16 October 2020
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Leeds-based Airedale International, the UK’s leading air conditioning solutions provider, has announced its largest ever single order in its 46 year history as it continues to excel in the global data centre cooling space and bucks the trend of the pandemic.
The order, which was confirmed during lockdown, is for a Frankfurt based colocation data centre and is worth approximately £10m. It is further evidence of the continuing success of this UK business during what is widely regarded as one of the most difficult trading periods the world has endured for a very long time.
Airedale International, which established its dedicated European data centre solutions team just over a year ago with Jonas Caino at the helm, is already reaping the fruits of this investment, with last year’s announcement of their contract with US based data centre provider Cyrus One. This latest contract in Germany establishes Airedale as a true international superpower in the data centre cooling space . Having seen turnover soar by more than 20% in the last financial year, and with a strong forecast for the year ahead despite the pandemic, Airedale is now taking the next step and looking to replicate this success in the US market, home of Airedale’s parent company Modine.
The next 6 months will see the establishment of Airedale’s US data centre solutions team, trading under the “Airedale by Modine” brand. Utilising Modine’s extensive US manufacturing footprint and thermal management experience, coupled with Airedale’s deep knowledge of the data centre sector, the team will be headed up by Business Development Director Stuart Kay. To support them, an engineering development team was appointed at Airedale’s headquarters in Leeds earlier in the year who have been developing bespoke data centre cooling products for the American marketplace.
Managing Director, Tony Cole, explains: “Whilst undoubtedly one of the most challenging trading periods our country has seen for a very long time, the last 12 months has seen a sustained period of growth for Airedale International. Whilst the pandemic continues to throw up obstacles – and ones which we take very seriously - we have been able to continue to deliver the pioneering and innovative products we are known and trusted for. Our commitment to the development of cooling solutions that deliver best-in-class efficiencies, whilst sticking to our principles of building equipment that performs reliably in the toughest settings, has seen old customers return to us, and new customers come to us through recommendation, during these testing times”.
Tony added, “We have worked hard to attract interest from both the European and US data centre markets and will continue to invest in this area, where demand is high.”
The demand for Airedale cooling systems continues to grow in line with the increasing number of data centres being built across the world, all of which require state-of-the-art cooling technology. Indeed much of Airedale International’s continued success is attributed to their expertise in data centre cooling market.
Tony adds: “When it was founded in 1974, the company had the foresight to recognise the huge potential in server cooling equipment as the world moved towards greater use of digital technology. The rise of off-site data centres has been fundamental to the growth of Airedale International and as the world’s data consumption continues to increase rapidly we see this is a significant area of continued growth for the business.”
In 2005, Airedale was bought by US thermal solutions manufacturer, Modine. Working with the Modine team in America, Airedale plans to maximise its potential across the globe.
Stuart Kay added, “Tough trading conditions present opportunities as well as challenges. The digital transformation of homes and workplaces is accelerating and as a result, new data centres continue to be developed at a mind-blowing scale. Working as a team with our parent company Modine, and with our internal colleagues, we are confident in what we can bring to the market, because we have great people with immense knowledge and experience of data centre cooling. These are challenging times but we will continue our plans to expand into the US with excitement and anticipation.”
A white paper that considers the future of the data centre industry is available from Airedale. Visit www.airedale.com/the-future-of-data-centre-cooling
