Sulzer Pumps and Mather & Platt have together announced a licensing agreement allowing the manufacture, sale and servicing of Mather & Platt products and parts by Sulzer Pumps South Africa.

The agreement, signed in January 2013, will facilitate customer access to the Mather & Platt centrifugal pump range via both companies, allowing purchase of these pumps as well as access to spare parts and service.

The confusion over the link between Sulzer and Mather & Platt, now clarified by the licensing agreement, had its origins in the 19th century, when English company Mather & Platt developed and improved upon the 1875 invention of the Reynolds turbine centrifugal pump.

A few years later, Mather & Platt entered into an agreement with Swiss rival Sulzer that both companies would manufacture a multi-stage turbine pump based on the invention, but incorporating several improvements made by Sulzer.

The new design was an attractive one, and a sharing of markets seemed commercially feasible, but Sulzer was able to supply the pumps at a lower cost than Mather & Platt, and the agreement to produce the same type of pump ended in 1904.

Over the ensuing century, the intellectual property rights to the Mather & Platt brand, products and spare parts changed hands several times, with independent pump development by both Sulzer and by Mather & Platt leading to the confusion now amicably settled by the Southern African licensing agreement.

The most recent sale, in 2009, of Mather & Platt by PSV Holdings to WPIL confirmed Mather & Platt South Africa as the sole manufacturer, reconditioner and distributor of Mather & Platt pumps throughout Central and Southern Africa.

Sulzer South Africa is now the sole Mather & Platt licensee. Mather & Platt products, parts and service are now available from both Mather & Platt and Sulzer.