Skope Pulls In International Heavyweight

Skope Pulls In International Heavyweight To Secure The Australian Market

With 18 years of practical and management experience in the refrigeration business, Craig Pickford brings a wealth of knowledge to SKOPE Industries.

Mr Pickford has recently become SKOPE¹s Sydney-based Australian General manager.

British by descent and having lived in South Africa, where he owned and directed his own company "Cool Can", Mr Pickford has relocated from the United Kingdom where he worked as International Sales Manager for Williams Refrigeration, one of the largest commercial food service refrigeration manufacturers in the world.

Mr Pickford says he came to SKOPE because of its international reputation as the most advanced refrigeration manufacturer in the Australasian region.

"The future for SKOPE refrigeration is virtually limitless - first and foremost our aim is to be the best food service refrigeration supplier in the Australasian market and SKOPE continue to expand their range of food service machines. This made my joining SKOPE at this time a good fit," says Mr Pickford.

"Having previously owned my own company, I know the ins and outs of the business and have a good grasp of world markets. I had previously exported to Australia, Saudi Arabia, USA and Europe so I know these markets well."

"Most importantly I bring current international food service thinking to SKOPE and their clients," says Mr Pickford.

SKOPE Industries is a Christchurch-based company with sales bases in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Oman and Dubai.

"Having Craig in our management team means we now have the knowledge and experience to make even faster progress into the food service market and beyond," says SKOPE¹s Managing Director Robert Stewart.

SKOPE already dominates its home market in glass door refrigerated merchandisers.

For the past three years the company has been focused on the food service and catering sector, in which it offers an excellent range of products.

"The cool book 2001 due for release, has many new products displayed in it and Craig is excited that he has joined the SKOPE in time to have some input into its content, which shows an expanded foodservice range in detail," says Mr Stewart.

SKOPE Industries have developed a number of new products, which will be launched over the year including pizza and sandwich preparation cabinets, cake cabinets and counter top cabinets.

These new product developments follow a number of years of innovations in refrigeration technology.

In 1992 SKOPE Industries was the first manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere to introduce CFC-free refrigerant.

In May 2000 SKOPE introduced hydrocarbon (HC) compounds, which replace the traditional hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) in the insulation foam. The blowing agent in the insulation is cyclo-isopentane, and has been considered to be too expensive and too technical to use by manufactuers, other than mass produced domestic model manufactuers.

"SKOPE made this very significant financial investment as it fits SKOPE¹s track record and image as an environmentally aware refrigeration design leader and this makes it an exciting company in which to be part of the management team," says Mr Pickford.

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