Around the same time Kulthorn entered the new North American market, it also augmented its product offerings and sought greater opportunities. Continuing to concentrate on the air conditioning and refrigeration sector, the company experienced unprecedented growth in the late 1980s.
In 1987 Kulthorn broadened its production line to produce NEMA Frame motors in a joint venture with Universal MagneTek of the United States, and rotary compressors in a separate joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industry.
This rapid growth created a great internal demand for the steel Kulthorn needed to produce its cooling components. Sensing the threat of production disruption due to unpredictable supply and price fluctuations among key raw materials, Kulthorn began vertically integrating its supply chain. As the first step to control cost and create savings for its original equipment manufacturer customers, Kulthorn brought more of its logistics planning in house, building its own foundry close to its manufacturing facilities in Thailand in 1898. But Kulthorn was not content to merely capture market share by building efficient, motors and compressors and selling them at competitive prices. Company culture demanded it transform the cooling landscape. Several opportunities arose during the 1990s. The decade saw Kulthorn produce nearly 20 million compressors, a feat that brought the firm to the attention of equipment manufacturers through Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Drawn by Kulthorn’s quality, efficiency and affordability, these manufacturers contracted with Kulthorn over the next two decades, Kulthorn’s territory included more than 75 countries, with production topping 13 million compressors.
Kulthorn’s huge market share spurred the company’s next foray into design, engineering, and productivity advances in the cooling industry. Kulthorn acquired Sanyo’s compressor factory in Thailand in 2004 to boost its technological insights, consolidate industrial knowledge, and blaze a trail to the next generation of compressors, refrigeration condensing units, and motors. Kulthorn’s advances in cooling component architecture, manufacturing automation and process efficiency made over the previous decade, aided the company as it entered an agreement to manufacture electronically commutated motors engineered by Unada.
Our focus on developing technological innovations remains unabated. We established the Kulthorn Research & Development Center in 2017. It was here that more than 70 of Kulthorn’s leading technicians collaborated on engineering
and designing new compressor styles and configurations that are quieter, more durable, and highly efficient.