Luke Short isn’t just solving problems; he’s engineering solutions from every angle. As a Project/Equipment Specialist at Desert Peak Marketing, who covers 11 western states, Luke brings deep experience and thoughtful coordination to every project. Whether it’s adapting to extreme mountain-state climates or tailoring installations for correctional facilities, his approach is all about matching the right people, plans, and products.
Ask Luke what makes Thermo-Kool stand out, and he’ll tell you: it’s not just the space-saving builds, but it’s the people behind them. We sat down with him for this month's Behind the Kooler Door series to find out a little more.
We have a dedicated team that strives to bring solutions to the operators’ needs. The
Desert Peak Marketing team members have diverse backgrounds and we lean on each other for our different areas of expertise so that operators are working with the best person to help solve their problems.
We work with refrigeration engineers and connect with service technicians and installers to provide continuing education. Reading trade magazines is informative.
Geography is so important! In Denver, Colorado, for example, the outdoor temperature ranges from over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to below 0 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. We also need to consider the altitude in our mountain states. Arizona can regularly have sustained temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Refrigeration needs to be sized appropriately to account for the extremes and current ambient conditions in your area.
Operators are concerned about the total cost of ownership. When we can talk about how Thermo-Kool is energy efficient, labor saving, and can reduce food waste, we are talking beyond just refrigeration, we are talking about solutions. When the solution can fit in tight or wasted space, they are floored by the flexibility in design.
Site surveys are a critical part of smooth installations. All the players at the same place, at the same time, looking at the same plans and drawings. We require a mandatory meeting before the box ships to review the checklist that Thermo-Kool provides so that everyone is on the same page heading into installation day.
Having an experienced team here that has done installations for years really helps, and also having the local rep visit the site before installation day, or ideally during the quoting process.
We had a client in Montana with a sloped roof and Thermo-Kool was able to match the exact dimensions to fit the equipment in the space, and they were thrilled! Most manufacturers don’t have that capability and have to walk away. Thermo-Kool excels at this!
I don’t know if it’s unexpected or unique, but we really enjoyed working on two large boxes for a state correctional system in our territory. They ordered one giant walk-in to hold the food while they built the main one, and then that facility turned it into their backup walk-in.
Watching the modifications that were made to make it a correctional package and go up in this giant building was really impressive.
On the technical side, it’s Thermo-Kool’s ability to build its box in nominal sizes to fit the available space. The TK configurator helps them really see what can be done in their space.
On a business side, the care that the Thermo-Kool team takes with each quote and their responsiveness always elicits compliments from customers throughout the design and quoting process.
KOOL
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