Pump manufacturers are being forced to adapt to remain competitive in today's ever changing marketplace. HVR speaks to Duncan Lewis, managing director at Xylem Water Solutions UK, about how the company's new single source approach should help it to tackle the threats and opportunities facing the industry
What, in your view is the biggest single business challenge you currently face?

The single biggest challenge we are facing, like most businesses, is the current state of the economy and how this has resulted in profitability being squeezed from the marketplace.

This, in large part, is due to the sharp decline in the number of commissioned projects within the construction industry. Official data has revealed that a combination of bad weather and weak demand has shown that the volume of construction output is at its lowest level since 1998.

Confidence does however seem to have returned to the housing market with the start of the Government's Help to Buy scheme in April, which has shown sales of news homes are up, which can only bode well for the future.

How are you dealing with it?

We quickly recognised that the marketplace was increasingly asking for a single, comprehensive solution delivered by a single trusted supplier. We will approach the market as one entity, Xylem Water Solutions UK, focused on the best products, application expertise and aftersales support for customers, across all of our core markets. The newly integrated company is comprised of many of Xylem's well-known and trusted brands including Lowara, Flygt, Wedeco, Jabsco and Sanitaire.

Xylem manufactures a range of products which touch on numerous parts of the building and manufacturing processes. We felt the time was right to bring all of the brands into one single organisation to offer customers one contact for all applications. For example, it is entirely possible that a Lowara pump is pumping clean water into the manufacturing process and a Flygt pump is being used to pump wastewater at the other end. What's more, if the plant is producing a large amount of wastewater it is highly likely that a Wedeco ultraviolet or ozone treatment solution is being used before discharge into the water course.

Now that customer can deal with one organisation for all its needs. For our customers, our new single company approach means that they will have one single point of contact. Whereas before they may have had to liaise with a brand representative for each Xylem product used on a project, from now on all contact will be centralised to make communication much easier for our customers. There will be one person with once voice, but with the full support of an array of technical expert behind them.

This new approach allows us to offer customers comprehensive technical advice which draws on the experience and expertise of our technical specialists. The in-depth knowledge we now collectively possess stretches far across the building services and manufacturing processes, which means we can consult on an installation within the wider project team and highlight issues which may not have occurred to our customers.

What upcoming changes in legislation will have an impact on the marketplace?

We are also constantly heavily investing in research and development across our broad range of products to ensure our technologies meet the latest legislation and regulatory standards.

The European Commission's Energy Efficiency Plan (EEP), which aims to reduce the energy consumption of products which directly use or are related to the use of energy, now includes clean water pumps. The EEP has continued to mark out key cut-off points for manufacturers to bring their products in line with the latest high efficiency standards through the use of the Minimum hydraulic Efficiency Index (MEI). The first cutoff point was introduced in January 2013 while the second, even more stringent, will come into force on the same date in 2015.

The Minimum Efficiency Index (MEI) identifies a minimum efficiency cut-off for those pumps performing under the new hydraulic efficiency levels. Products which have lower efficiency levels than the new requirements will not be eligible to carry a CE marking, making it illegal to place them on the open market anywhere within the European Union.

This year, all pumps placed onto the open market in Europe must perform at a minimum level of efficiency in order to meet or exceed with MEI index. This index value corresponds to the percentage of pumps currently in the market which do not meet the 2013 regulation, therefore indicates that ten per cent of pumps available for purchase do not meet the standards set by the European Commission.

The easiest way to prevent being caught unprepared by the change in law is to start purchasing and installing compliant pumps straight away. Xylem has ensured that all of its pumps affected by the legislation already meet the required MEI rating.

From a domestic point of view, the newly named Energy Related Products Directive (ErP) has pinpointed circulators as a major area for improvement with ninety per cent of all circulation pumps in current operation deemed unsuitable.
In 2005 the European Union approved a new Directive that requires manufactures to improve the lifecycle and energy efficiency of their products, reducing the amount of energy that is consumed as well as their overall environmental impact. The overall aim is to cut power consumption in half by 2020.

Circulation pumps often run for long periods and this makes them one of the worst offenders for consuming large amounts of energy. Being such a common product in the EU heating and plumbing market, the changes to the sale and use of these pumps will affect almost all customers in some capacity.

For circulators in particular, the first key date was the 1st of January 2013 which signified two important changes. Firstly, all circulators sold after this date must be compliant to the new legislation meaning that it must have an Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) lower than 0.27. More importantly, in 2015 the EEI index will change again and circulators will have to have an EEI lower than 0.23 to be compliant with the ErP directive.

As the UK moves towards the carbon reduction targets of 2020, it is the responsibility of pump manufacturers to embrace the changes and the benefits that they bring. Xylem is dedicated to the preservation of the environment and reducing energy consumption through innovation and development of new and existing products and aim to support customers in their uptake of greener working practices.

What other challenges do you face and how are you meeting them?

One of the other key challenges is to continue to invest in the training and development of our staff. The knowledge and expertise of our staff is one of our most important assets we hold as a company and all of our customer-facing people in the UK are being required to go through a comprehensive training programme covering everything from pump and pumping system basics, through to the technology behind variable speed drives. The intention is to make this material available to our customers through CPD modules or other forms of training.

The importance of training can be demonstrated by the dynamics of our markets. The transportation, treatment and use of water, be it in the municipal or building services sector is now highly regulated.

Environmental efficiency standards, such as the ErP Directive, have placed strict controls on the types of pumps that can be manufactured and marketed to end users, regardless of whether those end users are operating a sewage pumping station or a modern office block.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing contractors and specifiers in the building services sector?

There are many challenges to meet, but probably one of the most prominent is for contractors and specifiers to ensure they have a good understanding of the latest legislation and government initiatives which have come into play, as well as the latest technologies available on the market.

From a consultant's and contractor's perspective, it's important to be fully aware of what best practices are available within the marketplace in order to adopt these into their design and construction activities. There are a number of new legislations, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), which are encouraging end users to use new solutions which may be on the periphery of a contractors comfort zone so it's imperative that they are full up-to-speed with the latest offerings available.

What is the outlook for the sector in the coming years and what are the opportunities?

If forecasts prove to be true, then the building services sector should remain in its current state for the next 12-18 months. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Residentially, the government is encouraging more home building through schemes such as Help to Buy and we should see an increase in construction projects as confidence returns to the marketplace. With potentially more homes and public sector buildings to be built, this offers huge opportunities to Xylem to incorporate the expertise and skills we have available in both the residential and commercial sectors.

In addition, we are now in a position to conduct energy audits on existing commercial premises across the country, in line with the new European Energy Directive (EED).

Energy consumption is a hotly debated topic across the globe and, given the European Union's plans to dramatically reduce its emissions, energy audits will become a fundamental regulatory tool.

Xylem's energy auditing capability further emphasises our position as a leading force within the pumping industry and illustrates our focus to provide not just the latest technologies, but the best solutions to meet our customers' requirements.