Three decades and counting! The Portacool team has been celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary this year and we’re proud of all the ways we’ve grown.
From product offerings to innovations, this year has been phenomenal in spite of the global pandemic and crises. Relative to product offerings, the growth has been exponential. When the company began 30 years ago it was normal to make a few thousand products a year. We now manufacture more than 60,000 portable evaporative coolers per year. One of the things we are most proud of this year is our team’s response to outside stresses. From Sales to Customer Service, Manufacturing to Logistics and everything in between, our team has reacted and persevered despite seemingly insurmountable odds to give the company one of the best years on record.
In addition to our portable evaporative coolers, we also manufacture the various lines of Kuul® evaporative media – including Kuul Comfort™ used exclusively in our portable evaporative coolers, Kuul Control™ used in data centers and Kuul Vitality™ used for agricultural environments – in our own facility. Our product placement in the data center and power generation fields has increased beyond belief.
All our products are Made in America and that local production is very important to us. We employ more than 380 employees at our Center, Texas-based facility and are proud of the many products we produce. Since our hometown is small, getting all the freight trucks into the campus during the summer can be a challenge. Several years ago we chose Wilmer, Texas, as home to our North American Distribution Center. The warehouse is home to 12 employees, just south of Dallas.
We’ve grown as a global entity as well. We continue to distribute Portacool products in more than 56 countries. The Asian evaporative media market is now served by our Kuul manufacturing facility located in Malaysia. Our Portacool and Kuul salesforce spans the USA, Malaysia, Mexico and Europe.
Giving back to our community
We aren’t only about cooling though – giving back is important to our team. On a national level, we’ve supported a variety of groups and causes who positively benefited from portable cooling comfort in recent years, from animal shelters to a variety of FFA chapters and combat-wounded veterans. Locally, giving back to the East Texas community where we live and work has been an important focus.
Portacool Evaporative Coolers
Three years ago, in June 2017, we proudly opened Portacool Park in Center, Texas. This three-acre park includes a quarter-mile walking trail, mini-spray park, azalea garden, covered pavilion/basketball court, and a multi-purpose soccer/football field that accommodates Center ISD athletics and the community. True to Portacool form, two evaporative coolers are also housed onsite to keep park patrons comfortably cool and comfortable. Our team was grateful to be part of more than a year of collaborative project planning and coordination of funding from Portacool, LLC, a grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife, the City of Center, and the Street Improvements for Economic Development.
This year, we were pleased to have the opportunity once again to give back to the community that has so richly supported our corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility. As part of our commitment to our hometown, we cumulatively donated $20,000 to Center, Texas-based first responders to support the Center Police Department, Center PD Ladies’ Auxiliary and Center Fire Department.
Moving forward
As we look to the future, we know it is bright. Having grown from a small, family-owned business with a handful of workers, to a global company with hundreds of employees, Portacool has built a reputation for being a company with world-class customer service and a proud history of excellence. We’re excited for the next decade as the leader in evaporative cooling technologies. Next year already looks exciting with plans to expand the Sales team into the Middle East and two products launches – one for Portacool and one for Kuul. Stay tuned for more information and much more innovation to come in the upcoming months!
If you want to check out some of our biggest accomplishments since the company’s founding in 1990, take a quick read here.
