IRELAND – Toshiba have announced that they are targeting growth in Ireland as the country’s resurgent economy presents significant opportunities in both the air conditioning and heat pump sectors. To achieve this goal, Toshiba have appointed Ken Lawlor as their sales manager for Ireland to spearhead the strategy, with a brief to develop both the distribution and direct sales channel, working closely with Toshiba’s long-established Irish distributor GT Phelan.

After being unveiled as Toshiba’s Irish sales manager, Mr Lawlor expounded on Toshiba’s strategy for Ireland, stating “As the fastest growing economy in the EU, we believe there are huge opportunities for us to grow in Ireland. The property sector continues to rebound and, in particular, we are seeing significant demand for office space – as Ireland continues to attract inward investment and relocation of companies due to the low rate of corporation tax and dynamic workforce.”

Lawlor alluded to Toshiba’s existing stature in Ireland, commenting “Due to the excellent work of our distributors over many years, Toshiba has a fantastic reputation in Ireland as a high quality brand, with a combination of industry leading efficiency, reliability and technical excellence.”

Mr Lawlor concluded, saying “We will be working closely with GT Phelan over the coming months and years to build on this and realise the potential.”

Toshiba’s strategy already seems to be bearing fruit, as the company has secured some major orders for VRF air conditioning. In addition to the Class A office space mentioned above, the company sees a further major opportunity in the domestic market, which is driven by the declared aim of building 50,000 state and private new homes a year. As these new builds have a mandatory requirement for a component of renewable energy, heat pumps are seen as an attractive option to fulfil the renewable energy requirements and consequently present another potential avenue of income for Toshiba.