The expanding side of plant contracting

Thanks to a decade of mergers and acquisitions, the plant contracting scene has changed shape. Coming out of the shadows now are the specialised equipment manufacturers who can also offer complete process engineered solutions.

Mike Spear reports

If any contractor doubted that the days of the 'mega' project are numbered, then ICI's recent decision to dump much of its bulk chemicals operations and switch to being a specialities business should have convinced them otherwise.

The problem the contractors face now, is that much of the engineering expertise required for many of the smaller, speciality-based projects resides in the capable hands of specialised equipment manufacturers. In the boom years that was not a problem; the main contractor would simply sub-contract the relevant part of the project to the equipment supplier. But times are changing. Now, equipment suppliers are capitalising on their expertise and bidding for - and winning - complete projects centred on their particular strengths.

A recent example of this trend was a £3.2million turnkey project undertaken by Bran+Luebbe to build an Ariel liquid detergent plant for Procter & Gamble. Won against competition from AMEC company Matthew Hall, the project included 'everything from bulk material storage to final product delivery', says B+L's UK Systems Division sales director Chris Riseley. Another example he gives is of a £1.2million project for Johnson & Johnson to build a multi-product medical plant in China. 'The initial contact here was simply to discuss engineering a small part of the plant, worth around £95,,000, but after three months of discussion we were awarded the entire project.'

According to Riseley, 'too many companies don't know what B+L's total capabilities really are.' A point echoed by B+L UK managing director Peter Robertson: 'We don't just want to supply the equipment we're best known for - we want to solve problems.'

What B+L is best known for, of course, is metering and blending - in particular its wide range of metering pumps. However, pumps account for only just over a third of the group's DM250million worldwide business. Not far behind is the company's equally wide range of on- and at-line analysis equipment. But making up the remaining 33 per cent of turnover is the rapidly growing process systems business.

Product developments

In the UK, the Northampton-based arm of B+L turns over an even larger percentage of its sales from systems, helped by the company's 'unique expertise' in the oil and gas markets. This expertise takes in B+L's AutoBlend chemical injection systems for offshore use, where both seawater and oil have to be treated. Through product developments such as a 1,000bar diaphragm pump, B+L has been able to offer the offshore industry solutions to problems such as metering methanol into high pressure crude lines, for which the conventional plunger pumps were not really suited.

Other developments are also opening up new markets. Through its Tomal metering systems for solids, B+L has installed systems that have enabled processors to switch to powder raw materials, rather than having to buy in ready-made suspensions or solutions.

On the analytical side, too, product development has added to B+L's overall systems capability. Recently-launched multiparameter on-line monitors, for example, should soon add to Robertson's problem-solving abilities.

Robertson sees the difference between his company and its competitors - whether mainstream contractors, other equipment suppliers, or plant fabricators that assemble other manufacturers' equipment - as resting in B+L's ability to concentrate on one particular unit operation, persuading its customers that this is the niche solution.

Part of that persuasion is simply to sit down with customers and discuss their process. Do they want a batch, continuous or hybrid (part batch/part continuous) blending operation? A simple question, perhaps, but one that Chris Riseley has most difficulty with in getting some customers even to consider. But there is no hard sell one way or the other. 'We will work with customers to educate them in the benefits of continuous and hybrid processing, but batch might still be the best option.'

But, whatever the best option, it does not necessarily have to include any B+L equipment at all. Robertson emphasises that the systems division is 'under no compulsion to specify B+L products. We would prefer customers to talk to us about all of their process, rather than just bits of equipment.'

For more information on: Bran+Luebbe enter 260