Last year, Endress + Hauser South Africa celebrated its 40^th birthday.  What has changed? What has stayed the same?

BK: There have been a number of significant changes in terms of acquisitions, revenue growth, and product development. But our family culture – which is the backbone of the company – has remained the same. At Endress, we take pride in the longevity of our team, with the majority of employees having been with us for 5-10 years, and several celebrating long service milestones of 20, 25 and even 30 years. This contributes towards the sustainability of the company.

How important is the water and wastewater sector to Endress + Hauser?

We have seven core industries:

1. Food and beverage
2. Oil and gas
3. Life sciences
4. Chemical
5. Power & energy
6. Mining, minerals and metal
7. Water and wastewater.

As water is used in every industry, water and wastewater is one of our largest and most important core industries. Endress + Hauser’s origins lie in flow meters.

Our portfolio helps to ensure the availability and sustainable management of the entire water cycle. Our measurement, analysis and maintenance solutions assist our clients in reaching a high degree of compliance and process efficiency.

South Africa is one of Endress + Hauser’s many subsidiaries around the world. Is there anything that South Africa can learn from other countries? And how do you ensure that your offering is relevant to African markets?

Europe’s certification systems have long been recognised as one of its most influential exports, shaping global industries, fostering trust, and ensuring quality and safety. We are always learning from our European subsidiaries, but a key focus for us as a South African subsidiary is to adapt the Endress + Hauser service and product offer to African markets.

One of the key focus areas for Endress + Hauser South Africa is training and skills development. We have accredited training courses in basic-advanced instrumentation. We also have courses that are web based and designed to simulate a real process environment.

There are some serious skills gaps in the sector and our training centre aims to address this.  We consistently have conversations and training sessions with people throughout the entire value chain; from people installing plants to our end customers on trends in Europe, auto cleaning, verification, calibration, monitoring and maintenance. We also provide customised training, depending on the people who attend our course.

Endress + Hauser South Africa differentiates itself from its competitors by going the extra mile in helping its customers to select the correct instrumentation as well as operating and maintaining it. We believe in selling a solution to a problem, and this solution may have all the bells and whistles and tech attached to it, or it may be more rudimentary.

We consult with our customers to make sure that we understand what they need and from there, we provide them with several options. There is also an increased interest in service level agreements as many of our customers realise that they are not experts in instrumentation and would rather outsource these services and focus on their core business.

Our subsidiaries in China and India often deal with the same challenges experienced in African countries. We therefore work closely together to find fit for purpose solutions for our customers.

How does Endress + Hauser operate in Africa?

Before we create a formal Endress + Hauser subsidiary in an African country, we form a partnership with local partners. It is important to us that the economic, cultural and legislative conditions in each country is understood and that local people, who have a permanent presence in that country and have knowledge of these conditions are involved. We train these people to ensure that they can add value from a product selection and services perspective. This is key and ensures that our business in every country is sustainable.

What are some of the trends in the world of instrumentation?

The integration of smart sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is a major driver in modern instrumentation. Sensors can now communicate wirelessly, provide real-time data, and offer predictive analytics.

There is an increase in IO-link products for the more basic communication of data. Endress + Hauser has a complete portfolio of IO-Link products. The requirement for ethernet communication on the device will increase in the future and we are well positioned for this.

What excites you about Endress + Hauser?

I am very proud of Endress + Hauser South Africa’s BBBEE level 3 status – we are now working hard to maintain and then further improve that where possible.

Corporate social responsibility is incredibly important to us. One of the facets of our corporate social responsibility is to annually provide ten to 15 technicians with a wholistic training experience that includes basic process instrumentation training (PMI).

The family culture has created a long term view for the company, with an incredible product portfolio. We have also made an exciting joint-venture with German sensor company – SICK Clean Industries – that will further increase our basket of products and access into the relevant customers.

Currently, South Africa has an improved economic outlook. Investor sentiment and domestic confidence is better than previous years and Endress + Hauser is well positioned to take advantage of that.