Trane and TAS Ltd. Sign Sourcing Agreement

Press Release  |  Apr 01, 2004

Executives of TAS Ltd., 4300 Dixie Drive, Houston, Texas, and Hunton Trane, Houston, and Trane Commercial Systems recently met to formally sign the packaged central chiller plant sourcing agreement announced earlier this year. Under the agreement Trane sales offices worldwide will act as sole and exclusive sales representatives for packaged central plants manufactured by TAS (Turbine Air Systems).

The packaged central plant is a Trane EarthWise™ system designed for low chilled water temperature and low condenser water flow rates. It includes a cooling tower, pumps, controls and exclusively uses Trane high-efficiency water-cooled centrifugal, helical-rotary and absorption chillers, with all components skid- mounted. TAS is a pioneer in conceiving, developing, manufacturing and marketing unique packaged central plant products for use in large chilled water applications. TAS has developed this product over several years and they are a leader in this growing market.

Craig Hurlbert, TAS Ltd. president and chief operating officer, said of the agreement, "TAS is extremely excited about this agreement which expands TAS' long term relationship with the Trane company into the commercial and industrial cooling (CIC) segment. The concept of packaging "central plants", providing a complete central plant solution to customers, is exciting and can provide a tremendous value proposition to the customer. Benefits include lower first cost, higher quality, reduced construction cycles and higher efficiencies with complete plant performance guarantees. The Trane/TAS team has started very fast, closing over 63,000 tons of orders in the past five months."

Tom Pierson, TAS Ltd. chief executive officer, previously was the Industrial Division Manager at Houston Trane before founding TAS Ltd. in 1999. TAS Ltd. has numerous packaged chiller plant installations around the globe. The company got its start by providing turbine inlet cooling systems for electric power generating companies.

Photo (l-r): Tom Tillman, TAS Ltd. Vice President of Strategic Development; Mike Thompson, Trane manager of Centrifugal and Absorption Chiller Product Support; Tom Burrow, account manager, Hunton Trane; Gary Hilberg, TAS Ltd. Vice President of Global Sales; Mark Weldy, Trane Vice President of Global Applied Systems Product Planning and Support; Stuart Werner, Trane Regional Sales Manager; Tom Pierson, TAS Ltd. Chief Executive Officer; R. O. Hunton, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Hunton Group and Hunton Trane; John Conover; Trane Vice President of Americas Sales; Jerry Koch, TAS Ltd. Packaged Central Plants Sales Manager; Craig Hurlbert, TAS Ltd. President and Chief Operating Officer.