2,000th Aerator for Tsurumi Spanish Dealer

Hydreutes, S.A., which was founded in 1983, stocked Tsurumi products from the very start, within a year of them first becoming available on the European market. Back then the company only carried a small range of Tsurumi pumps – mainly the smaller model contractor pumps. Today, 25 years on and as one of Tsurumi’s longest-serving dealerships, Hydreutes stocks nearly all pumps and aerators that are available in Europe.

“We get all new launches as soon as we can,” says Javier Ibáñez, Managing Director of Hydreutes, S.A. “We try our best to be one of the very first companies to offer new Tsurumi products.”

In the early days, the majority of Hydreutes’ business was in rental. Nowadays, however, own rental only accounts for 15 per cent of turnover as the focus has shifted more towards sales to rental companies. Throughout his 25 years in business, Mr. Ibáñez has seen Tsurumi products increase in popularity, a factor he puts down to the brand’s reliability and adaptability:

“Tsurumi products have a really broad appeal,” he says. “They have many applications for mining and construction companies. They can be adapted to practically all types of industries within the domestic market. I would expect Tsurumi products to find applications in up to 90 per cent of Spanish market sectors.”

It was solid year on year growth in contractor equipment, and the increasing popularity of submersible aerators in Spain, that helped Hydreutes to reach the historic 2,000 aerator landmark in 2008. Mr. Ibáñez attributes his success to the commitment of several long-standing customers.

“We have a loyal customer base with companies such as Cadagua, Acciona and Fomento that have been with us for 25 years,” he says. “Many of our customers offer a holistic service – construction, consultation and installation. Our largest customers are primarily the medium-to-large-sized residential waste water treatment plants. Some of them can have upwards of 40 to 50 units in continual operation,” he adds.

Joint venture

But all of this recent success has not dampened Hydreutes’ ambition. In 2006 the company entered into a joint venture with Portuguese pump specialist Hidrovento. One of the initial aims of the joint venture was to help Hydreutes’ Spanish customers – who had branches in Portugal – to be able to offer them the same level of support in that market as they were used to in Spain. The move also helped to consolidate Hydreutes’ position in the Iberian peninsular and offered both companies an opportunity to increase buying power and have a greater sales presence in the field.

The move, Mr. Ibáñez feels, has been enormously beneficial for his customers: “We can offer much more aggressive prices on Tsurumi products than before,” he explains. “Our joint venture means faster deliveries, higher capacity to do installations and greater product availability. These are all important factors for our customer base.”

Leaders in the field

Backing up Tsurumi‘s reputation as a reliable brand is the fact that the company is still the only aeration equipment manufacturer to have tested all of its aerators to the new EN 12255-15 European standard – this calls for equipment to have its oxygen transfer rates measured under defined standard conditions and is an obvious plus point with customers.

“At first we used the EN standard as a selling point to our customers,” explains Mr. Ibáñez. “However, in the last one or two years, we have seen people starting to seek us out and ask for it. Tsurumi products have always had a reputation for quality and innovation and this is just another example of that.”

As testimony to the high quality of the brand, Mr. Ibáñez adds that in his whole 25 years of experience in the industry, he has had to sell practically no Tsurumi spare parts for aeration equipment at all. “Maintenance costs are traditionally very low as Tsurumi equipment, such as the aerators, rarely break down,” he says.

About Tsurumi

Tsurumi is one of the world’s most experienced pump manufacturers. From its modern facility in Kyoto, Japan, Tsurumi produces more submersible pumps globally per year than any other pump manufacturer. There are currently over 1800 different pump models in the Tsurumi range, including semi-vortex, vortex, non-clog, cutter, contractor & dewatering, sewage & wastewater, aerators & blowers, decanting units and scum skimmers. Tsurumi operates on a worldwide basis with an extensive dealer network in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia and parts of Africa.