Fort Vale invests

HOLD THE FORT

EQUIPMENT • DESPITE THE PANDEMIC AND ITS ASSOCIATED RESTRICTIONS, FORT VALE HAS CONTINUED WITH ITS PROCESS OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANSION INTO NEW MARKETS

SO FAR, 2021 has much been like 2020 - a series of false starts and hopes. Lockdowns have come and gone, as have variants of Covid. Hopes have risen and been dashed with monotonous regularity. But look closely and there is bright sunlight on the horizon - at least, that’s the opinion of Graham Blanchard, global head of marketing at Fort Vale, one of the world’s leading suppliers of tank valves and other equipment.

HCB sat down (remotely) with Graham early in July to reflect on the year so far, upcoming Fort Vale projects, and their plans for the future.

HCB So what has been happening at Fort Vale since we last spoke? How has the company managed?

GB It’s been a frantic time, but in a good way! As you know, the pandemic hit some companies in the industry quite hard but we found that not only were we well placed to negotiate the problems that Covid-19 posed, we have actually managed to turn it to our advantage. For example, we are a British company based in the north-west of England but we have a global reputation and a truly global reach, with offices all over the world.

Because we control and manufacture all our own parts, we were able to act more quickly, and more effectively, than many of our competitors. As a result, 2020 delivered the third highest turnover Fort Vale has ever recorded, which was a massive achievement considering the extremely difficult circumstances the global market was facing. Not only that but, looking at 2021, our year-to-date sales are already exceeding last years’ total, which is a huge testament to the hard work our employees have been putting in, and also the positive recovery of the various markets after a couple of slightly difficult years.

One thing we never lose sight of at Fort Vale is the importance of R&D and re-investment in the company and, due to significant growth in various markets, we are constructing an additional building onsite to extend our manufacturing capacity, ensuring efficiencies are maintained, whilst accommodating the additional processes and materials required to meet the increased demand.

HCB Apparently you’re also moving into e-commerce, with the addition of a semiautomated warehouse - can you tell us a bit more about that?

GB Yes, we’ve invested in an additional warehouse on site in the UK, operated semi-automatically by pre-programmed electric vehicles. This frees up space in the main factory, allowing for investment in new computer numerical control (CNC) machinery and increasing capacity.

The nature of some of the new business generated in the rail industry has also meant that the size and space required for the larger equipment has started to pose some challenges for internal logistics, so we are building this warehouse to not only to serve the e-commerce market but to free up space in the main factory to enable us to move new processes into it, allowing us to utilise the factory space more efficiently, and again allow for increased manufacturing capacity.

This is coinciding with the launch of our e-commerce web shop. Some may say we are a little late to the party with this type of service, but we would rather have a solution that works for us and our customers and I now believe we have found this. Initially, we will be launching the UK web shop for servicing our UK customer base for the spares and aftersales market. The new UK warehouse will help us achieve the service required for this type of offering. This will shortly be followed by our European web shop which will be serviced from Fort Vale BV in the Netherlands and will supply all countries and regions across Europe. This will offer our customers a better service for obtaining Fort Vale spare parts on relatively short lead times.

HCB What new Fort Vale products can the market look forward to over the rest of the year?

GB Fort Vale as a company believes in the constant evolution of its products - we make the best product we possibly can, using the best materials - and then try and make it even better. One of the by-products of this philosophy is that lessons learned in one area can be utilised in others. For example, we have seen a significant growth of interest in our products for the rail industry coming from the US, due to experience in similar fields such as pressure relief safety devices.

We have launched our new 6-inch Cleanflow valve this year for the road tanker market. This is a valve specifically designed for use on grease trap pumping and waste hauliers, where high flow rates are required. It’s superior to the more commonly used gate valve, and we’ve had this valve on field trials in the US since 2015, with no issues whatsoever - impressing our customer with its reliability and low operating costs.

Because gate valves tend to be heavy and need specialist servicing, the Cleanflow has an unrestricted bore which keeps product residue to a minimum, enabling easy access for thorough cleaning and offering a much faster discharge time, and superb flow rates make it an ideal choice for waste product applications. As a result, we are getting considerable interest and orders from both the US and Europe.

Similarly, our 2-inch BSP Twinact valve has been developed to complement the existing range of Twinact relief valves for the intermediate bulk container (IBC) sector. Following on from some benchmark testing of one of our main competitors, the new valve demonstrated better sealing performance at lower pressures and superior flow rates (up to 10 times higher) than that of the competitor valve. We then undertook further development that resulted in a low profile version of the 2-inch valve, which also resulted in better sealing and significant flow improvements over the other manufacturer.

We are also in the final stages of developing a relief valve and angled transfer valve, for use in American rail under AAR regulations. It’s a market we are growing rapidly in, and the interesting thing is that it’s manufactured from some quite exotic materials to improve corrosion resistance when used for transporting aggressive chemicals.

HCB Do you see the US as a growable market for Fort vale?

GB Yes, very much so. We have had a sizeable presence there for years supporting the ISO tank and road markets, but we are really beginning to pick up business there - especially in the rail sector. This is due to contributing to industry technical boards and regulators and a lot of it has also come about by word of mouth, which is always the best kind of publicity.

HCB Do you often benchmark test your products against competing manufacturers?

GB Of course! It’s a vital part of the ongoing development of any of our products. Most of our longstanding competitors are similarly involved in R&D and do their utmost to provide a safe, strong, usable product. But in recent years it has become apparent that there are other companies out there that perhaps aren’t so... committed to safety, shall we say?

We recently benchmarked relief valves from all of the main suppliers into the ISO tank and European road market and, I have to say, the results were astonishing. Fort Vale valves ranged from 20 to 55 per cent higher flow rates than the other manufacturers. This of course begs the question of when fitting alternative valves to those that we produce, is one valve really enough to protect the vessel in the event of a fire, and to ensure operator safety?

It was pleasing to see that from a random selection of production valves, each of our valves performed exactly as they should do, and that proved the consistency and reliability of the design, production methods and quality control that we have in place at Fort Vale.

Our approach to continuous improvement and R&D comes at price, but it’s a price worth paying for peace of mind, and enables customers to trust in our products, and if the customer trusts you and your products, they tend to be happy customers - and that’s the kind we like! www.fortvale.com

FORT VALE HAS INVESTED HEAVILY IN EXPANDING AND

UPDATING ITS PRODUCTION FACILITY, TO COPE WITH

GROWING DEMAND AND TO ACCOMMODATE NEW

PRODUCT LINES, ESPECIALLY FOR THE US MARKET