In the financial year ending April 2020, the Group’s turnover reached €3.45 billion (£2.9 billion), a 2.2% increase on the previous year.

The growth has been attributed to strong demand in the residential market for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning solutions and incentivised green home renovations with heat pumps replacing traditional boilers. Sales of residential air conditioning units and heat pumps were up 9% and 13% on 2019 respectively.

Concerns over internal air quality in relation to COVID-19 also resulted in a strong increase in sales of air purifiers. The company expects further growth in both this area and in HVAC, as the focus on creating healthy indoor air quality in public spaces continues in the wake of the pandemic.

Angela McGinlay, managing director, Daikin Airconditioning UK, said: “These results reflect a year of hard work and agile working in the face of the most challenging times our business has ever faced.

“COVID lockdowns brought huge disruption to our commercial market, especially hotels and restaurants, retail and offices. But with this came a surge in demand from residential segments, and Daikin Europe and our large network of subsidiaries rose to the challenge.

“Thanks to our large local production base – 85% of sales in Europe are produced in Europe – we were able to shift production capacity and make sure supply could meet demand. Our network of commercial equipment installers was swiftly redeployed to residential installation work, creating more installation capacity than in normal years for the residential segment.

“Looking ahead, while the residential segment is expected to remain strong even after the Covid pandemic, Daikin will look to develop its strengths as a provider of total air solutions. Daikin Europe is going to become Daikin Industries’ global centre of expertise for low carbon heating solutions, with a big focus on heat pump technology.”