Specialist air conditioning supplier Cool Designs is celebrating 10 years as a Toshiba distributor and has announced ambitious expansion plans.
Following recent expansion the company now operates from four offices: Sunderland serving the North East, Warrington serving the North West, Glasgow serving Scotland and, the most recent addition, Cannock which serves the Midlands.

Established by managing director Darrel Birkett, CDL puts particular emphasis on training engineers and operates two fully-equipped training centres catering for all types of Toshiba equipment.

With combined capacity to train up to 400 engineers each year, it is one of the biggest providers of technical training in Toshiba technology in the UK. It also operates a highly successful and growing video tutorial library via You Tube, available with open-access for engineers.

CDL was the first distributor to adopt a policy of only supplying air conditioning equipment to REFCOM-registered or F-Gas-certified companies, to ensure compliance with refrigerant handling and environmental legislation.

It also claims to be the first supplier to become carbon neutral, following a detailed audit and action plan covering its entire business operations. As part of its carbon offset plan, the company purchased land near Stoke-on-Trent and planted some 1100 trees to deliver on its zero carbon emission commitment, verified by internationally recognised organisation The CarbonNeutral Company.

Future plans include the creation of a third training centre in Glasgow, to meet the needs of customers North of the border and the roll out this year of Toshiba's expanded training programme covering the fundamentals of air conditioning, design, installation and commissioning.

In addition, CDL is aiming to grow its business geographically by building on opportunities opened up with contractors and consultants following the establishment of its newest branch in the Midlands.

It will be taking on additional staff to help support expansion, including the appointment of an additional project engineer. There are also plans to expand its recently launched website, to further improve the provision of technical and product information to customers.

Darrel Birkett, managing director, says: 'It has always been our intention to grow responsibly. This means delivering on our commitments on training and the environment and ensuring, as far as possible, that we only supply bona fide installers who will do a good job and act responsibly. Our emphasis on training is designed to achieve the same thing, by ensuring installations are carried out to the highest standards.'