Burnley, UK: Refrigerated van converter CoolKit reports its first quarter sales up 75%.
In March CoolKit took orders for 50 vans at a time when official figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that, overall, UK van registrations fell 27.6% in Q1.
Rupert Gatty, chief executive, CoolKit, said: “Our markets are seeing a huge resurgence in activity post-Covid, especially within the foodservice industry, which was effectively closed by the pandemic.”
“Ongoing environmental concerns and the increase in the home delivery of goods have also contributed to the rapid and sustained growth for LCVs.
“Our value proposition is, of course, exciting our customers too. CoolKit is pioneering new methods and materials to optimise refrigerated van productivity – real innovation which is being welcomed by customers across our core markets.
“Customers buying from us also benefit from working with a firm with more environmental and quality credentials than any competitor. This includes a commitment to ISO14001:2015 for a tenth successive year, and a credible plan for carbon footprint reduction in place.”
To meet demand from core customers, CoolKit is stocking more than 500 new vans, including models from Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Maxus, Mercedes-Benz, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen. This range will appeal to every kind of operator and help to combat current stock shortages.
Gatty predicts that sales of the stock vans will exceed £15m for CoolKit in 2022. “Such is the shortage of new stock in the industry, CoolKit has found that it is often receiving enquiries from intermediaries in the supply chain for the first time, from rental and contract hire companies, for example, and brokerages too. All of these businesses are increasingly trying to secure more van stock, which is being hampered the longer the supply chain is constrained.
“There is no sign of constrained supply ending anytime soon. In fact, in some respects, things are getting worse with world events restricting the supply of wiring looms, compounding the problems of shortages of semiconductors and many other components,” Gatty said.
“And, the price of raw materials – especially metals – and logistics, are going up too. So, the message to temperature-controlled fleet operators is that they must place orders now if they are looking forward to securing new vans in the next 12 months.”
