Burnley, UK: Refrigerated van converter CoolKit reports orders in 2022 of £20.1m, 60% up on the previous year. Orders for 305 vehicles in 2022 topped the previous year’s 211.
Rupert Gatty, chief executive, CoolKit (pictured above) said: “Our markets saw a huge resurgence in activity post-Covid especially within the foodservice and hospitality industries which were effectively closed by the pandemic.
“Although we have been impacted by the global supply chain challenges, we took a calculated risk in stocking more than 500 new vans to combat stock shortages. We were able to utilise relationships with suppliers to ensure we could obtain stock. This risk paid off, and we’re celebrating a year of record orders.”
Such was the shortage of new stock in the industry that CoolKit found it was often receiving enquiries from intermediaries in the supply chain for the first time, for example, from rental and contract hire companies as well as brokerages, he said.
“Our value proposition is also exciting to our customers. CoolKit is pioneering new methods and materials to optimise refrigerated van capacity and productivity and increasing our conversion of electric vehicles as our customers start to make the transition to NetZero,” Gatty said.
CoolKit boosted its market share. A new executive team helped strengthen corporate fleet sales, pharmaceutical fleet sales and box body sales.
Gatty said CoolKit’s commitment to ISO14001:2015 for the tenth successive year and having a credible plan for carbon footprint reduction in place was another winning factor.
“Customers buying from us also benefit from working with a supplier whose standards will support their own sustainability goals.”
