INDUSTRY LEADERS
BRIAN KRISHNA Xylem
TAKING THE LEAD IN WATER MANAGEMENT
Brian Krishna is the Managing Director of Xylem Australia and New Zealand. He discusses the importance of water management in the extractive industry, the robustness of Xylem’s products throughout the pandemic, and how Xylem can offer holistic solutions to quarrying operations that span water efficiency, environmental management and professional development. How has Xylem in Australia and New Zealand performed in the past 20 months (during the global pandemic)? We remained focused as a company across Australia and New Zealand to live our tag line: “Let’s Solve Water.” We’re all very driven by our purpose to live in a world where water is not a barrier to human health and prosperity, and that continues to drive us to solve water challenges with our customers and communities. It’s kept us very busy. Of course, we empathise with our colleagues and customers that have been in lockdowns. Australia and New Zealand have been in lockdowns in certain areas for extended periods of time but staff have remained very motivated, according to what drives us every day, and that means we have performed quite solidly during the pandemic, engaging with customers and communities. Has the pandemic dramatically changed the way Xylem now does business with the Australian extractive industries? Not dramatically. We have been communicating with our customers more on the likes of Zoom and Teams but first and foremost we love to get to our customers’ sites, living and breathing where the quarry is and where the extraction points are. So, having to adjust to a more virtual form of communication has been a challenge. One of the strengths I’ve seen come out in our business is that the market and the customers are really depending on high quality, reliability, strong service and back-up. That’s what we’ve really been able to demonstrate over the course of the pandemic. We have 13 locations across Australia and New Zealand, they all have service and rental capability, either on-site with the customer or back within our own facilities – and I think that to me that has been the big stand-out. I’ve had feedback from our customers that even though we haven’t been able to be in front of them as much as
16
Quarry January 2022
we would like, our quality and reliability has really stacked up. The equipment for them has worked on-site day in, day out. It’s been a challenge but there’s an upside for the market seeing our business in a different light. What are Xylem’s most popular products in the Australian extractive industries? It’s certainly our pump brands – Flygt and Godwin. Flygt is our submersible pump and Godwin is our open-pit diesel-driven or electric-driven transfer pump. Why are they so popular? It’s mainly because both brands have more than 100 years of history behind them. Flygt is Swedish and Godwin is an English pump brand. We have very strong brand recognition with those two brands, and they are extremely robust and reliable, and that’s what customers have seen in the pandemic period – this equipment stays on-site, it’s reliable and it works, and as a result of that quality, it needs less attention for the longer term. What I would like to see us demonstrate in the market is that we have a huge portfolio that treats, measures and monitors water. That is something that we are actively promoting throughout the Australian extractive industries. I think we have a lot more to offer as a complete water management company, not just in the traditional pumping area. Xylem’s Flygt range of submersible pumps.
How can Xylem best assist quarries and other small mines with their water management challenges? Xylem is a water technology company, and therefore we have a very full portfolio of solutions and products. The best way we can help our customers is to be a water management partner – and a way we can do that is by coming to site and evaluating every point that water touches the business and offering a “water audit”, ie some inspection advice or site audit advice. We want to track and trace water usage and help customers understand how they can better use water. It may not just be a capital solution. At Xylem, we have a portfolio of rental solutions, so if capital expenditure (CAPEX) is tight, we have operational expenditure (OPEX) solutions as well. We rent out many of the pumps that you can purchase – which is often a great way to try before you buy. We’re also responsible for the service of that equipment in the hire terms of the agreement. We can also hire out water monitoring equipment. And sometimes we do that for short-term reasons, eg there could have been an environmental issue on a site, and we need to do some monitoring for one to two months to get a
