Worldwide Aeration Solutions For Industrial And Municipal Wastewater

Brian Cohen of Aeration Industries International talks about the company’s focus, scope, and product line, as well as market trends affecting the wastewater treatment industry.

Todd Schnick: Good morning and welcome back to Water Online Radio coming to you live from WEFTEC here in New Orleans, Louisiana.  I am Todd Schnick joined by my colleague, Todd Youngblood.

Todd, this next guy is going to be a handful – our guest.

Todd Youngblood: I’m afraid so, because I see this title written in both English and Spanish on the business card.  That spooks me a little bit.  Well, I’m going to give them the English version. 

Say hello to Brian Cohen, who is the president and CEO of Aeration Industries International.  Welcome to the show, Brian.   

Brian: Thank you very much.  It’s a pleasure to be here, and I’ll promise to just do this in English for simplicity. 

Todd Youngblood: Thank you.  Thank you.  Well, we appreciate that very, very much, sir.  Brian, before we get into it, take a second, tell us a little about you and your background. 

Brian: Sure.  Actually, I’ve been involved with the company my whole life.  It was founded by my grandfather and uncle.  So even though technically I’ve been with the company for 13 years, it’s been a part of my whole life.

I studied at Harvard University, East Asian studies.  And part of the reason was because we’re heavily involved in the international side of the business, so I knew my pathway at a young age.  And here I am now, officially the president and CEO as of this year.  It’s a new promotion. 

Todd Schnick: Outstanding. 

Brian: So a lot of responsibility, more gray hairs, but I’m looking forward to it. 

Todd Schnick: I bet.  Good for you. 

Todd Youngblood: So tell us all about Aeration Industries.  Tell us about the organization – what you do, how you serve your market. 

Brian: Yeah, actually, Aeration Industries, we’ve been founded in 1974, Chaska, Minnesota.  So if you hear a little bit of a Minnesota accent, that’s where that’s coming from.  But we do a lot of surface aeration systems and aerators – so both the actual systems and strictly on the aerobic side. 

We’re pretty unique in that half of our business is international, half of it is domestic.  And also, we have a good split between the industrial wastewater market and the municipal market. 

So we play into many fields and different sectors.  And it’s a good company to be a part of.  It’s got a good culture, a culture of innovation and a good team. 

Todd Youngblood: Well, if there are any set of industries, you think of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, there’s some change in that industry. 

Brian: Lots of it, yes. 

Todd Youngblood: Talk a little bit about that, the change in the industry and the change in your company to respond to it. 

Brian: Yeah, that’s a good question because we’re going through the strategic planning actually this year, and everybody says, “Geez, you play in so many different areas.”  That’s a good thing to have.

And actually, well, it’s tough because you do have to focus.  So what we’re doing right now is we’re really narrowing our focus into where we play best. 

A lot of where the industry’s going municipally – let’s face it – there’s not a lot of new plants being built.  So a lot of our business is retrofitted or rehabilitation markets.

That’s something that we do really well.  We have an aerator called the AIRE-O₂ TRITON which is a process aerator.  So it’s able to mix and aerate both in one.  And that’s very flexible for existing installations.

A lot of municipalities that are strapped with cash and not necessarily going to build a new plant in the future, we can go in there and rehabilitate them, modernize their plant at a very low cost.  So that’s one sector.

And then, industrially, there are certain industries that we’ve had good success over the years: pulp and paper, food and beverage.  And those are things that we’re going to continue to focus on as well. 

Todd Schnick: Well, we’re here at WEFTEC, so what products are you showcasing here at the event? 

Brian: We’re showcasing our AIRE-O₂ TRITON Aerator, the one I just mentioned.  It’s the next generation of the product we came to market with, the AIRE-O₂ Aspirator. 

The nice thing with the TRITON is it has a blower that controls the process off and on.  So if you need to just mix only, you turn off the blower and it’s a mixer. 

So for SBRs or anoxic phases, you can just keep the mixer turned off.  But then you turn on the blower, and you have an aerator only.  So it’s very flexible.  And that product is really the key to all of our systems that we do. 

We do oxidation oval systems with our Tri-Oval System and then also an SBR system without Argos SBR.  So all of those systems really play to the strengths of our TRITON Aerator. 

Todd Youngblood: Brian, we’ve heard an awful lot about energy conservation the last couple of days.  Could you just talk a little bit about how you’re addressing that? 

Brian: With the TRITON, the breakthrough of it is it’s actually high efficient aerator.  It’s oxygen transfer efficiency is three pounds.  But the real breakthrough is because of that blower, you can turn down the process so easily.  So if you have an advanced control system, you’re actually turn the TRITONs both off and on and really control that process. 

So whether you have a high flow or a high loading and then it goes low, then you can turn the equipment off.  So it’s really a flexible piece of equipment.  And also the footprint of it has a large, oversized mixing propeller, so we’re able to really mix deep.  So we can design our plants a lot deeper than conventional plants. 

Todd Schnick: You’re international, you’re domestic, you do industrial and municipal.  You got your pulse on a lot of things.  Looking down at the industry as a whole from 10,000 feet, what do you see and what’s the status of the industry? 

