History at a glance

Winterwarm is a company with a rich past. It has been founded in 1936 and was originally a local installers company. In the after-war period the company was taken over 3 times and just as often switched names. But always the company produced heating appliances, next to various other metal products. At it's peak the workforce included up to more than a 100 employees in the '60's. In 1984 the company became independent and the name Winterwarm BV was born. At that time the workforce consisted of 25 employees.

Leading role in Europe

After natural gas was found in the province of Groningen (NL) and the national energy supply in the Netherlands was changed from coal to gas, the company shifted its focus to the engineering and production of gas fired air heaters for industrial environments. The company became very successful in this field although nowadays the product program also includes other types of (air)heating appliances and all kinds of accessories.

For more than 50 years Winterwarm gathered a lot of knowledge on the use of gas for heating purposes and the different aspects of air heating. At this moment the company is one of the leading manufacturers of air heating appliances for as well the industrial market as the agricultural market. Especially agricultural heating projects are carried out all over the world.

WinLed Lighting Solutions

In 2015 the company entered a completely new (grow)market: the world of led lighting in industrial environments: WinLed Lighting Solutions was founded. After market research a program of four led lighting series was engineered to be able to cover the need for lighting in commercial buildings. Especially the so-called line lighting series Skyline proved to be very successful. At the moment sales activities are still concentrated in the Netherlands and Belgium. Further European expansion will be top of mind for the next few years.

Looking at the future

At this time Winterwarm is part of the financial group Vado Beheer. The company can operate indepently and determines her own strategic policy. With about 80 colleagues we work hard on strengthening our market position in the industrial and agricultural markets throughout the world. At the same time we work on expansion and innovation of our product program in order to be able to make a contribution to a CO₂free world.

We anticipate further growth as a company as our solid products comply with the highest quality demands and with all legal standards which become more and more severe. For WinLed Lighting Solutions the prospects can be qualified as very good in the light of the big growth in the led industry. Reasons why we have decided in 2019 to build a complete new factory on a new location. Winterwarm is about to enter a new era!

History at a glance: what happened when?

1936	Founding of Apparaten Fabriek C. Kappers - in Winterswijk
1950	Move to new building on the Industrieweg 8 in Winterswijk
1963	Introduction of the Universum gas fired heaters
1967	Take-over by the DRU-concern - further growth of the company; widening of activities.
1976	Take over by Benraad - 2 brand policy was introduced: Benraad heaters and Universum heaters; further expansion into Europe
1984	Founding of Winterwarm BV - continuation 2 brands policy: Universum and Winterwarm
1992	Obtaining ISO 9001 certificate - market introduction of WSP and URS unit air heaters.
1992	Take over Percival - Warrington (UK)
1994	Founding of Winterwarm UK
1996	Take over by VADO-Beheer
2003	Launch of new generation air heaters - XR-series
2003	Participation in french company Climair Industries
2007	Participation in polish company Fiestsa - Poznan
2007	Winterwarm and Universum - no seperate sales channels anymore
2008	Take over Priva air heaters - start sales activities in agricultural market
2012	Founding of Winterwarm Polska
2012	Universum brand disappairs - change to one-brand policy: Winterwarm
2015	Founding of WinLed - start sales of LED lighting products in the Netherlands
2020	Purchase of land for building a new factory in Winterswijk