CASE STUDIES
Selecting the right manufacturer for a novel power + heat technology

Client: Sharp Labs of Europe Ltd (SLE)

THE CHALLENGE

Sharp Labs of Europe (SLE) needed to find a suitable heat pump manufacturer to provide manufacturing, assembly, distribution and channel sales services for its new product, which combined Photovoltaic-Thermal & Heat Pumps (PVT-HP) into a single system.

THE OUTCOME

CLT established relationships with three UK-based heat pump manufacturers, compared and assessed how suitable they were for partnership, and presented its comparative analysis to SLE. CLT presented this information to SLE’s Board and SLE’s management team chose one manufacturer as the preferred commercial partner.

Sharp Labs of Europe (SLE), a UK-based research subsidiary of Sharp of Japan, designed a novel Photovoltaic-Thermal & Heat Pumps (PVT-HP) system to create a highly efficient, renewable home-heating and electricity solution with a large potential market in the UK and Europe. The PVT-HP system had the lowest carbon intensity of any domestic heating system, but its complex technical requirements meant SLE needed CLT’s services to find a suitably qualified heat pump manufacturing partner to deliver their system.

CLT compared several manufacturers by looking at their interest in SLE, assessing their technical capacity, and determining their ability to provide a route to market and their potential to provide channel sales.

CLT presented this information to SLE to allow them to target their chosen manufacturer. SLE was looking for UK manufacturers in line with its business strategy targeting retrofit housing, and established relationships with its chosen partner.

After selecting the right partner, an unforeseen reorganisation of the  company structure meant that the selection had to be changed. CLT reopened the search and were able to secure SLE a partnership with a qualified European manufacturer.