IN THE HOT SEAT
Gboyega Obafemi
How did you first get into the industry? I’ve been in the HVAC industry since 2007 when I joined Toshiba Carrier. Previously, my career was in building lighting and electronics controls – in fact that’s where my career started as an electrical and electronic control engineer.
How did you move into cooling?
I was general manager for speciality lighting, Europe with General Electric, and the next career move would have taken me to GE China. However, for family reasons I didn’t accept the position. I joined an American company called KENT Automotive. This was totally different from everything I’ve done as it was a chemical company. I spent about 18 months at KENT as product and marketing director and then I was head-hunted to Toshiba Carrier to lead the HVAC division in the UK and Ireland. More recently I moved to my current position with Hitachi.
What do you enjoy most about working in this industry?
One thing I enjoy about this industry is the competitiveness of individual products. There are regulations that actually drive innovation, such as F-gas, temperature controls and off coil temperature controls. There are so many regulations now which allow innovation to really flow.
What’s the worst aspect of the industry? There is not enough capital, in terms of investment, to enable rapid expansion and innovation. The government has brought in some good regulations, but the investment to actually support research and development is left to the individual companies.
What do you think is the biggest challenge ahead for the industry?
I think the biggest challenge for us in the UK at the moment is Brexit.
20 August 2017
If you have a manufacturing plant in the UK or Europe, or half of it elsewhere, currency fluctuation becomes an issue, as does movement of goods. If you’re in this country as a manufacturer, all your raw materials become more expensive.
A potential positive of Brexit is the creation of ingenuity and thinking outside of the box to enable us to best manage our affairs.
The UK businesses which will see the greatest positive impact will be those who are manufacturing here and then exporting out. They will have better competitive pricing.
What is the biggest opportunity ahead for the industry? I think the biggest opportunity ahead for this industry is having air conditioning in the residential domestic sector.
Most of us have houses where there is no air- conditioning, but many new-build houses are now having it as standard.
Do you think legislation is doing enough of the right things to improve and drive our industry into the future?
With the rapid frequency of change, I would say yes. Change can sometimes be both a positive and a negative process.
Bearing in mind that we don’t have the support from the government in terms of capital investment, too many changes within a very short period of time, if not carefully managed, would destroy the industry. However, the pace of change and process that we’re going through at the moment is fine. There are some changes that we have to go through very quickly to enable us to meet global requirements, but apart from that I think the pace of change is good.
Which area of legislation do you find most challenging? I think it’s the F-gas regulations, because it’s a case of getting the gases that can perform in the
Managing director of Hitachi
same manner as the gases we were using originally. Sometimes, regulations do not lend themselves to technology. However, in terms of development and what is required, it might be necessary to compromise in some areas, due to legislation and the good of the environment.
Why did you decide to go to Hitachi? It’s a challenging role, but I know we can deliver the result and move Hitachi Air Conditioning back to being one of the leading brands in the air conditioning market place. That is why I decided to join the company.
What is your biggest achievement to date? Regarding Hitachi, I think my biggest achievement to date is sharpening the team and focusing on areas where we can deliver growth to the business, using Hitachi’s innovative and energy efficient products to drive sales.
We have also embarked on training our sales teams, end-users, customers, distributors, contractors and installers on the Hitachi products. I like to grow businesses, and managed to achieve growth in both of my last two positions with Toshiba and Watts Water Technologies, and of course we plan to drive the growth strategy here at Hitachi.
What are the company’s key selling points? The Hitachi key selling points are its technically good products, energy efficient products and innovative products which address customers’ requirements. Hitachi product quality provides cost benefit over the lifecycle of the product, and its VRF Set Free system with off coil temperature controls and CS web manager control is one of the leading products addressing cold draughts in the market. The Hitachi heat pumps technical performance is second to none and the Utopia range provides customers with same benefits as that of a full VRF Set Free.
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