Customer is key in IPR partnership with Atlas Copco

Atlas Copco management has reaffirmed its partnership with local master distributor IPR, highlighting their joint focus on customer applications and needs. This follows IPR’s appointment last year to distribute Atlas Copco’s dewatering pumps in Southern Africa. Both firms are looking forward to their synergy delivering great results for customers in the region.

Atlas Copco’s GM Power Technique for Southern Africa, Faouzi Belgharbia, highlighted that they had chosen IPR for its strong presence in the market and its passion for serving customers with dewatering requirements.

“Beyond selling and servicing Atlas Copco pumping equipment, IPR is our ears and eyes in the market,” said Belgharbia. “This gives us the feedback we need to constantly improve our products.”

As a leading designer and manufacturer of dewatering pumps, Atlas Copco had built its global reputation by evolving the technology necessary to meet changing customer needs, he said. The pump sector is an important pillar of the company’s global growth strategy, as it works to develop its share of this large and competitive market.

Atlas Copco’s range of dewatering pumps includes wet prime and dry prime diesel driven pumps, as well as submersible pumps for dewatering as well as sludge and slurry pumping. The diesel driven pumps range in capacity from a 30 m to 150 m head, with flow rates from 50 to 1500 m³ per hour. The submersible range extends from 0,4 kW to 54 kW power.

According to David Stanford, Atlas Copco’s Business Line Manager Power Technique for Southern Africa, an important element of the partnership with IPR is to be close to the customer. Both companies, said Stanford, prioritised the need for detailed consultation with customers, to fully understand the nature of their challenges.

“Quick feedback from the market makes sure we understand what works best, and what needs improvement,” he said. “Sometimes we must be ‘comfortable with the uncomfortable’, to really meet the needs of the customer.”

IPR MD Lee Vine pointed to IPR’s extensive engineering expertise, built on the insights into customers’ challenges over the years. IPR has not only delivered a standard range of pump solutions in dewatering, dredging and hydro mining – but its skilled engineering team has custom designed and manufactured bespoke solutions.

“This gives us considerable insight into customer applications, and where the Atlas Copco range can add further value,” said Vine.