Brian: Well, it’s – I’m not going to lie – it was a rough patch here the last year or two.  And I think everybody – just talking to the other companies here – they’ve had a lot of the same issues that we’ve had. 

So it’s really – it’s been a blessing because it’s allowed us to focus on what we’re good at.  And it’s allowed us to grow the company internationally a little bit more than what we had. 

So part of our operations is in China.  Now we have boots on the ground via a staff in China.  And we’re able to now directly correspond to that audience a lot better.  So it’s given us this opportunity to really focus on where we need to grow the business.

Obviously, when there are tough times, the cream rises to the top.  So we’ve been forced to make those changes.  And a lot of companies in the industry echo the same story. 

Todd Youngblood: Now, Brian, I believe you said 50 percent of your business is U.S. and 50 percent international.  I got to believe you learn things in one part of the world that some other part of the world never heard of or thought of before.  Talk a little bit about maybe sharing best practices that you learn in various corners. 

Brian: Yeah, it’s actually something that in the last couple of years we’ve tried to bring together the international and the domestic sales team together. Because I think, historically, they’ve been separated and just assume that it is two different sides of the business; but we are actually integrating a lot of the ideas and the successes in, say, a country like India.  Maybe we can start to do some of that here in the United States. 

So there is a lot more crossover than what we thought it was.  And, of course, every country is different whether you’re playing in Thailand or Malaysia.  They’re neighbors but they’re completely different.  But there’s a lot of commonality in approaches to sales that we can copy throughout the organization. 

Todd Schnick: Are you considering any international expansion? 

Brian: Yeah, we have the office now in China.  We have two sales people there right now, but we’re considering growing there a little bit more into China.  Some of the other markets that we’ve had success in – India is another good market for us.  We’ve had a lot of growth opportunities there as well.

We are aligning our resources.  We’ve actually added now a new position for the international market that’s going to be focused strictly on that.  So we’ve always been international, but don’t think we’ve been proactive enough.

My background personally at the company is I’m on the international side.  So as I’ve got promoted, I’ve not focused as much on it.  So we’ve got a lot of backfilling to do there.

But it’s where we’ve been successful.  Our brand is really recognized quite well overseas.  And it’s amazing a small company in Minnesota has such an international footprint.  It’s a nice story. 

Todd Youngblood: You’ve mentioned China and East Asia, East Asian studies.  What about Latin America?  I would think that’d be a heck of an opportunity as well. 

Brian: Yeah, Latin America, it’s a good market for us, especially Mexico, our neighbors.  We have a long history there.  And it’s a country that we actually sell a lot with our – we have a division called the Aquaculture division which is about 10 percent of our company.  And we sell to the shrimp farms there as well.  So, yeah, actually, my wife is from Mexico, so –  

Todd Youngblood: Camarón.   

Brian: Yeah, Camarón, yeah.  And so it’s a special place for me.  And it will continue to be a focus for our company because they’re our neighbors and there’s a lot of opportunity.  Mexico’s growing as a whole.  And we’ve had success there for over 20 years.  And it’s a difficult country to do business in, but we’re committed to it. 

Todd Schnick: Things going well for Aeration Industries in WEFTEC? 

Brian: Very, very well.  Actually, we were saying that this show has probably been the best one in the last five years or so. 

Todd Youngblood: Oh, that’s good. 

Todd Schnick: Glad to hear it. 

Brian: Yeah, yeah.  So I think – I don’t know if it’s a factor of where it’s located, but I think it’s more of the general upturn in the economy and hopefully in our sector.  So the team is really, really positive about it.  We’ve had some quality leads.

It’s always great to see our reps from all over the world here as well.  So it’s been a really good experience.  And I’m exhausted and ready to go home and do some more work. 

Todd Youngblood: Yeah, I know we’re going to get close on time here, but I got to hear you say your title in Spanish. 

Brian: Boy, you’re kidding. 

Todd Youngblood: Oh, no.  I put you on the spot.  I’m sorry.   

Brian: Presidente – I think it’s [inaudible].  I forget the second part of it, but you’ve put me on the spot, but no worries. 

Todd Schnick: We’re just going to call you El Presidente. 

Brian: El Presidente is good.  Yeah, I just learned the CEO translation.  But when I talk to the Spanish guests, I’m always just presidente and no saluting, though, or nothing like that. 

Todd Schnick: Well, Brian, I hate to say it, but we’re out of time.  Before we let you go, how can people get in touch with you, and where can they learn more about Aeration Industries? 

Brian: Yeah, just come visit our website at www.aireo2.com.  It’s a little tricky.  It’s A-I-R-E-O then the number 2.com and then can also search for “Aire-O2 TRITON” or “Aire-O2 Aerator” on the Internet.

There are several places, including Water Online that will direct you to it.  Feel free to give us a call if you got any applications out there.  We’re more than happy to partner with you. 

Todd Schnick: All right.  Brian Cohen, the presidente and CEO of Aeration Industries International.  It was great to have you.  Thanks so much for joining us. 

Brian: Thank you.  Thank you, gentlemen. 

Todd Schnick: All right.  That wraps this segment, Water Online Radio, live from WEFTEC in New Orleans.  We’ll be right back.