One of the highlights of this year's event was Achema 2015, which took place in Frankfurt from 15 to 19 June. Given the scale and subject matter, the delegation from Steiner-Ukraine could not miss this event.
First of all, I would like to note that the main theme of the exhibition was scientific developments and equipment in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Traditionally, Achema was rich in suppliers of pumping equipment, including our existing and potential partners.
One of the first companies we visited was Boyser (Spain). This is a well-known and respectable manufacturer of peristaltic pumps, which has recently started to develop a new direction in the production of cam pumps with metal and rubberised working parts. We had previously met at another trade fair in Cologne and had previously agreed on a mutual partnership. The first sale had already been made since then, so this time we acted as Boyser's fully official agent in Ukraine. During the meeting, we discussed the strategy and plan for further cooperation. The results of the negotiations were celebrated with a glass of cool Spanish coffee.
Another strategic goal was to find a reliable supplier of screw pumps. After a long time, we seem to have found it - Sydex (Italy). This is a manufacturer that has been on the market for more than 10 years and produces about 3000 pumps a year. 60% of its products are exported, including to the CIS countries. The pump range covers a wide range of capacities and pressures. The negotiations resulted in a cooperation agreement. We will work to ensure that Sydex pumps are available in Ukraine as soon as possible.
One of the outstanding issues was the supplier of hygienic centrifugal pumps. Our research has shown that general industrial pumps from Grundfos, Wilo or Saer are not always able to cope with hygienic food handling applications. Often, large manufacturers use pumps from an equipment supplier such as GEA or Alfa Laval, which are of a very high quality. Walking past the stands, we saw some very nice centrifugal pumps in a hygienic stainless steel design. It was a supplier with a new name for us - Packo (Belgium). As it turned out, this is a premium manufacturer whose products are mainly focused on the European market. After negotiations over a glass of Belgian beer, our parties reached a mutual agreement on cooperation and sales of Packo in Ukraine. Thus, our supplier portfolio now includes high-quality hygienic centrifugal pumps.
In addition to negotiations with existing suppliers, we spent a significant amount of time researching competitors. We have collected a lot of information, which we plan to study and compile into a guide for working with competitors.
The second day of the exhibition was dedicated mainly to equipment manufacturers. The first person we visited, of course, was our long-standing partner Nicomac. Nicomac specialises in the production of granulation lines and modular clean rooms for pharmaceutical companies. This time, the Italians pleased us not only with good prosecco, but also with a new coater model. This is a machine for coating tablets, micropellets, dragees, etc. The updated version features a modular design with an integrated air conditioning system (AHU), which significantly reduces the footprint. The exhibition samples also included a drying granulator and a complete sterile box.
One of the key events during the exhibition was the agreement on cooperation with Centec. There are two Centec divisions, the first of which is based in Frankfurt and specialises in the production of high-precision sensors for measuring indicators such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, density and concentration in a liquid or gas flow. The second division is located in the Czech Republic and specialises in the production of process plants for heat treatment, deaeration, saturation, dosing, filtration, etc. The proposed equipment operates using sensors from the first division. The Centec business line is fully compatible with and perfectly complements our existing line of process equipment.
Summing up the results of our trip, we should say that Achema brought us several interesting suppliers and pushed us to conquer new horizons.
