This article previously appeared in Region in Business magazine .
With nearly a hundred years of experience, they know the tricks of the trade when it comes to serial production of liquid and air coolers at Van West Koeltechniek in ‘t Harde.
In 2020, Luke Blauw officially took over the company from his father Johan.
Under his leadership, a new, fresh wind is blowing through the family business and we are working towards a bright future. West Koeltechniek produces compact high-quality liquid coolers and water coolers that are placed in lower cabinets of large coffee machines.
The company also produces beer coolers and standing drinking water coolers, which can be used in offices and conference rooms, among other places.
A second specialty of the company is the production of air coolers, which are used in new construction projects but also in the hospitality industry, among others.
‘Our products are used wherever something needs to be cooled on a small scale,’ says Luke Blauw, who has been working within the company for the past few years.
‘Moreover, we are specialists in series production and we can switch quickly and efficiently with our customers, which means we can provide them with quick service.’ 
Propane as a refrigerant At the same time, Van West Koeltechniek is also working hard on innovations.
‘From the market, we receive many questions about the possibility of using water coolers with sparkling water. In order to meet this demand, we are busy developing a small model and larger model water cooler with carbon dioxide,’ Blauw explains.
‘In addition, we are in the transition to using propane as a refrigerant and also want to establish a filling station for propane here. Currently, R134a is still widely used as a refrigerant, but its use will be phased out in the coming years. Innovations In addition to technical innovations, innovations are also being implemented in other areas.
‘At present, our products are sold mainly in the Netherlands and Sweden, but in the coming period we want to try to sell our liquid and air coolers on the German market as well.
With this we want to build up a wider variety of customers.
We also want to focus more on the private market with a water cooler, which consumers can use in their kitchens.
This cooler works the opposite way to a Quooker and we want to start selling it through kitchen stores and dealers.
We are also working hard to improve the online findability of our company.
Previously, customers found us mainly by word of mouth.
We are very happy with customers who come to us that way, but we also want to make more use of social media to increase our brand awareness and acquire new customers.