CDL's new facility along the M6
The new facility, located near the M6, includes a showroom, offices, workshop and conference centre, plus an additional 11,000ft2 of warehouse space, enabling CDL to increase equipment stocks and further enhance support for its rapidly growing customer base in the Midlands and South of England.
Alongside, the company's Warrington branch will become a dedicated air conditioning and heat pump training centre and equipment testing facility. The Toshiba, Carrier, CIAT and Fujitsu distributor has also taken on new sales, office support and warehouse staff to cater for continuing growth.
The new Holmes Chapel site has been equipped with a high efficiency Toshiba VRF system and heat exchangers, ensuring heating and cooling running costs and carbon emissions for the building are minimised.
Darrel Birkett, CDL's managing director, said: 'The new site gives us rapid access to the national road network to speed delivery times to customers. With four dedicated delivery vehicles based here, we can serve a wide area very efficiently.'
He added: 'It's also a great location for customers to visit our new showroom and conference centre, enabling us to host events in-house.'
The move is the latest milestone in a journey that has seen CDL develop from being a small NE regional air conditioning supplier in 2003 to a leading national distributor with a turnover of £28m, supporting customers across the UK.
It has recently expanded from its core area in VRF and split systems into larger applied equipment, such as chillers, air handling units and heat pumps, providing further impetus for growth.
Key to the company's success has been its customer-centric approach. 'From the start, our approach has been to be customer-led. This means listening to what contractors actually want, and not trying a force a solution on them that doesn't meet requirements, just because it's the easy option,' says Darrel Birkett.
An important part of this is CDL's technical training, designed to equip installers to complete projects and service equipment to the highest standards.
This Spring, the company took its training on the road to cater for demand, working in tandem with its highly regarded classroom-based courses. This is being extended in the near future to include applied products, to support the growing number of large-scale projects underway.
'The move to decarbonise heating and cooling across the national estate is gathering momentum. We see a bright future for those willing to embrace the changes and come up with creative and effective low-carbon solutions.
'We have an outstanding portfolio, and with recent acquisitions by key suppliers such as Carrier and related product expansion, our potential customer outreach has never been greater.”