A new top team has taken over at Bradford firm Refrigeration Services after a management buyout led by director Robert Frost.

Mr Frost, who joined the firm in 1995 as general manager and became a director a year later, becomes managing director of the company and his wife, Anne, is a director and company secretary.

Refrigeration Services, based on Cutler Heights Lane, was formed in 1982 and supplies refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and services to well-known names.

The company, which has 20 workers, is looking to expand over the next few years with the new team in place.

The buyout team was helped with the financing deal by Mike Jackson of the Leeds office of chartered accountants Horwith Clark Whitehill and Jonathan Oxley of Bradford solicitors Lee & Priestley.

Mr Frost has extensive experience of the refrigeration industry in the UK and overseas - beginning his career as a refrigeration engineer.

He said today: "I have always enjoyed working in the industry. The industry is constantly expanding.

He predicts that main future business growth areas will be from firms manufacturing and preparing convenience and prepared foods.

He also says there will be demand for air conditioning from the commercial sector.

"People used to think of air conditioning simply as a cooling method. But nowadays, because of technological advances, it is also a very efficient and cost-effective form of heating."

70 per cent of air conditioning units installed today are ordered mainly for their ability to pump heat, he said.

"Business for air conditioning from the non-domestic sector is likely to grow by more than 25 per cent in the next five years," he said.

"Developments are also taking place for the domestic market and air conditioning in the home on a wide scale is not too far away," he added.

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