CoolKit wins prestigious partnership support

Lancashire-based CoolKit has secured a prestigious partnership which will help the company develop strategic management capabilities in order to further drive quality and overall operational performance. 

The Burnley converter of temperature-controlled vehicles has been accepted for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) – a partnership between CoolKit and Manchester Metropolitan University. 

This Management KTP (mKTP) received financial support from the UK Government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through Innovate UK.

The partnership will see a graduate join CoolKit for a two-year period to analyse existing operational practice, supported by regular visits from university academics.

Andrew Wearing, CoolKit’s operations director, played an instrumental part in the application process and was delighted to receive news that CoolKit had been accepted for the partnership.

He said: “The KTP initiative comes at a time where CoolKit is anticipating rapid and sustained growth, so the perfect time to really start looking at our current systems and operational processes to understand where improvements might be made.

“In order to support the work of the graduate, we have recruited a senior improvement engineer who will work closely with the academic team and begin to action recommendations within the factory.

“We’re confident that the mKTP process will enable transformational improvement by identifying strategic, management-based initiatives that increase business resilience and agility and expand management effectiveness.”

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) aim to help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills within the UK knowledge base.

Management KTPs aim to help businesses improve their efficiency and productivity through the better use of knowledge and expertise by specialist Academic teams in the UK's world-class Knowledge Bases.

The programme, funded by UKRI through Innovate UK, has been running for over 45 years and during that time has enabled more than 14,000 businesses to drive innovation for positive impact.