Our Journey

EXHAUSTO is part of the French Aldes Group – a family-owned group founded in 1925. Aldes Group is a design and manufacturing company specialized in indoor climate solutions. The solutions are targeted at homes, offices, hotels, schools and businesses. With the acquisition of EXHAUSTO in 2016, the Group is one of the largest European companies specialising in innovative ventilation sollutions.

CEO Mads Rosenmeier talks about EXHAUSTO

How it all stated

A unique engineering mindset

Our history of “Engineering Air” is based on a unique engineering mindset dating back to 1957. The idea was to develop and manufacture a chimney fan for the top of the chimneys in order to optimise the “draft” from open fires, wood-burning stoves and boilers.

In 1963, we moved to Langeskov on Funen and expanded our product range with roof ventilators. This was the start of a significant development in the ventilation market and today fans and air handling units constitute the predominant part of our business.

In 1978 - in the years of the energy crisis in Europe – we developed the first generation of VEX, a heat recovery unit designed to ensure a more energy-efficient indoor climate than has been achieved so far with simple extraction.

Expansion and new technologies

Towards the turn of the millennium, there is a continuous expansion of both production and markets, subsidiaries are established in the Nordic region and Germany, and many new, more energy-efficient product series are launched. The first series of VEX heat recovery units with integrated cooling is launched in 1999.

New technologies

In the coming years, new heat recovery technologies will be added to the product ranges – rotor heat exchangers and then counter flow heat exchangers – and our product range will provide the solutions that are in demand in current and future markets.

In 2007, the sale of smoke extractors was separated into the company Exodraft A/S, while we continued to develop, manufacture and sell ventilation solutions. 

New owners, new opportunities

In 2010 we acquired the Norwegian ventilation company Novema Aggregater AS and were sold to VKR Holding the same year. Two years later, the new owners sell the majority shareholding to the Danish capital fund Axcel.

The French Aldes Group will take over EXHAUSTO in 2016 as a strategic step towards internationalisation of the Aldes Group. 

In 2022, Aldes acquires the French AERECO Group, strengthening its position as a multi-brand group.