Usually invisible pumps are closely related to our lives: air conditioning in office buildings, showers in residents'homes, municipal heating, even agricultural irrigation, sewage treatment, are inseparable from pumps. However, pumps are a major energy consumer, consuming about 10% of the world's energy every year. China's energy consumption on pumps is the highest in the world, accounting for 15% to 20% of the total energy consumption. As a result, Grandford, the global pump giant, has targeted China as the "second local market" for its water treatment market.
Since its entry into China in 1995, Grandford has been deeply engaged in the Chinese market for 22 years, and has participated in the construction of "Water Cube", "Bird's Nest", "National Grand Theater" and "Shanghai Disneyland" and other landmark projects. Under the demonstration effect of these projects, Grandford's sales in China have achieved an annual growth rate of 30% for several consecutive years.
Kim N? HR Skibsted, vice president of Grand Enrichment Group, said he hoped China's business would grow faster, which meant tailoring products and solutions to the Chinese market.
The Secret of Rapid Profit Growth --"Concentration"
The Grand Enrichment Mission is headquartered in the Danish border city of Aumbu, which is far from the prosperity of many big cities in China. Grandford employees jokingly call their company a "township enterprise". In fact, Grandford is the world's largest manufacturer of circulating pumps, with 83 subsidiaries in 56 countries, with an annual output of more than 16 million pumps. In Denmark, Grandford has more than 99% market share. Globally, Grandford's circulating pumps also cover about 50% of the market.
In 2016, Griffith's net turnover was 24.7 billion Danish kronor (about 25.8 billion yuan), its pre-interest and pre-tax profit was 2.2 billion Danish kronor, and its performance-related pre-tax profit was 25% higher than that in 2015.
Kim attributes the first factor in achieving good performance growth to two words: focus. "Focus on our products and services, while focusing on cost control and key growth points. The core competitiveness that we are most concerned about now is digitalization.
Kim said that at present many pump products in Grandford have been intellectualized, which can be interconnected between pumps and controlled by mobile phones and computers. In the future, Grandford plans to transfer data to the cloud and connect each pump system through cloud technology. "Now many people are talking about the Internet of Things. In fact, around 1980, Grandford had realized that he wanted to make pumps more intelligent. Since then, we have begun to focus on and develop intelligent products. Now competitors are generally concerned about intellectualization, so we need to do more.
Zhang Xiaoyan, Vice President of Grandford China, told reporters that China now has a project called "Intelligent Water" which is being implemented by water plants in many cities. The project can transmit the data of the scattered pumping stations to a general monitoring station. The operation of each pumping station can be seen on the control platform, which saves a lot of manpower and material resources and reduces energy waste. Grandford and the water company in the Suzhou Industrial Park have conducted pilot projects in this regard.
Zhang Xiaoyan said that in China, Grandford has developed much more in intelligent management, intelligent pumps and solutions than other countries.
Saving means making money.
Energy efficiency and water are two major global problems.
Christian Schou, the application manager of the Municipal Water Department of Gran Enrichment Group, told reporters that pumps consume 10% of the world's energy. If all inefficient pumps were replaced by optimized high-energy pumps, 4% of the world's energy could be saved --- equivalent to the consumption of electricity by 1 billion people.
"When it comes to pump costs, we're talking about life cycle costs. Energy is an important part of the total cost of pump life cycle. Christian said that in the past 10 to 20 years, the initial purchase price of the pump actually accounted for only 5% of the total cost, 10% of the service and maintenance, and the remaining 85% were energy consumption.
Zhang Xiaoyan gave an example to reporters: two secondary pressurized pumping stations of Qujiang District Water Supply Management Office, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, because of the aging of pumps, long-term overload of motors and serious energy waste, the two pumping stations spend more than 30,000 yuan a month on electricity, resulting in huge cost pressures. After the renovation of the pumping stations, the energy saving rates of the two pumping stations can reach 33% and 17% respectively. It is estimated that the electricity cost saved after 12 months of operation can cover the cost of the new pump.
Leakage in water supply is another major problem in cities around the world. Data from the World Bank show that 45 million cubic metres of drinking water are leaked from the pipeline network every day, which is enough to feed 200 million people.
The Danish Water Supply Company is widely recognized by the industry for its average water leakage rate of about 8%. Christian said that the water pressure in the pipeline network is not balanced in the process of transportation. The water consumption in every city, apartment building and factory is different, but the same water pressure will cause damage to the pipeline network and energy consumption, and water will leak out. Now Denmark uses intelligent pump system to manage and optimize the pressure of urban water supply system, which reduces water leakage. "We can avoid energy loss and network loss by installing sensors in urban pipeline network to understand the water use habits in different cities and different periods of time and supply water on demand. The controller modelling system is very rigorous. By controlling the frequency conversion to regulate the pump, the leakage loss can be reduced by 20%, the energy can be saved by 20% and the maintenance cost can be saved.
Tailor-made for the Chinese Market
The Chinese government's sustained investment in green development has enabled foreign companies such as Grandford to invest in China.
