VASA director Mark Mitchell, who is part-owner and director of Unicla International, has written a book chronicling and celebrating the compressor manufacturer’s fascinating story and achievements to date.
Pre-release copies of the book, titled Unicla and the Midnight Technician, have been well-received by global industry figures including MACS Worldwide president Elvis Hoffpauir, MACPartners Europe president Michael Ingvardsen and VASA president Ian Stangroome.
Those who have read Unicla and the Midnight Technician all recognised it as a story that is as much about people as about the Unicla company and brand.
As author Mark Mitchell put it: “This book acknowledges not just Unicla’s unique technological achievements, but the people who worked on them.”
The story starts as a biography of Unicla’s visionary founder Tetsuo Nobata, who in post-war Japan was inspired by American and British products and became the first importers of Morris Mini Minor vehicles from the UK to Japan, as well as one of the first Harley-Davidson agents in Japan. He also imported Chrysler cars to Japan.
Nobata’s exposure to overseas products led him to discover the emergence of air-conditioned vehicles and subsequent visits to Texas and California, after which he opened up huge export markets for automotive air-conditioning before seeing ways of improving on existing technologies and eventually becoming a designer and supplier of systems under the Unicla brand.
In Unicla and the Midnight Technician, Mitchell captures the personality and spirit of Nobata, as well those of numerous other colourful characters along the way.
Australasia’s pivotal role in the Unicla story is also described in the book, including Mitchell’s own 38 years of involvement from customer to supplier and eventually major shareholder.
Woven into the human interest and swashbuckling business threads of Unicla and the Midnight Technician are insights into various engineering and technical developments pioneered, redefined or perfected by Unicla over five decades.
SightGlass News editor Haitham Razagui said: “There is something for everyone here, whether you’re into technology, entrepreneurship, biographies or even post-war industrial history. And it goes without saying that Unicla and the Midnight Technician is essential reading for anyone working in the mobile air-conditioning and transport refrigeration sectors.”
Reserve your copy of Unicla and the Midnight Technician at unicla.hk/book
