18
November 2016
WAIKATO FARMING LIFESTYLES
SOLVING INDUSTRY PROBLEMS IN A SNAP by Ayla Miller Hamilton based business Coolsense NZ Ltd have been awarded the Westpac Waikato Business Innovation Award for their state-of-the-art snap chilling system Vari-COOL.
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oolsense NZ Ltd is a Refrigeration and Thermal Energy Storage Systems manufacturing company specialising in the on-farm and agri-tech markets, primarily supplying chilling equipment to the dairy farm market. Director-shareholder and innovator of the Vari-COOL system Allan Steele has been working on different products for a while and says being recognised by his peers as having contributed something of value to the dairy industry by the Waikato business community is ‘humbling’. “I have put my heart and soul into the development of snap chilling technology
and the Vari-COOL is the one I’m the most proud of. I feel like I’ve finally got the product that I want and we are certainly seeing that with the traction we are getting in the marketplace now. “I am part of a close team made up of my business partners Tim and Kate Stace without whom I wouldn’t have been able to do this. We also have a dealer network around New Zealand that contributes to the company’s success.” Vari-COOL snap chills milk and puts it into the vat at under six degrees while the farmer is milking. It can chill not only the milk during milking, but also chill multiple milk vats, and generates hot water up to 70
The Coolsense team at the Westpac Waikato Business Awards. Front row from left: Allan Steele, director-shareholder and innovator of the Vari-COOL system, Rowan Steele shareholder, Kate Stace, director-shareholder, Tim Stace, director-shareholder and co-manager. Back row from left: Steve Houston, Vodafone – sponsor of category, Richard Baty, Carl Howard, Simon Kelsall and Richard Xie