Burnley-based company CoolKit smashes annual sales record in 2022 by almost 60%

CoolKit, the UK’s largest specialist in temperature-controlled light commercial vehicles, sold an unprecedented 305 converted vehicles – topping both the previous year’s 211 and 2019’s record of 273. In 2021, sales achieved £12.5m. and in 2019, £12.6.

Shrewd forward-planning during the Covid-19 pandemic and global supply chain shortages saw CoolKit committed to stocking nearly 600 new vans, including models from Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Maxus, Mercedes-Benz, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.

The strategy enabled the company to immediately meet the increase in demand from its core customer bases as they emerged from the pandemic.

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.

Rupert Gatty, CoolKit’s chief executive, said: “Our markets saw a huge resurgence in activity post-Covid, especially within the food service 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.”

He added: “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.”

While other converters also saw increased growth, CoolKit achieved a healthy increase in market share.

A new executive team and upskilling of the workforce also helped strengthen corporate fleet sales, pharmaceutical fleet sales and box body sales.

Gatty also highlighted the fact that 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.

He said: “Customers buying from us also benefit from working with a supplier whose standards will support their own sustainability goals.”