We have described ourselves as a ‘Distributor of Process
Controls and Industrial Instrumentation’, and this ‘Distribution’ model has
always been at the center of how we go to market. That’s not to say that we have always been
single minded in our sales and marketing philosophy. Through the years, we have
considered other business models in an effort to expand our core competencies,
broaden our base and increase our footprint.
For reasons that made perfect sense to us at the time, we have tried to
push the envelope by exploring new initiatives, including;
Embracing non-core
technologies and markets: We
have always been conscious of the fact that each time we solve an industrial
application problem with one of our high tech solutions, one consequence of
solving the problem, unless it is an OEM solution, is that the application is
no longer a sales opportunity. We then
have to find a new problem to solve for the next sale. In the late 80’s we made the conscious
decision to identify and add a premium line of industrial consumable products
to our mix, where the product, in the course of doing its job, is consumed and
needs to be replaced. A solution that
the better it works, the more new ones are required. Such is the case, for example, with
industrial lubricants and compressed air/gas filters.
At the same time that we were looking for an Industrial
consumable to sell to our customer base, Lubrication Engineers Inc. in Fort
Worth, Texas was looking for an Industrial Distribution partner to take responsibility
for the sales and marketing activities of their technologically advanced
lubricants in Canada. LE is confident
that “No other brand of petroleum lubricating oil whatsoever, regardless of
price, will be found superior in condition to Lubrication Engineers products at
the end of any given period of use”.
Given these and other synergies, we launched the partnership
in 1990, but it wasn’t long before we realized that our Automation and Process
specialists were not the right people to ask to sell high performance
lubricants and that this task was better suited to Mechanical Engineers, who
have a professional interest in moving parts and who understand friction, and
Chemical Engineers, who can relate to molecular structure and chemical bonds
and how these are affected by application conditions, such as temperature,
moisture and others.
In 1993, Lubrication Engineers of Canada Ltd. was created as
a separate corporate entity, with its own dedicated sales team of engineers and
tribologists and is now a successful enterprise selling millions of dollars of the
world's finest lubricants in Canada. Lubrication
Engineers combine the best paraffinic and synthetic base oils with proprietary
additive technology to offer the highest possible level of performance. Designed
to exceed the specifications and capabilities of ordinary commercial grade
products, Lubrication Engineers problem-solving lubricants will increase user
profitability by providing:
·
Longer equipment life: less capital expenditures
·
Extended service intervals: reduced lubricant
consumption
·
Improved reliability: less unscheduled downtime
·
Reduced energy consumption: less friction losses
·
Environmental advantages: facilitate ISO 14000
implementation
Lubrication Engineers of Canada shares
physical office and warehouse space with Davis Controls Ltd. as well as
Accounting, Marketing and Warehousing services and IT & telephony
infrastructure and support.
The second important exclusive Distribution appointment
Davis Controls received for an Industrial Consumable product, at least for
Eastern Canada, was from Parker Hannifin, for their Balston branded industrial
filtration products. Parker offers a
wide range of Balston products for industrial applications including: Compressed Air Filters, Sample Filters, Vacuum
Pump Inlet and Exhaust Filters, High Efficiency Liquid Filters, Filters for
Hospital Applications, Natural Gas Filters, 0.01 Membrane Filters, Steam and
Sterile Air Filters for Food Industry, Nitrogen Gas Generation Systems and
Compressed Air Dryers.
The addition of Balston filters to our product offering has
not only opened many new doors for us (i.e. hospital steam applications – for
sterile surgical packs), it has provided one more solution for us to present to
existing customers (i.e. 99.99% sterile air for the Food Industry).
In
hindsight, the decision to add high tech, industrial consumables to our product
mix has proven to be a winning strategy.
In my next blog release, I will tell you about some of our other
strategic ideas for growth, not all of which have turned out to be the
unqualified success that Lubrication Engineers and Balston have been.
www.daviscontrols.com
www.daviscontrols.com