By Craig Zammit

SYDNEY: LG Electronics Australia has appointed Glenn Townsend as national air conditioning manager and has reinforced its continued desire to push into the Australian and international commercial air conditioning markets.

With more than 28 years of industry experience, Townsend has had his finger in many an air conditioning pie, from sales to installation and even design engineering, and after having previously worked with LG Electronics in 2003 as air conditioning sales manager, Townsend now returns to tackle LG’s commercial air-con channels.

“My role will be to implement a commercial air conditioning structure which will fit with our markets,” Townsend told Current.com.au

LG Electronics Australia has been heavily resourcing its commercial air conditioning business on a global scale, with Townsend now focusing on “the improvement of LG Electronics’ position in commercial air con market, leveraging from our depth and experience in the retail channel,” he said.

“We have a unique value proposition in the commercial channel and what I hope to achieve is to spread the word. LG is a mainstream player in commercial air conditioning, we have a full product portfolio and we want to get that message out,” Townsend said.

“The other thing we are doing is putting in a sales and service structure that’s appropriate for the commercial air conditioning channel, and that’s a fit with the market.”

As part of the initiative to push LG’s commercial or specialist dealer channel, LG recently incorporated its Multi-V range, suitable for high-rise buildings, and its ducted systems into its latest television campaign.

Townsend believes that the popularity of ducted systems will continue to grow as consumers become increasing aware of the product, and regulation of the segment increases, improving the energy efficiency of ducted systems.

“Ducted is an applied product, in that you’ve got parts coming from many different suppliers and manufacturers and you’ve got a contractor or installer getting all those pieces and doing the installation.

“All these become variables; you’ve got the size of the unit, the energy efficiency of the unit and the duct work too. You can have a very energy-efficient air conditioner combined with low grade and undersized ducting that impedes on the system’s energy efficiency.

“It’s all about the application – which is education and training, and the MEPS program now is also being integrated. So we are all still on the learning curve with ducted. It’s a training issue and we have to get that message out to the channel and get everyone on-board,” he said.

LG Electronics was recently listed as the largest air conditioner seller in the world for the seventh consecutive year, turning over 12.28 million units – the third consecutive year the brand has shipped over 10 million units.

In 2006, LG accounted for 19.5 per cent of the 62.97 million air conditioners sold worldwide.