The new name for HVAC expertise

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Hydronics pioneer TA Hydronics is currently rolling out a customer-focused global rebranding project that’s set to cement its position as the world’s leading expert in hydronic distribution systems. EmmaJane Batey spoke to global marketing director Caroline Bright to find out more.

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March 2011 is an important date in the history of TA Hydronics, with the launch of its strategic rebranding at the leading house and building technology trade fair ISH in Frankfurt. Following many months of internal work, customer research and careful planning, the company has introduced its new concept of complete hydronic expertise from one family of famous brands. Global marketing director Caroline Bright has been integral to the on going engagement of employees and customers alike, and she told Industry Europe how the new single corporate brand will make it even easier for the company to deliver hydronic solutions.

Ms Bright explained, “As a leading global provider and renowned expert in hydronics, we have completed more than 100,000 projects worldwide. We have a solid portfolio of three major multi national brands but we found that our activities could be aligned more closely. This in-depth rebranding exercise has been a massive undertaking to ensure that our customers continue to get the same first-class service from us worldwide in an easier, more transparent way. It’s certainly been a challenge but one which will definitely benefit our customers, our employees and our shareholders.”

Family strength

TA Hydronics is part of the British-based international engineering group IMI plc, which has more than 13,000 employees worldwide, an annual turnover of £1.79 billion and is listed on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 100 company. Under its previous Indoor Climate company name, one of five divisions of IMI plc, the three core brands operated as separate brands with different geographical territories; following the rebranding, the three brands are now aligned under the umbrella of TA Hydronics.

The well-known trio of hydronic brands are TA, Pneumatex and Heimeier, all of which are respected in their respective fields of balancing valves, pressurisation, expansion vessels, air and dirt separators and individual room temperature controllers for the hydronic solutions sector. Ms Bright clarified why bringing the brands together has been an important decision. She said, “We wanted to create a cohesive single corporate brand of IMI plc in our own HVAC industry, so we could more clearly showcase our expertise and technical know-how. Essentially we were hiding some of our strength, concealing our excellent knowledge and experience by operating three different brands without a single point of contact. Knowing our hydronic competences are mutually supportive and demonstrably synergetic we knew we had the opportunity to align who we are in the eyes of our customers. The strategic rebranding was hence set in motion.”

The important choice of what name to use for the strategic alliance of Pneumatex, TA and Heimeier was focused on bringing together the synergies across the three brands whilst still leveraging the strong history of the company within the HVAC industry. Ms Bright explained, “We wanted to find the best name to depict the strategy and value we offer in our area of focus – hydronic distri-

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bution – drawing in the integrated approach that characterises our success in each brand. TA Hydronics is actually a name that we used ten years ago, but specifically for our balancing valves business rather than as a corporate company name. TA Hydronics is now much larger than before as it comprises all three core brands. We didn’t want to use a totally new name as, following intense customer and internal discussions, we realised it would mean we would lose market recognition – and a unifying force for our passionate and loyal workforce.”

The hydronics pioneer

A key factor in this decision-making process was that the company was actually the first in the industry to use the term ‘hydronics’, so the strength of the brand has long been in the fabric of the company. The company is now focused on communicating the strength of the TA Hydronics brand to the market and to ensure that the launch of the new superbrand is perfectly coordinated to highlight the fact that combined competence of three brands together now delivers an integrated approach to help customers deal with the complexity of hydronic systems as easily as possible.

Ms Bright concluded, “TA Hydronics represents our integrated hydronic competencies in the fields of pressurisation and water quality, balancing and control and thermostatic control from each of our global product brands. We are now positioned more effectively to continue our role as the leading partner to support our customers in meeting their increasingly complex challenges in designing, installing, commissioning and maintaining optimally performing HVAC systems.” It’s all about energy efficiency and indoor comfort

Forty per cent of the world’s energy is consumed by HVAC systems in buildings, and optimising HVAC systems is a complex challenge requiring in-depth understanding of the total system and its dynamic nature. TA Hydronics’ unrivalled system knowledge and experience affords it a unique ability to deliver indoor climate comfort and energy efficiency across the world.It’s the new name for energy efficient HVAC expertise. n

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