CoolKit has appointed Joe Gleave as operations director, steering company growth as it enters a new era.
A highly experienced engineer and manufacturing operations expert, Gleave will help drive CoolKit’s work to fulfil record sales orders for a second successive year – despite a blaze which destroyed its main van conversion premises in Burnley only six months ago [read Van Fleet World’s article here]
Since then, CoolKit has re-established its conversion premises at a new site that is some 50% larger than previously. Situated on a secure four-acre plot just off the M65 at Blackburn, Lancashire, the site includes 75,000 square feet of workshop that accommodates 60 vans at a time. At the same time, it has relocated and upscaled its panel manufacturing operations to its other Burnley site.
Gleave, who has a passion for enhancing businesses through process improvements and people development, said he had joined CoolKit to implement the transformation required to grow in line with the company’s business plan to double output within three years.
He commented: “I’ve come for the challenge, a complex challenge. And while I have been here only a short time, I already know I’m not on my own. There’s a ton of people with a can-do attitude trying to continually improve our processes and that’s massive.”
After leaving Sheffield University with a MEng honours degree specialising in Aerospace Engineering, Gleave progressed from a manufacturing engineer with 3M Health Care to site MT leader and Lean Six Sigma coach. He has since held a succession of managerial roles.
Gleave commented: “I’ve always been keen to help businesses grow. And CoolKit, which is already very successful, has huge growth potential.
“I believe with the highly capable staff we have there is a mass amount of optimisation that can be done in the new factory which will result in us being able to satisfy even more customers quickly and more reliably.
“I will be working with the team in the factory so we can ensure it’s optimised to meet and exceed our exciting sales targets.”
CoolKit managing director Daniel Miller said: “We have been fortunate in being able to appoint such an outstandingly experienced operations director as Joe.
“He has all the qualities we were looking for to help move the business forward. He is a consummate professional in his field and I am excited about the business’s future success as Joe joins an executive team that has made a transformational change over the last 12 months.”
