LG Electronics Australia has brought on a seasonal veteran to head up its Air Conditioning and Energy Solutions business, appointing ex Fujitsu General manager Milton Kaloudis to the role.

Kaloudis is known across the industry from his time at Telstra Corporation and for his work at Retravision’s head office in the national marketing and merchandising role. In August 2012, Kaloudis left his role as Fujitsu General’s national marketing manager (where he was succeeded by Marc Cheah) to take on a position as the company’s national operations manager.

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Bringing more than 20 years’ experience with him to the role, Kaloudis will look after LG’s air conditioning, solar panel and lighting categories. According to a statement from the company:

In addition to team and strategy development, Milton is also tasked with expanding and growing support of the specialist dealer network, with particular focus on a LG’s complete energy solution offerings across the company’s stylish domestic and commercial air conditioning range.

Speaking about the appointment, Kaloudis said he was looking forward to “helping LG realise its vision for the Australian market”. For his part, LG Australia managing director Duke Moon said:

We are extremely pleased to welcome Milton to LG Australia. His wealth of industry experience will be a huge asset to our team and we are always excited to have professionals of Milton’s calibre join our organisation.

In other air conditioning news, both LG and consumer ratings agency Canstar Blue have released research on purchasing and usage trends for the seasonal category — timely news as Australia comes off the back of a strong heat wave across the country and as Perth, Adelaide and Canberra get set to edge towards 40° Celsius early next week.

According to the LG Air Conditioning Survey released today, 62 per cent of respondents have an air conditioner that is over 5 years old. With the Energy Supply Association of Australia estimating in 2013 that there are 9.2 million household units installed across Australia, it would seem there is a large portion of the market that could be looking for a replacement air conditioner.

Just last week, Canstar Blue revealed that almost half of the respondents to its survey do their research for a new air conditioner online (47 per cent) — more than those who do their research at a retail store (45 per cent) and more than those who do no research at all (16 per cent).

Despite this, 75 per cent of respondents made their purchase in a physical store, with only 11 per cent buying online.