2000s

On 9th January 2000 one of the Company’s founders, Mr. Eduardo Soler died at the age of 79. This was an especially sad point in time for the Company as Mr Soler had been instrumental in the development and success of the Company since its conception.

In December 2000 Soler & Palau acquired the century-old  company VIM S.A. The addition of this company Group, confirmed  by its later spectacular development, was without doubt one of the most important strategic moves in the Group history.

In 2001 Soler & Palau commemorated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Company. To celebrate this important occasion; and to remain faithful to the philosophy of maintaining close contact with its customers; the Company invited groups of customers it to visit their premises and share memories of their collaborations from past years.

The first decade of the 21st century will be remembered as the period of exponential growth through the internationalization of the Group.

International expansion continued with the opening of a subsidiary company in Canada in 2001. In 2003 Soler & Palau acquires all shares of the company AEE SIA in Latvia which in turn becomes S&P Baltic. In May 2005 the Austrian distributor Luftikus is acquired, becoming a subsidiary under the name Soler & Palau GmbH, and in 2007 the distribution company SPV – Solutii si Produse de Ventilatie SRL is acquired in Romania, becoming Soler & Palau SRL. In 2008 the company Jean Troillet, founded in 1940 in Switzerland is acquired and becomes Soler & Palau, S.A. Then in 2008, and under the management of the Mexican subsidiary, Soler & Palau Colombia, S.A is founded.

On 29 of December 2004, Soler & Palau acquired Breidert Air Products, Inc to create a powerful presence in the USA market. The Company included manufacturing facilities of more than 15,000 m2 and operated in different markets under the brand names of Jenco and Breidert fans. The Company also included an AMCA accredited airflow and noise test laboratory which is used for group wide product developments. On 1 of August 2010 the name is changed to S&P USA Ventilation Systems LLC.

In 2007 Soler & Palau acquires the company Envirovent Ltd located in Harrogate UK. Envirovent is a well-established company operating successfully in the UK residential housing sector and holds a number of intellectual property patents for ventilation products.

In 2003 Soler & Palau made an important strategic move by joining forces with Kruger, a leader in the Asian ventilation market. Soler & Palau initially acquired a 25% stake in the company with an option to buy another 25% in 2007. Finally Soler & Palau acquired the remaining 50% of the shares in 2009.

Kruger with corporate headquarters in Singapore has a very well established and strong position throughout the whole of Asia. Factories are located in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Tianjin (China), Mumbai and New Delhi (India), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore (Singapore) and Bangkok (Thailand). Furthermore it has assembling and commercial companies in Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia and Hong Kong.

In 2009, Soler & Palau continues with their investment in North America with the acquisition Renewaire Inc based in Madison, USA. Renewaire specializes in the design and manufacturing of residential and commercial Energy Recovery ventilation products.

In 2009 a new holding company Soler & Palau Ventilation Group SLU is formed. The large number of subsidiaries; diversity of brands and international management structures made it necessary to create a new legal entity under which all corporate governance could be controlled.

The offer of products for Car Park ventilation is further expanded with the emergence of specialist series such as CHXT, CHVT, CHMTC, CRMTC, CVHT, CVST, CHGT, HGHT, CHMT, CRMT, CXRT and BSP. To compliment the traditional Car Park ventilation products new Jet Fan models TJHT series are launched.

The 2010 period sees the Company expand into a new market sector for electric curtains. The COR and COR IND series are launched.

Following the creation of the KOYOTO agreement in 1997 and the resulting implementation in 2005, Soler & Palau starts to place an increased importance on the development of energy efficient products. New ranges of products are introduced to meet the requirements for the new regulations. The concept of demand controlled ventilation is strengthened as a consequence of the new regulation requirements through the promotion and sale of efficient ventilation systems. At the same time Soler & Palau places a greater emphasis on the acquisition of companies specializing in the design and manufacture of efficient products and energy recovery products.

Since the conception of the Company back in 1951, Soler & Palau has always been conscious about the environmental impact of its products and manufacturing systems. It was evident that environmental awareness and the care of use of natural resources would play an increasingly important role for the industry and Company. It was for this reason that in 2002 the Company started work to implement the ISO Standard 14001 on environmental management system across all areas of the factories in Spain. Ripoll was the first factory to achieve accreditation to the ISO Standard 14001 standard. During the following years this philosophy and practice was extended to other factories within the group and is continuing to this day as new companies join the group.

In 2005, the CADB and CADB HE series of commercial heat recovery products are launched onto the market.
Soler & Palau establishes strategic partnerships with several motor manufacturers for the development of its own line of electrically commutated direct current and very low consumption motors. These important motors form the basis for new energy efficient product ranges for the future.

The Company develops a new platform to enter the industrial process ventilation market. In this sector products are typically used as part of an industrial production process. Products are offered with a “custom-design,” option to adapt to the typically very specialist need of each customer in this sector.

The concept of “product comfort,” has always been present in the philosophy of S&P’s products, and one of which has started to become more and more valued by users of ventilation products. A special strategic initiative was therefore created to develop a range of products that emit very low levels of sound without any reduction in performance. The SILENT brand and concept is adopted for these types of products.

In 2004 the SILENT bathroom extractor range is launched which introduces a revolutionary concept to the sector. The concept relates to a “floating motor”, which, supported on a snap ring, absorbs all the vibrations from the motor, achieving a practically inaudible level of sound emission.

The product is a success from the day of its launch and greatly contributes to associating the concept of “Silence” with S&P products.
2008 is another benchmark year with regard to the launch of new products with the entry onto the market of the TD SILENT range, an enhanced version of the classic TDs which already have a significant share of the global inline duct fan market.

The SILENT range of products provides innovations that substantially reduce noise levels and therefore improve comfort, thus reinforcing the association of the concept of “Silence” with S&P.

In the 1980s a local regulation in France introduced the concept of Controlled Mechanical Ventilation (CMV) for the design of a ventilation system for housing. The legislation that developed in Europe based on the Kyoto protocols requires that similar concepts be adopted by different countries of the EEC. It was for this reason that S&P began a new strategic product development program orientated towards covering this section of the market. In 2006, with the object of covering these requirements, the Technical Building Code (TBC) is generated. In 2007 the VENTURIA E is launched, and work is carried out on developing variations of this product for other different European markets.

In France, and in other Northern European countries, the CMV concept is already established. This concept allows the introduction of residential products that go beyond the concept of ventilation and provide heat recovery of the fresh supply air. In 2010 S&P completes the development of the IDEO product which represents a state-of-the-art residential heat recovery product that not only meets the CMV requirements of the codes of different countries, but also has the capability of recovering more than 90% of the heat contained in the exhaust air from the building and therefore provides a significant saving in energy.

Con el impulso basado por el éxito de los productos lanzados en este periodo y la importancia de las adquisiciones realizadas, S&P With the momentum based on the success of the products launched during this period, combined with the significance of the acquisitions introduced, S&P closed the decade with sales revenues of 369 million Euros and a total workforce of 3,000 employees throughout the world.