SWAN Analytical Keeps It Simple

Andreas Georgi, regional sales manager for SWAN Analytical USA, sat down with Water Online Radio for this live interview from the show floor at WEFTEC 2011 in Los Angeles. Georgi discussed the SWAN product line, its focus on reliability and ease of use, and penetrating the water and wastewater market. Listen to learn more.

Todd Schnick: And we're back, broadcasting live from the Los Angeles Convention Center and the tradeshow floor of WEFTEC. I am Todd Schnick, joined by my co-host, Todd Youngblood. We are cruising along hour seven, having a good time.

Todd Youngblood: It doesn’t seem anywhere near hour seven; it’s actually more like hour 14, though, isn’t it? Maybe 15?

Todd Schnick: Well, it’s day two, but hour seven today and I'm having a great time. What about you?

Todd Youngblood: I don't want it to end.

Todd Schnick: No, I'm telling you, I wish I could do a day three. Well, let's get to our next guest. We're really excited about this one – it’ll be a lot of fun. He's the Regional Sales Manager, West of SWAN Analytical, USA. Andreas Georgi, welcome to Water Online Radio.

Andreas Georgi: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Todd Schnick: Well, before we get into our conversation, why don't you take a second and just walk us through a little about you, your background, and the work that you're doing for SWAN Analytical.

Andreas Georgi: I've been in the industry for about 20 years – various analytical and industrial products. I've been with SWAN Analytical for two years now. SWAN Analytical USA is actually the relatively new branch of SWAN Analytical Swiss Company, manufacturer of analytical instrumentation for water-based measurements, and I cover the western United States.

Todd Youngblood: Andreas, what kind of trends are you seeing in the industry that are catching your attention?

Andreas Georgi: One trend that I'm particularly interested in is the Title 22 water, the increased use of gray water – Title 22 water – and I think we have some very interesting products for those kinds of applications.

Todd Schnick: Well tell us about those products. What is SWAN doing to address that issue?

Andreas Georgi: For that kind of an application, we would have excellent products for chlorine – both total chlorine, free chlorine – and turbidity. And we have products that are very low-maintenance, very reliable, very easy to operate.

Todd Schnick: And in terms of value delivered to customers…I mean, how are they justifying the investment in those kinds of products?

Andreas Georgi: Well, we offer products that are very simple to use, that have no or very few maintenance requirements, very few spare parts, very few consumables, that take all the variables out – like flow conditions, temperature –and just let you focus really on the parameters that you’re wanting to look at.

Todd Schnick: Help the thousands of professionals in the Water Online community better understand the value that you're bringing to your customers by sharing, if you will, a recent win or victory that you achieved on behalf of one of your customers.

Andreas Georgi: Well, it's not exactly in the same field, but you might look at SeaWorld in San Diego, where we did a test on our chlorine analyzer and we did a trial, side-by-side, for three months.

And when I went back, we asked them how often did they have to clean it and so forth, and it looked exactly like the day I put it in – didn't have to touch it at all – or, you know, compared to various changes in reagents or tubing for the other manufacturer.

Todd Youngblood: Yeah, I like the example. I mean, I've loved SeaWorld ever since I went the first time when I was little kid, so that's great. That example hits home for me.

Andreas Georgi: Everybody knows who SeaWorld is.

Todd Youngblood: Everybody knows exactly who it is.

Todd Schnick: Shifting gears a little bit, let’s talk about the technology. What kind of technology trends are you seeing, and how are you keeping up with that, and what are your customers doing? What kind of technology are they most interested in?

Andreas Georgi: As far as trends, I'm not sure where to go, but what we find is that customers are more and more occupied with very complicated processes and really don't have the time to be dealing with a lot of maintenance.

So maintenance reduction is key for our customers. Our key customers are the end user, for the most part, and they just don't have the time to be guessing whether something is measuring accurately and spending a lot of time replacing parts or reagents. So if you can simplify the process for them – that's really the biggest value that you could bring to them, and that's what we do.

Todd Youngblood: I mean, it sounds like you keep coming back to the theme – or at least as I’m interpreting it – as to cost and savings.

Andreas Georgi: Reliability. Reliability and ease of use.

Todd Youngblood: And that's important in an economy like this one.

Todd Schnick: In terms of integrating, though – there are so many different moving parts anymore to these kinds of systems – how important is collaborating with other vendors and with the customers and with end users and getting all those groups to communicate so that everybody sees the value in what you’re delivering?

Andreas Georgi: Well, we being relatively new to the U.S. water market, we have to get our name out and that's primarily what we're doing at WEFTEC.

We have been in the power industry in the United States for a long time and people know our name, but we have get our name out to the water market. And that's why we're being very aggressive about promoting our company at shows like this, and also through Water Online and other journals.

Todd Schnick: What prompted you to add a focus on this industry in addition to the power industry? I mean, what did you see about this particular market that was attractive?

Andreas Georgi: Well, it's a great potential, obviously.

Todd Youngblood: It's certainly big enough.

Andreas Georgi: It's certainly big enough. And, in speaking to customers, there is room for a company that can come in and deliver products that have real added value that are differentiated from what everybody else does, which is what we think we're able to offer.

Todd Schnick: Andreas, what does the next three to five years look like for SWAN Analytical?

Andreas Georgi: We are looking to grow our presence in the United States and get better known in the water and wastewater markets. We certainly are expanding our presence in terms of abilities to offer maintenance and tech service – more regional presence throughout the country.

Todd Schnick: My friend, I hate to say it but we're out of time. Before you go, share with the audience how they can contact SWAN Analytical, learn more about the good works that you're doing.

Andreas Georgi: Okay. We are at booth 2401 in the South Hall. And you could also reach us through our website, which is SWAN-Analytical-USA.com, and you’ll find all the contact information for us there.

Todd Youngblood: Andreas Georgi, it was a pleasure having you. Thanks for joining us today.

Andreas Georgi: Thank you. And you pronounced my name correctly, thank you.

Todd Schnick: Outstanding.

Todd Youngblood: Thanks, Andreas. I think he got lucky with that.

Todd Schnick: Oh, absolutely…are you kidding me? On behalf of Todd Youngblood, I'm Todd Schnick. Water Online Radio will be right back.