OYL Middle East is set to officially launch later this month in the UAE a wide range of Acson air-conditioners from Malaysia.

Acson air-conditioners are manufactured by OYL Manufacturing Company, a member of the Hong Leong Group Malaysia. OYL Middle East was established in Dubai more than three years ago as a regional office to market Acson products in the region. The Dubai-based Geco has been appointed distributor for the products in the UAE, while a distributor network has already been established to cover the other Gulf countries.

OYL manufactures a comprehensive range of air-conditioners, refrigerators and freezers. Since its inception, the company has witnessed tremendous growth and has made successful inroads into the competitive international market.

"Following our entry into the global export market, the Acson brand name was changed to Acson International to reflect the product's worldwide brand recognition," says Sharanath Shetty, regional manager OYL Middle East. "Today, Acson International has become synonymous for quality and comfort. It is a trusted name for air-conditioners and recognised in more than 80 countries. It also has Malaysia's Industry Excellence Award 1999 to its credit."

The Acson range of air-conditioning equipment includes: window air-conditioners, and split units including wall-mounted, ceiling exposed, ceiling/floor convertible, ceiling cassette type, ceiling concealed and ducted types, multi-split systems, chilled water fan coils, air-cooled mini-chillers, floor-standing types, air-cooled rooftop packages, water-cooled packaged units, small tonnage modular, air-cooled package liquid chillers and air-handling units.

Realising the importance of research and development (R&D), the company set up one of the biggest R&D centres in southeast Asia in 1998 to undertake the design and testing of new products. The R&D centre has 11 test labs and two sound test labs. Examples of its innovation are the 'revolutionary' built-in starter in the wall-mounted units for the Malaysian market and the whole range of split units using the ozone-friendly refrigerant R-407c, which continue to spur the company toward greater achievements, Shetty says.

"OYL Manufacturing Company has been certified to MS ISO 9002 standards," says Shetty. "In addition, it conforms to Saso (Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation) standard, has been accorded the ETL Listing for North American markets, and has CE, VDE, TUV, S Mark and CB Scheme test certificates for the European markets."

Internationally, the company's products have been supplied to a number of schools and other educational institutions, factories, commercial buildings, residential buildings, hotels and resorts.