Hitachi Air Conditioning Europe SAS has appointed two new area sales managers to cover Scotland and the North East, as part of growth plans for 2015.

John Hackett (pictured) will be based in West Scotland and will cover the whole Scottish region. He has enjoyed a long career in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. Starting as an apprentice at the age of 16, he progressed through a variety of roles from service and installation, sales engineering and project management through to business development and sales.

Meanwhile, Stephen Humble takes over the North East region from Steve Robinson (now UK Business Development Manager). Like John, Stephen has a technical background having worked previously as HVAC installation and service engineer and, most recently, HVAC commissioning engineer with SJA Air Conditioning and Refrigeration in Newcastle.