DAIKIN'S manufacturing site in Ostend will now become the r&d centre for all future European product developments following a €13m investment in technology and infrastructure.
Its recently opened European Development Centre (EDC) is expected to play an important role in the development of innovative, energy-efficient alternatives for conventional heating solutions.

The EDC includes a series of high-tech testing rooms. In one of these test chambers, the engineers can simulate all of the climatic conditions which may occur in any one of the 27 European countries.

Daikin expects to compile a European team of up to 200 specialists by the year 2015, recruiting a range of researchers and engineers to join the existing team in Ostend.

Daikin plans for the EDC to evolve in the future into an important European r&d centre, based in Ostend with satellites in the Czech Republic and Germany. The EDC will be given a high degree of autonomy to develop its own innovative designs and solutions specifically for the European market.

Chairman Frans Hoorelbeke said: 'Over the years, we have been increasingly responsive to the diverse needs of the European market. This has given us a significant competitive advantage. We see the EDC in line with this. It will enable us to develop products in the same environment where we produce and sell, and this also increasingly in the heating market. Products from Europe, for Europe.'