Since its beginning in 1973 as a company with one product, Port-A-Cool, LLC, with the home office of several of its divisions and manufacturing locations in Texas, has enjoyed consistent growth. Today, Port-A-Cool, LLC manufactures many products and is recognized as an industry leader in both the United States and international marktplaces. These products range from those used primarily in agricultural and horticultural applications, to mobile, modular and portable ones used in buildings and many variations of evaporative cooling products with virtually unlimited uses. With a strong network of distributors, Port-A-Cool, LLC continues to expand into worldwide market horizons and produce outstanding sales revenues. In 2006 the European subdistributor network was created with the foundation of Life´s Cool Europe, a Barcelona based-company developing Port-A-Cool´s subdistributors network.

 

Maurice van der Kooij, Dutch born, emigrated to Spain 4 years ago after succesfully finishing his MBA at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Since more than one year Maurice van der Kooij is the international sales director of Life´s Cool Europe, responsible for European expansion of Port-A-Cool.

 

1- Why did Port-A-Cool choose Spain and the Netherlands as its European distribution platform?

The management team of Life´s Cool Europe consists of Dutch managers, in the Netherlands as well as in Spain. One of the main goals of having Dutch managers, is the trading background, the ability to adapt quickly to the different European cultures, as well as the numerous languages Dutch people in general speak. We have created a multilingual team almost covering every European language.

 

To guarantee a high performance level of distribution between the factory in Texas (USA) and our European clients we use the ´Gateway to Europe´ functions of both Rotterdam (Northern and Western European market) and Barcelona (Eastern and Southern Europe and Northern Africa).

 

Barcelona has been choosen as a good starting point for Southern European sales due to its harbour and international business atmosphere. Our office in Breda is situated close to the Rotterdam harbour. Furthermore, the Netherlands has been a perfect market to “test” the Port-A-Cool products in a cold and humid environment and therefore an ideal start-up for further expansion to the rest of Europe.

 

2- Port-A-Cool sales in Europe show a strong growth. Is the company planning to enhance its operations, for example by including production facilities as well?

Since the beginning of 2006 Port-A-Cool LLC “established” a European distribution channel. In 2007 the sales exploded, products were sold in 18 different European countries.

 

The subdistribution network has been developed and increased its distributors almost covering all the European countries, focusing on main markets as industry and events. Our local distributors work actively with demonstration material and participating at local fairs, for example Balnearia & Water rescue Expo in Massa Carrara (Italy).

 

Our new website www.lc-europe.com works as a platform in evaporative cooling, with thousands of visitors a month gaining a lot of extra interest in this fairly new market and product in Europe.

 

Furthermore, Life´s Cool will be present at various fairs in Europe, we have been promoting the Port-A-Cool machines at Interclima (Paris), Sinerclima (Portugal), SHK (Essen, Germany) and we will be present at Eurosatory (Military fair, June, Paris) and the Farnborough Airshow (July, Southern England), traditionally spoken huge markets for Port-A-Cool.

 

The Port-A-Cool products started production 15 years ago in Texas (USA), there is a big R&D team working constantly on improving the products. Our smallest 16”-model, has been improved with a stronger engine and variable speed. This year we add some extra accesories like adapters and filters. The factory is well designed so no need to change the production facilities.

 

In May / June we will launch the new “Cyclone-Unit” into Europe. This unit will be our smallest model (utilizing a centrifugal blower), creating a new market for Life´s Cool Europe.

 

3- Who are the company's main competitors and clients in Europe?

The European people more and more note the efectiveness and advantages of evaporative cooling equipment. Our main competitors focus on installed evaporative coolers for complete areas while we are very competive in price and quality in events due to the mobility and the products that can be used directly connecting the water and electricity and the option for spot cooling. Due to years of experience of Port-A-Cool, the marketing support from the USA Headquarters, the qualitative level of the machines (the KüülPads are patented) and local presence of our distributors, we are increasingly gaining marketshare in the European market.

 

The evaporative cooler needs a ventilated space, therefore it cannot be used in houses and in offices, so the applications are different than the airconditioning. The installation and maintenance cost of the evaporative cooler is 10% of the traditional airconditioning.

 

A mobile evaporative cooler is used when an airconditioning cannot be used or is too expensive. We note that the advantages of the Port-A-Cool units, the mobility (spotcooling), installation free (just the water and electricity needs to be connected) and the efectiveness of cooling (also in outdoor open areas) result into a lot of applications for the Port-A-Cool units. They are used in industry, warehouses, garages and hangars; places where spot cooling is wanted and where they generally have problems to cool with traditional airconditioning due to the open spaces and doors. Port-A-Cool machines are also often used at events, in marquees and the army being the biggest client worldwide.

 

Big markets are the agricultural market (cooling farm houses resulting into increased productivity), sport schools (often problems with traditional cooling) and outdoor events.

 

4- Is there a specific country were operations are more intense? Why?

In Holland we closed a lot of nice deals. The climate in Holland can be described as relatively humide and not too warm. The Netherlands has been become a perfect base for further expansion to Scandinavia, Germany and the United Kingdom, countries with a comparable climate. These countries are well advanced in employee rights and protection so there is a huge demand in cooling working areas (forced by law and the power of employees).

 

In Holland the search for environmental friendly solutions to beat the heat in these working areas is increasing. Port-A-Cool fills this need completely in a effective and cheaper way.

 

We have contracted a large amount of steel, glass companies to our clients.

 

5- Can you describe to us one project in this area of the globe where the company’s products are being successfully applied?

Referring to the protection of the employee in the European Union also in the Southern European countries, the welfare of the employees and the law protecting the employees for better work conditions is better applied.

 

In Northern Spain a big carglass manufacturer was obligated by law for better cooling the employees when temperatures rising higher than 25 degrees. They were looking for a solution to improve the work environment and the productivity. In the factory, exists of a large amount of ovens and has a large superficie making the cooling cost for the whole factory impracticable and prohibitive.

 

Currently they are using 25 machines using various models and is used to cool work environment and giving a fresh, cool breeze and resulting into happy employees and improved productivity.

 

6- In your opinion, how will the European and international cooling market evolve? What will be the trends of the future?

The cooling market is booming, new markets are being created. The summers are longer and hotter, giving Northern European countries more need for cooling.

 

What we see with our products is the search for environmental friendly solutions in cooling. Instead of an airconditioning people tend to search more natural cooling. Governments help in this matter by providing bonuses to environmental solutions. By just using water and electricity the clients may obtain extra advantages purchasing environmental friendly solutions like the evaporative coolers.

 

There are new companies entering the European market, varying from American companies to new economies as India and China.

 

In Southern European countries we see a high demand in renting cooling equipment, this is often for short events. This market is developing in a very positive way.

 

7- Does the company's future strategy include moving eastward?

Last year we set up the sales networks in the Netherlands and Southern Europe. Our main focus this year is to pursue market opportunities in the biggest European markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

 

Life´s Cool Europe is well represented in countries like Poland, Czech Republic and Rumania. In some countries like Bulgary and Hungary we are actively searching for suited subdistributors.

 

Port-A-Cool USA works with a carefully selected number of distributors worldwide. The Port-A-Cool is increasingly dominating markets worldwide, being used from terraces to factories.