Manufacturer of fans and ventilation equipment, Elta, is moving the dial on air quality
Boasting over 50 years of experience and expertise in the air movement industry, Elta is a manufacturer of high-quality air movement solutions for a range of markets including commercial, industrial, OEM, and residential. Founded in 1974, the company’s product portfolio has evolved from axial fans to include an expanded range of fans for commercial and industrial ventilation, air handling and heat recovery units, noise control products like silencers and acoustic equipment, and controls.
Having recently rebranded to encompass its evolving portfolio, Elta remains committed to its engineering legacy but also embraces the future by educating people on the importance of air quality to enable healthier, more sustainable, and safer indoor spaces. To learn more, we speak to Damian Buxton, Elta-UK’s CEO, and David Millward, Product Manager for the group.
“The business was established by Roger Crook and John Snape, who began producing single-phase, long-cased axial fans under the name ‘Low Temperature Applications’,” Damian opens. “The founders started with a small production facility and later renamed the business to Elta Fans, which remained our name until our 50th anniversary rebranding last year. Since then, the business has grown in terms of both its product offering and facilities along the way.
“Over the last 50 years, we’ve grown into several international markets with manufacturing operations in India and Malaysia, and we now occupy five sites in the UK & Ireland: Kingswinford, Fareham, Colchester, Belfast, and Dublin,” he continues. “Our rebranding in 2024 brought these locations together under one Elta umbrella, enabling greater collaboration and innovation across the business, uniting them in their goals of growth, innovation and sustainability. More recently, we established Elta Trade, which specializes in providing residential ventilation for electrical wholesalers, electricians, and installers.”
Elta’s rebrand included a new strapline of ‘Air Movement, Air Quality,’ to reflect the company’s purpose. “With people becoming increasingly concerned about pollution and the quality of the air we breathe, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, robust ventilation systems are key to fresh, purified air in our homes and workplaces,” David explains. “We want to educate people about the importance of air quality and the impact it has on our health, including studies about increased productivity in workplaces with correct ventilation systems.”
Damian adds: “The new strapline also embraces our overall group mission to enhance life through air. Whether it’s residents in homes, patients in hospitals, pupils in schools, or animals on farms, we want to make people more aware of the consequences that poor air quality can have on people, animals and buildings.”
While Elta’s new branding makes it clear that the business is dedicated to improving air quality, we ask for greater detail on Elta’s position within the UK’s wider net-zero goals. “We’re part of several industrial associations that focus on engineering and product development to enhance energy efficiency,” David explains. “Although we support these groups in terms of legislation and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings, we also lobby government departments to emphasize the importance of improving air quality and reducing energy.”
“We’re currently working on a major project to support a customer whose innovative idea will generate huge efficiency and energy savings in their industry; it’s an exciting opportunity for our products to make a real long-lasting positive change,” Damian reveals. 
David adds: “As an industry, we must constantly question how we design and develop products to improve our processes. By using predictive maintenance technologies, we can monitor a product and ultimately extend its life cycle. We’re also embracing sustainability by evaluating our packaging and using alternative materials where possible, going paperless with our instruction manuals, streamlining logistics and transportation, and working across multiple sustainability platforms.
“We also offer TM65 reports, which were introduced by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) to assess the embodied carbon and recyclability of a building’s engineering systems.”
As our conversation continues, talk turns to Elta’s manufacturing operations. “We’re proud to be UK manufacturers and as such, have invested heavily in technology and automation across our sites in recent years,” Damian reveals. “Just last year we invested in new machinery including a new laser and punch machine.”
Offering his comment on what the future holds for product development, David states: “We offer products that solve people’s problems, but the complexity is that our products must evolve in line with people’s ever-changing problems. We’re aiming to expand in the industrial and building services markets, as well as our residential portfolio, to meet the sector’s increasing regulations. We’re also seeing a huge focus on controls and automation that enable communication between products and allow people to use ventilation in the most appropriate way.”
Damian finishes by saying: “With constant changes to energy efficiency targets, we’re also focused on improving these credentials, making incremental changes that enhance our products. As the market continues to evolve, everything we do will embrace our ‘Air Movement, Air Quality’ motto as we strive to restore the balance by creating healthier, cleaner, and safer indoor spaces internationally.”