fleet operators.
“We placed express focus on growing our larger fleet customers within key target markets, which has paid off in two significant pharmaceutical contract wins.
“Orders for our ready-converted vans also reached a record high, particularly from the foodservice industry.”
He added: “We anticipate that had it have not been for the global supply chain issues impacting the vehicle industry at large, that this would have been even higher.
“Departments within the company continued to exceed expectations. These include a team of mobile technicians which support van operators by providing service maintenance and repair of transport refrigeration, and the sale of the Melform range of transportable refrigerated containers, of which we have the UK & Ireland distribution rights.”
CoolKit has revamped its operations over the past year, including the creation of numerous additional roles, to ensure it can meet its ambitious growth goals.
This resulted in a doubling of production capacity from the existing facilities, strengthening its senior management team with a number of key appointments and focusing on the sustainability of its products and manufacturing processes.
Gatty says the business is well placed to continue to grow by continuing to innovate in its field and by exploiting the cross-selling opportunities presented by its product portfolio.
He added: “We expect our growth to continue whilst we focus intensely on our sustainability agenda.
“Tackling the challenges of the net zero carbon world by way of addressing our energy consumption, whilst evaluating the Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions arising from our value chain and their impact on our customers are priorities for us.”
