The partnership is set to help Orthodyne grow and service its line of gas chromatographs in Canada and the US. Both companies share a long heritage in the instrumentation field and are recognised for the quality, robustness, versatility, and accuracy of their analyser technologies.
Alleur, Belgium-based Orthodyne specialises in high-purity gases, as well as industrial gases and, through its focus on chromatography instruments in the gaseous phase, its equipment can be found in air separation plants, cylinder-filling plants, and major laboratories.
gasworld spoke to both MEECO and Orthodyne to find out more about the recent partnership.
“MEECO is the ideal partner since we have a lot of common points: we share the same customers; we are both manufacturers of our own technology and MEECO’s product is complementary to our gas chromatographs. They are really not a competitor and we have everything to create a strong partnership in the analytical market,” said Eric Streel, Managing Director at Orthodyne.
MEECO has been producing high-quality gas analysers since 1948 and holds extensive knowledge of the industry. The company also shares many of the same global blue-chip customers as Orthodyne, with strong relationships in the US market opening doors to local prospective users.
Lisa Bergson, CEO of MEECO told gasworld, “We greatly respect Orthodyne’s combination of proven technology and commitment to continued innovation, which mirrors our own perspective. Plus, their exquisite workmanship and quality orientation very much epitomises the companies we aim to represent in our curated portfolio of products.”
The partnership with MEECO came about after Orthodyne’s previous US representative, Cosa Xentaur, was acquired by equity investor Union Park Capital LLC around a year ago and the company refocused its strategy.
Source: MEECO, Inc.
Eric Steel, Orthodyne’s Managing Director and Jerry Riddle, MEECO’s President celebrate partnership
“Consecutive to their acquisition by Union Park Capital, and after discussions, we decided in mutual agreement to stop our collaboration. We had to find a new partner and the timing with MEECO, who had sold Tiger Optics a few months before was perfect,” Streel told gasworld in an exclusive interview.
Expanding on the rationale for the partnership, Bergson said, “We sold our newer company, Tiger Optics, in June and were looking for a way to build on MEECO’s legacy business and our own extensive experience in the instrument industry.”
“At Semicon Taiwan last September, we had the good fortune to visit the Orthodyne booth and learned that they sought a partner to expand their presence in the US and Canada. We had known and liked one another for many years, and it just clicked!”
Orthodyne has been growing significantly for the last three years, opening offices in India and South America. The newest partnership with MEECO further underscores the company’s commitment to expanding its global footprint.
“It is absolutely essential for a European company to have a partner in the US to deal with the American and North American market, including Canada. It is crucial in our market and for our main customers to have partners close to the field who can react very quickly,” said Streel.
“For MEECO, most of all we aim to achieve Orthodyne’s goals for sales, market share, customer base, and product acceptance. It is paramount for us that we achieve this as part of our new Valu-ME™ programme, whereby we will leverage our reputation, industry knowledge, and professional knowhow to bring exceptional products to new markets and exciting new products to existing markets,” said Bergson.
Looking forward to how the partnership could potentially grow in the future, Streel commented, “Our ultimate goal is to provide a strong local service in the US through local offices at different key places.”
“We could also have some analysers manufactured and tested in the US to turn the service centre into an operation centre and bring an even faster solution to our customer’s problems. But we need to build a solid basis first and not want to cut corners,” Streel concluded.