History

Winterwarm was founded in 1936 and has been located ever since in Winterswijk, the Netherlands. A local installer, Mr. Kappers, saw market opportunities for industrial heating appliances and developed a free standing, oil fired unit air heater, called Domino. The suspending unit air heaters were developed in the early sixties (Europa and Universum).

DRU

In 1967 the company was sold to the DRU-concern. In those years the product progamme mainly consisted out of Universum suspended unit air heaters. Also other products which fitted the machinery present in a metal processing factory were manufactured. These were the peak years from Winterwarm with about 100 employees!

Benraad

In 1976 the Benraad concern from Terborg took over the factory in Winterswijk. They already manufactured and sold their own line of unit air heaters through various distribution channels. The new company continued to sell this line with the brandname Benraad next to the Universum heaters in the Netherlands, while a large part of these heaters was sold abroad. However, because of efficiency advantages the technical specifications of both heaters soon became the same

Winterwarm

In 1985 Atag took over the production of central heating appliances from Benraad in Terborg. The manufacturer of unit air heaters in Winterswijk did not fit in with the new owner’s strategy so the factory continued as an independent company under the name Winterwarm.
Meanwhile they focused again on their core-business: developing, producing and selling indirect fired unit air heaters. Winterwarm continued to sell the unit air heaters under 2 brand names (Benraad heaters changed to Winterwarm heaters) as they each had their own sales channels. With both brand names added together Winterwarm became market leader in the years to follow. Also the part in the turnover realized through exports increased. In 1992 Winterwarm obtained as one of the first companies in her branche the ISO 9001 quality certificate (in 2001 the 2000-certificate was added).

Present

At this time Winterwarm is owned by VADO Beheer. The company functions fully independent and determines her own strategic policy.
Winterwarm has about 55 employees. Meanwhile the product programme has been extended with several other industrial heating appliances (water heaters, radiant tubes, destratification fans, etc.) and at the moment we manufacture 3 different types of unit air heaters.
As per 1 January 2007, the difference between “Winterwarm” and “Universum” unit air heaters has disappeared. All our partners in the Netherlands now sell the same unit air heaters under the same name and with the same colour:

Universum indirect fired unit air heaters (product of Winterwarm BV).

In the export countries the Universum-name is not used. We sell partly under private label, partly under the brand name Winterwarm.