CoolKit makes two senior appointments

Burnley-based temperature-controlled vans specialist CoolKit has appointed Daniel Miller as its first-ever finance director and Danny Hough as head of technical and development.

Daniel joins the company from Finnish paper and energy technology supplier Valmet, where he most recently held the position of UK managing director. He brings a wealth of experience gained through several senior-level finance roles over his 14-year career.

As part of CoolKit’s senior management team, he will oversee the company’s strategic finance and planning, focusing on digital transformation and driving continued growth.

The company recently reported that its first quarter sales orders for new converted vans were up by 75 per cent, with total year sales forecast to reach £15m.

Daniel said: "I’m very excited to be working with CoolKit, a company with so much potential. The team is full of fantastic people with a culture of quality, care and attention across every department.

"My job is to build on this extremely successful foundation and look for new ways of working through digital transformation tools, data capture and analysis. I also will be working with the management team to design strategies that will help CoolKit continue its current excellent growth trajectory and, critically, support the business to implement the targets, actions and budgetary performance required to achieve those strategies.”

Danny Hough, a qualified mechanical engineer, will be responsible for the product design and development side of the business.

He brings to the role skills gained throughout his career journey from toolmaker’s apprentice to manager. He will focus on fostering innovation, continuing to ensure that CoolKit’s temperature-controlled vans are best-in-class.

He said: "I will be heading up the design team, helping to grow and evolve CoolKit and our products, providing our customers with best-in-class vehicle conversions that meet their unique challenges and needs.

"I hope to apply my experience both tactically and strategically to develop a culture where we positively challenge ways of working across the design and manufacturing process, and ask if there are ways that we can do things even better to improve our products."

Rupert Gatty, CoolKit’s CEO and founder, said: "Hiring our first finance director is a strategic move which signals a step-change for our business. We have seen huge demand for our products post-Covid from our customers across the food and pharmaceutical industries and are substantially outperforming the performance trend of the light commercial vehicle industry (LCV) at large.

"CoolKit’s success depends on us listening and understanding our customers’ evolving needs and complex challenges, and by us continually re-imagining our products and services to meet them. Both Daniel and Danny will play key roles in meeting our ambitious growth plans."