Dantherm Air Handling
Breathing life into Dantherm
Dantherm AS is the parent company of a number of businesses that carry out the development, production, sale and installation of industrial air management solutions, with the ongoing vision to improve the quality of the air we breathe.
In 2005 the company changed its name from Dantherm AS to Dantherm Air Handling with headquarters situated in Denmark. It has subsidiaries around the world and its business areas include dehumidification, heating, air conditioning, ventilation and electronics cooling. Innovative, durable and cost-effective products have secured it a position as a leading global manufacturer of stationary and mobile air handling units, and it is also a specialist in dehumidifying products for use in areas that have sustained water damage.
The company’s core competencies lie in climate control and air handling, including the heating and cooling of electronics, and heat recovery. Among its portfolio are solutions for ventilation, mobile heating and cooling, and electronics cooling and heating. Besides the air handling business, the organisation is comprised of Dantherm Filtration, providing industrial air cleaning systems, and T&O Stelectric AS.
Within the last six months, Dantherm has restructured its organisation by ceasing to operate one of its divisions. In order to dedicate more time to its other business areas, its installation division that provided insulations and technical equipment for buildings with an annual turnover of £100 million, was sold. Chief executive officer Paul Arne Jensen explains: “Our installation division was sold off some months ago because it was not our main focus. We wanted to concentrate on the industrial side more – providing industrial ventilation, industry air treatment products and other air handling products.”
In recent years, the company has also focused on an innovative new solution for telecommunication customers and on moving into environmentally friendly products by developing fuel cell technology. In a standard base station that connects mobile phones there is a back up system for when the power fails, which is usually a large battery but, in a step forward for the industry, Dantherm is working on a new system to use fuel cells as a battery instead. “The fuel cells business is a new and developing area for us,” reveals Paul. “We have a division that has been conducting technological R&D over the last four years concerning the use of fuel cells in producing ‘clean’ energy. We are planning to work within the private sector on mini power stations and mobile power stations with a number of key customers in the sector. The thinking behind this development was the need for so-called clean energy as the global environment is one of the most important topics for the whole world right now and someone has to take care of that matter. It’s a promising business area for us and fuel cell technology allows us to use all the kinds of energy that we’re using today in many areas through that expertise.”
Continuing, he adds: “It’s very well connected to our other business areas as we have an overall vision in our divisions to produce purified air for people. Apart from our climate units for the silicone business, all of our products clean the air and internal environment to take care of pollution. Our basic aim that guides all of our operations is to produce clean air for people.”
Founded in Denmark in 1958 by Mr Ejlert R. Olsen with a product range mainly consisting of warm air heaters, dehumidifiers and ventilation units, the business expanded rapidly in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, France and the UK. By following its company motto ‘we make clean air for people’, Dantherm has provided clean environments for nearly half a century. Consequently, Dantherm Air Handling is now a world leader within specialised cooling equipment for telecommunication network suppliers and operators.
Paul feels the company has a strong future as the demand for uncontaminated air continues to rise: “The advantage that we have is that in modern society there is a large focus on clean air for people and on reducing air pollution, particularly in large cities and urban areas. The market is very promising for the time being. In looking at how it is going to develop, we are positive about the overall future of the market and, as global players, we will develop our business internationally. We have three factories set up in the Far East – two in China and one in Thailand – and a project in Vietnam as we see the Far East as a prime market for our industrial areas.”
With thoughts turning to forthcoming goals, Paul concludes that Dantherm will maintain close contact with customers despite its increasingly global success: “We want to position ourselves in different places in Europe so we can optimise our production costs all over, although we will continue to act locally despite thinking globally. Fuel cell technology is an important area of development for us and I think that too many consumer products today are produced with low cost budgets so, for us, quality will remain key as we progress internationally with our overall goal of providing clean air for people to breathe.”
Dantherm Air Handling
Products: Air management systems
Sites: Global
Employees: 3000
www.dantherm.com