Nigel Huggins, managing director of Tour & Andersson, is driven. He wants the company to be the market leader in balancing valves in the UK and Middle East and he will not rest even when that happens. There is still more to do, to grow organically and by acquisition.
I thought it would be easy.

A simple interview about Tour & Andersson, the valve company.
It was anything but!

Nigel Huggins, managing director of TA (UK), is, in fact, also a business unit director for the Indoor Climate Group of IMI plc. Tour & Andersson is part of this business along with Heimeier which makes TVRs, associated controls and actuators, and Pneumatex, which makes pressurisation units and air and dirt separators (and which in the UK is sold through Engineering Appliances, another firm owned by IMI).

In 2008 actual sales totalled £281million for the division and IMI expects to double the business 'in the not-too-distant future' but this will be by organic growth and acquisition.
So which company would Huggins buy next? He side-stepped that question by saying any specialist engineering company.

'At one end are the process plant, chiller, boilers, pumps and generation and at the other end are the terminal units such as fan coils, and chilled beams.

'What we are looking for are firms with products which sit in the middle area before water is dissipated.
'Our firms make sure the water is balanced and conditioned and this is the field we want to be in with more acquisitions.'

Which brings Huggins back to TA. The company began in 1897 in a place called Ljung, near Gothenburg in Sweden, making shut-off valves. Ljung had water and sand - everything was sand-cast then - and it seemed a place to make the valves.

Shut-off valves developed and developed until in 1961 TA patented the first balancing valve.
The company has been producing balancing valves for nearly 50 years although the valves have been refined and refined again to meet the rigours of today's standards.

The valves are still made at the original Ljung factory as are all core products such as the differential pressure valves although Huggins laughs that the machinery is somewhat different as is the size of the factory.

Heimeier produces thermostat radiator valves in Germany. The company also makes automatic balancing valves in the Flow Design Incorporated factory in Dallas Texas. Plus there is a TA Regulator factory in Slovenia which makes pressure independent control valves, differential pressure control valves and the new inline valve technology.

'We have resisted the temptation to move production to China' although Huggins adds that TA has a sales office in Shanghai but the products are imported from Sweden.
'While Sweden is not exactly a low-cost economy the facility is state of the art.'

But doesn't the fact that the company has a factory in Slovenia mean it is happy to move production to a lower cost economy? The Slovenian factory was purchased with the company, Huggins says simply, and it was a good fit with the rest of the division.
Pneumatex is another prime example of this.

'When we purchased the company we left the production where it was.'
Huggins adds that there are not many countries in which IMI does not operate with either factories or sales agents. But while he and his fellow divisional directors are always on the look out for acquisitions, he believes that much of the rise in turnover and profits will come from organic growth.

'There are markets which are relatively untouched still in terms of market share and available turnover.'
Even in the current economic climate the Indoor Climate division is still growing.
'The division is about quality products and knowledge. We deliver all-round value.'
Huggins believes there are engineers who are happy to delegate some of the design responsibility. 'We take away the schematic drawings, number up the valves, even tag them and return the schematic.'

TA has an internal Hydronic College, based in Belgium, which is run by a Jean-Christophe Carette, a professor of hydronics.
'Each subsidiary is encouraged to have an associate of the college and Graeme Waugh, TA's technical manager, is the associate for the UK. It is all about system knowledge. He is trained in Belgium and Waugh, in turn, writes training papers for the sales engineers.
Obviously the sales engineers have to be dual focused, winning sales and being able to advise on the technical issues.
Huggins says it depends on where the sales engineer is.
'If he is talking to the purchasing department, they might be particularly interested in innovations. If the sales engineer is on site, then it may be a case of advising that the balancing and the control valves can be combined to save space in the
plantroom.'
And the larger contractors all have their own in-house pre-fabricators and the sales engineers are helping here too.

'We are a systems solutions company which is why the Pneumatex acquisition fitted in well - water conditioning with balancing! The biggest problem with balancing is air and dirt and quality of water. The thinking was that if we could control the quality of water by using Pneumatex, then this would feed through to the balancing.'

This is why TA is able to pick up these projects, Huggins suggests.
'My favourite phrase is: 'we are with you from conception to
completion'.'

Huggins says TA homes in on very large projects. We pick them up early in the design stage and endeavour to talk to the consulting engineer and offer our services on placing and balancing of valves (something which is usually appreciated by consultants).

'Anything we can help with is greatly appreciated by consultants who, with the best will in the world, cannot be experts at every aspect of their job, especially with the renaissance of variable volume systems. There is a whole swathe of consultants who are not familiar with this technology.

TA, through the Hydronic College, produces textbooks which help the consultant to understand.

CPD courses

Again, Huggins insists, it is a systems solutions book. It is not just to promote TA valves. In addition, TA engineers offer CPD courses for consultants at their premises - perhaps during lunchtime - and increasingly for contractors too.
Plus, either Peter Rees, technical director or Jean-Christophe Carette, (from the hydronics college) are increasingly called upon to speak at larger conference seminars about:
· mastering variable flow
· the three hydronic conditions
· dynamic water conditions

And work flows from these outings. For instance, after the seminars, the speaker is often approached by consultants who say they have trouble understanding, for instance, mastering variable flow and could someone from the company have a look at a project and make some
recommendations?

'This knowledge is our biggest differentiator,' insists Huggins. 'We have a wide product portfolio but the ability to back it with knowledge is the key.'
And TA personnel will also go to site if there is a problem.

'Often it may be that the issue is not with the valves but that does not matter too much. The partner knows that we will turn out whatever.'
He adds: 'After-sales service is worth its weight in gold.'

Tour & Andersson goes direct to the market in the main although there are a couple of small distributors who also sell its valves. Huggins says his is the only company in his market which does not go through wholesalers.

'We are not in the over-the-counter market,' he says.
He admits the company has to work hard initially to be specified but it works for TA only because of the extra work and the knowledge.

'Once consultants and contractors have tried our service, they tend to realise we take some of their work off their hands and our products are superior. They come back to use us again and again.'

Huggins adds when he was a TA sales engineer in the south, he was up against two big competitors and this knowledge and advice service paid dividends for him.
Tour & Andersson has two deliveries a week from Sweden, one from Germany and one from Slovenia and can supply from stock usually.

Any products which are not held in the Dunstable warehouse will take seven days to supply.
TA was measuring delivery against customers' orders which means that if a customer orders 10 items and only nine are in stock, then the order will be measured on the final item being despatched.

This system was dropped but is now being revived so customers have the best service possible. What TA would like is for customers to help it to help them.
'If they order the valves for a project as early as possible TA can schedule them into stock for delivery as and when required.'

What is Huggins goal?
He is committed. TA is already global leader in balancing valves. He says he will not rest until TA is UK and Middle East leader and 'I still will not rest then,' he grins.