ST. PETERSBURG, FL — PowerCold Corp. has announced the acquisition of Applied Building Technology Inc. (ABT), a St. Petersburg, FL-based supplier of standardized heating, ventilation, and air conditioning packages for standard-sized commercial buildings such as national chain businesses. The asset purchase transaction involves a combination of cash and stock. Specific terms were not disclosed.

PowerCold CEO Frank Simola said, "PowerCold has entered the small commercial hvac application market with the acquisition of ABT. This is a perfect fit for our evaporative condensers and ABT's desiccant air conditioning units. PowerCold has gained an excellent strategic distribution network.

“ABT is being merged into PowerCold's wholly owned subsidiary Ultimate Comfort Systems as an operating engineering division. This merger will give PowerCold a strong engineering and design staff with veteran technical and service personnel. Bob Yoho, president of Ultimate Comfort Systems, has over 30 years in engineering and marketing HVAC systems and holds nine U.S. patents for a variety of applications. He founded and directed the largest national accounts company of its kind in the world with over $40 million in sales, packaging, marketing, and installation of systems for these same national account chains. He received the Carrier national accounts award for being the largest seller of Carrier air-conditioning equipment in the world for four consecutive years."

Yoho commented, "ABT is the approved Burger King vendor for supplying a combination HVAC and desiccant system and/or evaporative coolers to its franchises and company restaurants. In humid regions such as coastal areas the desiccant package is used to reduce humidity. In dry areas evaporative coolers are used to reduce electric power costs. The ABT system reduces overall HVAC power costs by 15% to 20%, while producing a comfortable dining and working space for customers and employees. ABT has existing contracts with Apple Gold's Applebee's franchises, as well as prospects for other fast food restaurant and national account chains including drug stores and retail stores. Apple Gold has requested ABT to design and test PowerCold's Nauticon evaporative condenser in Applebee's restaurants in California and North Carolina."

Applied Building Technology is a Carrier national account that designs and supplies Carrier equipment, controls, ductwork, fans, installation, and warranty service for domestic and international contracts through an agreement with Pierce-Phelps, a Carrier distributor in Philadelphia, PA. ABT also manufactures and sells desiccant latent air conditioners with its systems. It has offices in St. Petersburg, FL, and Philadelphia, PA, and manufacturers representatives in Denver, CO, and Dallas, TX.

Ultimate Comfort Systems Inc. offers high-efficiency new and retrofit systems for commercial buildings, including hotels, managed care facilities, office buildings, condominiums, and apartment complexes.

For more information, visit www.powercold.com.

Publication date: 10/21/2002