Mono Pumps serious move into the food industry

Mono Pumps is a major presence in the water / waste and offshore markets: their recent new product presentation, the Helios PC pump, heralds a strong move into the food and hygienic pump market

Last week Mono presented a new pump to the press: quite an event for a company that has just quietly carried on producing pumps, grinders, screens and packaged systems without shouting about them for at least 20 years.

Mono has been around for over 70 years: they say their success is down to selecting the best product to provide an individual, tailored solution right for the process in question.

I would suggest they have steadily engineering their progressing cavity pump (in particular) to perfection, and tailored the business and service profile to serve the requirements of their chosen specific market segments, water/waste and offshore..

This has resulted in nearly half their business being focussed on water and waste, and another 40% on the oil and offshore industries.

The latter is possibly why they were acquired by National Oilwell Varco in 2003.

The Mono Progressing Cavity Pump has advantages when dealing with a shear sensitive product, so is very applicable to delicate foods, and fruit pumping applications.

This is where their new Helios range is targeted, (see http://www.processingtalk.com/news/mon/mon135.html ) using stainless steel body materials and a rubber boot sealed pin joint on the single helix rotor.

The food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries already use Mono pumps, they have a track record of supply for sugar, dairies, meat paste: some of these are recorded in their example applications, see http://www.processingtalk.com/news/mon/mon136.html - many household names are major customers.

What seems to have changed with the Helios, is that Mono have established an active network of Distributors throughout Europe, who are out selling the Helios now, and they are setting up a food industry sales support structure for their direct UK sales.

The standard Mono approach of stocked product on short delivery from Manchester is now also backed up by a desire to quote the whole package requirement, including motor drive and gearbox.

Distributor response to the Helios in Southern Europe has been enthusiastic, maybe significantly because the price level for Helios is reported as significantly below the previous stainless steel options offered for Mono food industry pumps.

Roll-out to other world regions will come by the year end.

Turning round to look at production, Mono is inevitably sourcing some of the standard stainless components from overseas suppliers, and has its own factories and offices in China (Shanghai), Australia, New Zealand, USA and UK (Manchester).

But the Manchester staff levels have been maintained, at around 670 people, and this year they will increase the number of apprentices taken on there, to a suggested 6 or 7.

Their site at Audenshaw in Manchester is where the manufacturing regarded as critical, or proprietary, is carried out.

The anticipated and already scheduled success of Helios is leading to more production and employment in this expanding UK factory, it sounds like a success story, that is already starting to roll.

For the Mono press releases see http://www.processingtalk.com/news/mon/mon000.html.

Back to top