Now, 20 years later, the company believes the time is right for Brio Services to take on its next level of expansion, with owner and President James Hatch declaring at gasworld’s MENA Industrial Gas Conference 2019 in Dubai (UAE), “It’s time to go global.”
Brio works on industrial and cryogenic tanks, air separation units (ASUs), pipes, skids and other structures vital to the bulk gas and air separation industry. Its painting and coating services help to keep corrosion at bay, so equipment lasts longer, which reduces the costs of repairs and damage.
In the company’s first year it completed work on 42 tanks; today it services hundreds, if not thousands each year and is active across all 50 US states.
As an example of the scale of some of its work, Brio worked on the Air Liquide-Airgas rebrand of ASUs last year and early in 2019, before starting work on its involvement in the Linde-Messer Americas rebrand, for which it has a number of ASUs and around 4,000+ tanks to service and rebrand. At the time of writing, the project remains ongoing and it’s understood Brio is approaching the halfway point on these tanks (circa 2,000).
With 10 crews in different locations across the US, the company has also worked with MATHESON, Air Products, Linde plc, Norco, Reliant Holdings, Coca-Cola Company, and Pepsi to name just a few. And now, it’s time to go global, says Hatch.
“We’re in position, we’re ready,” he said. “We’re ready to go global and take our services, our passion for this subject, around the world.”
Hatch was speaking to gasworld at its MENA conference in Dubai, where he is working the exhibition booth with Brio Sales Manager Danny Thomas. Both are passionate about the work Brio does and it shows, with the company’s stand at the exhibition busy with footfall and active demonstrations taking place during our interview.
Thomas added, “We focus on delivering a hassle-free project in the gases industry for anything painted, whether that’s ASU plants, tanks, carbon dioxide (CO2) tanks, lead abatement, anything that needs paint servicing. People come to Brio because they trust us, and they know that even if something goes wrong Brio is going to take care of it.”
On the company’s plans for expansion, Thomas affirmed, “We’re active across all the US states, and now Canada too. We now officially have Brio Services of Canada as a legal entity up there and we had our first business in the country earlier this year. So that was really exciting, because we’ve always wanted to go international but felt like we were standing on the diving board watching the water, waiting for the right timing – and then we took a dive into Canada, our neighbours, and now we’re finding that there’s a global demand for our services.”
“We’ve found our niche, and we’re taking that niche global now.”
The MENA conference and exhibition has been something of a proving ground for the company already, with Thomas adding, “We just validated here today that there is a strong need for Brio Services in the Middle East region…we’ve had companies coming to us and saying ‘we need your services’ so that’s great.”
“And when we get into the job and we start mixing the paint, it doesn’t matter where we are, it feels like home.”