ACR Journal

Air management specialist Mansfield Pollard is under new ownership following a management buyout by two of its directors. New Managing Director Lou Frankland and Operations Director Bryan Bentley bought the business from sole shareholder and outgoing Chairman, Alan Pollard. Frankland, who joined the business in 2017 as Sales & Marketing Director, said: “This is fantastic news for both customers and sta while we continue to deliver on our ambitious five-year development plan. The opportunity aorded by the MBO will further increase our ability to develop and retain industry-leading talent, further invest into the performance driven product oering to our customers and ultimately achieve our goal of being recognised as the UK’s leading air management company.’’ Bentley added: “We look forward to building upon the excellent relationships we have with our existing client base, developing products to meet their specific challenges while also bringing new products to market through our significant in-house manufacturing capability. This is a very exciting time for the business as we push the boundaries in R&D, further streamline our manufacturing processes, and enhance our product quality.’’ Outgoing Chairman Alan Pollard said: “I have seen the company grow and develop with such vigour and pace over the last three years that I feel now is the ideal time to hand over the reins to Lou and Bryan. Although the company has been in the Pollard family for almost 100 years, there is no doubt in my mind that the change of ownership will see the brand continue to thrive.’’ Former MD Joanna Robinson left the business at the end of last year. Managing Director Lou Frankland, outgoing Chairman Alan Pollard and Operations Director Bryan Bentley NEWS 06 April | May 2020 Volume 6 No.3 Change of owners at Mansfield Pollard WEATHERITE DELIVERS PLANTROOM PROJECT AT UNIVERSITY Weatherite Air Conditioning has delivered a new plantroom for Birmingham University, which is in the midst of a 10-year campus investment plan costing £1 billion. The current phase, to be completed in 2021, will see the opening of facilities worth £365 million and the university has also announced Phase 2 of its capital masterplan, for new projects between 2022-2026. Birmingham-based building services company Manstal approached Weatherite and was said to be impressed by the company's “can-do” attitude, innovative approach and ability to design and build the plantroom in two sections and assemble on site. Weatherite designs, manufactures, tests and pre-commissions packaged plantrooms and, with over 40 years' expertise, prides itself on delivering ecient solutions incorporating the latest component innovation and energy saving capabilities. The plantroom was built in two sections and assembled on site CAREL sees RED as the future CAREL has launched its next generation of digital services for supermarket chains. With upgraded content, technology and interface, the new RED portal is said to be the ideal solution for controlling systems and reducing management costs. The level of digitalisation and connectivity allows data to be acquired from the installed units, regardless of manufacturer. The portal makes it possible to eectively use the collected data, providing the information relating to each system in a usable and easily comparable way. Using RED, a problem on a system is immediately correlated with the behaviour of similar units installed in the field. Possible malfunctions due to the same cause are highlighted in order to manage preventive maintenance activities before the problem spreads further. Manual configurations can prevent retailers from achieving their energy consumption optimisation targets. CAREL says RED can easily identify any behaviour that does not comply with the defined standards and eliminate unnecessary energy consumption. CAREL recorded sales growth of 16.8% in 2019 to €327.4m. Not including the contributions of Hygromatik and Recuperator, acquired at the end of 2018, growth was up 5.1%, with revenues of €292.3m. Elta extends extract line-up Elta Fans has expanded its extract oering with the launch of a long-cased axial fan. The Revolution SLC EC is designed for a range of applications, including commercial kitchens and industrial warehousing, and is available in a number of sizes, from 315 to 630mm, oering air volume flow rates of up to 4.159m3/s. Featuring a high-performance impeller, it can also operate in temperatures of up to 60oC and has been developed to ensure compliance with legalisation due in 2020, with the aim of future-proofing the fan range against changes to regulations. The transition from an AC motor to a low energy EC motor negates the need for a mains- powered speed controller, which is said to make installation quicker and easier, and lower overall running costs and CO2 emissions by adjusting fan speed to produce a more ecient and environmentally-friendly solution.