For the second time in less than two years, CoolKit has expanded its manufacturing facilities by a further 60 per cent.
This latest deal will allow us to secure new premises comprising of 25,000 square feet of industrial facility located on a highly secured site of 1.5 acres, in addition to our existing premises of 45,000 square feet on 2.5 acres. The newly acquired building is located close to the existing facility, creating the extra vehicle and production capacity required to effectively deal with the growing demand for our durable fridge van conversions.
CoolKit has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. In 2016, thanks to strategic market penetration tactics, we successfully introduced new contracts throughout the market sectors we specialise in. The relocation to new premises in January 2016 trebled our manufacturing operations to a 45,000 square feet area, creating one of the UK’s biggest panel van conversion facility. The relocation allowed us to host up to 30 fridge van conversions at any one time, meeting the high demand for our superior quality refrigerated vehicles. The growth continued a remarkable run of six consecutive years of year-on-year revenue growth of 40%.
With a dedicated sales team, fully-trained in the markets we operate in, we were able to offer excellent customer service standards and technical support throughout the enquiry process of our growing customer base. This enabled further penetration within the small fleet market segments, where the sale of both new and used converted fridge vans rose by 50% to 325 units.
With the new premises came a major employment boost in 2016, with the number of staff growing to 75 full time position. This resulted in a growth of 54% possible thanks to a recruitment pledge to the East Lancashire Chamber Of Commerce. Many of the new roles were created to deliver the company’s strategic focus on bringing new innovations to the industry, together with a strong focus on superior quality to maintain and grow the reputation as the industry-leaders for fridge van conversions in the UK.
2016 also saw an investment in new technologies, including a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining centre to bring more manufacturing in-house and improve the quality-assured promise to our customers. It allowed us to reduce the production time of a fridge van conversion by 75%, whilst increasing the quality and effectiveness of our conversions.
The new premises will allow us to increase our production capabilities to cater for the growing demands for our refrigerated panel van conversions, as well as the newly introduced refrigerated box body vehicles, launched this year at the CV Show. We will strategically work on increasing our market share in our established markets, whilst also actively seeking new opportunities and develop our product offering accordingly, always providing solutions and innovations to the refrigeration industry.
The planned increase in sales, will of course see another employment boost, creating more opportunities for the local community to be part of an exciting and forward-thinking manufacturing company. The extra capacity gained, will allow us to have a constant display of our fridge van demonstrators, for customers to come and inspect, whilst also visiting our operations and seeing their conversion being made.