Daikin announces major new air-conditioning investments

Daikin is to invest over £150 million on a major new R&D centre in Osaka and build a 16 000 m2 compressor factory in Brno in the Czech Republic. The Daikin Technology Innovation Center will focus on creating the next generation of air-conditioning technology. It will bring together some 1550 people from Daikin factories and affiliated companies in Japan China, the USA and other countries. There will be active collaboration programmes with universities . Work on the new facility will start in 2006 on a site attached to Daikin’s Yodogawa plant, which currently produces fluorine chemicals. The new compressor factory will create up to 500 skilled jobs and operate on a 24 hour, 3-shift basis. It will initially make swing compressors from 1 to 3 hp for the factory in Pisen in the Czech Republic and the main European factory in Ostend, Belgium.