In the spring of
1981, Davis Controls was appointed Canadian distributor for the Richard Klinger
program of Magnetic Level Gauges manufactured in Sidcup, Kent in England as
well as for their line of steam valves and conventional sight level gauges for
steam and process applications, manufactured in Gumpoldskirchen, Austria.
By 1989, sales and
the relationship between Davis and Klinger had developed to the point where it
made good sense for us to enter into a Manufacturing
license agreement, authorizing Davis Controls to manufacture Magnetic Level Gauges for the Canadian and US
markets. Under this agreement, the
proprietary gauge components were sourced from Klinger in Europe while the
pressure bearing fittings and material could be sourced in North America, where
we could more easily locate and control the pipe, flanges and other pressure
boundary parts needed to satisfy our local ANSI, ASME
and CRN specifications.
This was our first
and so far only foray into outright Manufacturing, and once again, I am pleased
to say that this too has been a successful venture for us. At another level, short of full blown
manufacturing, Davis Controls has always been involved in ‘marginal
manufacturing’, panel building, kitting and assembly and this activity
continues to represent a large component of our value proposition.
We are often asked
if we have any interest in being involved with a manufacturer under a Representative relationship or ‘Rep’ agreement. This role differs from that of a Distributor
in that it is the function and responsibility of a Distributor to purchase
(take ownership), import, stock and resell product. Sales
Representatives on the other hand are intermediaries that act on behalf of the Manufacturer but do not take title to
the products and instead are responsible to solicit orders from customers for
which they then collect a commission and/or fee from the manufacturer
(exporter). The role of the ‘Rep’ gets
a bit complicated when you have the conversation with the customer about who
will pay the import duties (not a big deal any more, but it used to be),
freight from the manufacturer and brokerage fees that are imposed when the
shipment crosses the border and then about what currency the manufacturer
expects to be paid in and who will assume the exchange risk. We, as a Distributor, take care of all of
these import transaction issues and provide the product FOB Oakville. We have elected not to get involved in ‘Rep’
relationships so that we are free to provide the human and technical resources
necessary to understand and promote the product effectively.
Field Service and
Commissioning are two other activities that Davis Controls is
profitably involved in. We have trained
and experienced technicians in our Service department who, in addition to the
bench repairs they perform on products that we sell, are regularly engaged in
field service and calibration, maintenance contracts, set up and commissioning. You may recall from my first two blogs that
when Mr. Davis started the company in 1933, he single-handedly managed both the
Distribution and Service activities of Davis Controls from the seat of his
bike, and we faithfully continue in that tradition.
Social Media: You have probably noticed that our
website www.daviscontrols.com has been enhanced with the following social
media links and while we have quite a bit of activity already on each site, we
still have a lot to learn about how to leverage these web-based and mobile
based technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue with our
customer accounts and contacts.
The fact that you are reading this blog is confirmation that
at least this element of our ‘social’ initiative to communicate newsy items
about Davis Controls is working.
Finally, the last two activities that I will mention only
briefly are Joint Ventures
and System Integration, both
of which have been tried, but with less than spectacular results. In both cases these experiments, which
seemed like good ideas at the time, were terminated for reasons too complex to
review here. For now, it is enough to
say that they have been considered, tried and set aside, at least for now.
