Deal sees pumps business in Danish hands
SOUTH Yorkshire-based ECO Heat Pumps, which sells heat pumps into the commercial and domestic heat pump markets, has been bought by Danish group Danfoss.
The company is among the leading players in Great Britain within its area and in a few years has grown to 30 employees.
The acquisition of the Sheffield-based business that employs 30 people, is part of ambitious plans for Danfoss to be amongst Europe's leading players supplying heat pumps for household and commercial central heating systems.
The buyout, for an undisclosed sum, is Danfoss' sixth acquisition in the heat pumps market in less than three years.
Heat pumps are currently seeing huge growth in the UK market as an average household can save 50-70% of the heating bill by replacing traditional oil or gas burners.
“The potential is enormous, but competition is also tough,” said Nis Storgaard, president of the Danfoss Heating Division.
“We expect an annual market growth in Europe of approximately 30% in the years to come. It is essential to establish ourselves in the key markets, while the market is still emerging and this is the rationale behind the agreement with ECO Heat Pumps,” said Mr Storgaard.
Danfoss already supplies heat pumps to ECO Heat Pumps, which in the future will be re-branded as Danfoss Heat Pumps' sales organisation in the UK.
ECO Heat Pumps has recently expanded its business and relocated to Parkwood Business Park in Sheffield.
“The British heat pump market is still new and relatively small, but we expect that also here we will experience substantial growth in demands in the coming years. The agreement with ECO Heat Pumps helps us strengthen our opportunity to take a leading position and get our share of future market growth,” added Mr Storgaard.
ECO Heat Pumps' previous owner Phil Moore will continue as managing director of the company.
“We are very pleased that Danfoss wanted to take ownership of our business. We have expanded rapidly during the last years, and with Danfoss behind us, we are ready to accelerate even further”, said Mr Moore.
Danfoss is a family-owned company with 21,299 employees worldwide producing equipment for the heating, air conditioning, refrigeration and controls markets.
