Interpump takes aim at N.A. hydraulics market

The North American market for hydraulic hose and fittings may be crowded, but Italy's Interpump Group S.p.A. hopes there's room for at least one more competitor.

The firm last year hired industry veteran Tim Carey as business development manager, and at NAHAD's Annual Convention in Colorado Springs, Colo., he launched the firm's effort to sell hydraulic hose and fittings in the market under the Interpump Hydraulic Connectors brand.

Carey and Steve Vonigas—another industry veteran—will be selling products made by IMM Hydraulics S.p.A. in the region. IMM is an Interpump Group company based in Italy that boasts two hose plants and a fittings factory in that country, a third hose plant in Romania and a crimper facility in the United Kingdom.

Interpump first bought a 60 percent share in IMM in 2013 and purchased the remainder in June 2015. IMM posted 2014 sales of about $82 million.

“We are one of the few manufacturers in the world that manufacture our own hose and fittings in our own factories,” Carey said. “They will make all of our hose and all of our fittings, so it's a match set.”

The parent company is a conglomerate that boasted 2015 sales of nearly $1 billion, with about half of its revenue in the water blast business and the other half in hydraulics and fluid power, with its most prominent names in the latter being Wallvoil and Muncie Power Products. Muncie Power's top product is power takeoffs, and the firm also sells such goods as cylinder valves, pumps, motors and other hydraulic offerings.

But Interpump Group lacked hydraulic hose and fittings until it purchased IMM, and even then the offerings mainly were directed at Europe.

That will now change, according to Carey. Over the past year, the company worked to make all the product modifications needed to make it an “American-friendly brand,” he said, including such things as changes to packaging, specifications and reels.

Carey went to the factories in Italy last year, and since then there have been weekly conference calls with the staff at IMM to ensure that the products, branding and business plan were ready to go. During NAHAD, Carey and Vonigas manned a tabletop exhibit during the contact program, and also met individually with a number of prospective customers.

The two will be based out of Muncie, Ind., and will benefit from the resources of Muncie Power Products as a launching board for its North American efforts.

Carey started in the hydraulic hose business in 1995 with Aeroquip and was with the firm for 12 years, including through its acquisition by Eaton Corp. From there, he joined Manuli USA in 2007, another Italian firm that grew its North American business from scratch to become a substantial player in the market. He worked outside the industry for a year before being hired last year with Interpump.

Vonigas has 35 years of experience in the industry. He had stints at Aeroquip and a couple of distributors, including nearly 10 years at Hydraquip.

“I'm the factory guy and Steve is the distributor guy,” Carey said. “He understands the needs of the distributor, and I know how to deal with the factory.”

And while Interpump Hydraulic Connectors is a new name in the region, he said potential customers will have the security of knowing the firm has a 30-year history of reliability.

“Interpump wants to be a global company, and they want to complete their fluid power offerings globally, and hose and fitting is certainly a very significant portion of that,” Carey said. “Interpump intends to make more acquisitions in fluid power, specifically in hose and fitting companies worldwide. It has doubled in size in the last five years and intends to stay on that growth path with multiple acquisitions each year along with organic growth.”

Carey and Vonigas will start first by trying to market to distributors with whom they have had relationships. The plan is to get the distributors first to sell Interpump as an add-on line and eventually get them to make the brand its main offering.

With Parker Hannifin, Gates and Eaton still combining to take up more than half the hydraulic hose and fittings market share in North America, Carey said he still believes Interpump can build a sizable business from scratch.

“One of the things we offer is if you start with a new brand, you're not competing with five other guys in the same market who have this new brand,” he said. “We have very good support from Interpump as a parent company. This is not a greenfield I'm doing on my own where I'm trying to hire my own team to do everything.”

The company will begin by offering container deliveries shipped directly to hydraulic distributors that are high-volume users, an approach that offers customers breaks on both price and efficiencies. Sales initially will be strictly through distribution, with Interpump targeting distributors who currently purchase $400,000 to $500,000 a year in hydraulic hose and fittings.

Though container sales will be the preferred method of sale, he said Interpump also has a 27,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Muncie where it is starting to stock product for sale in North America.

“Our goals are significant because we are being well supported, and we are part of a bigger company that wants to grow its overall fluid power business here in North America,” Carey said.

And the parent company has shown patience, he said, as it understands what needs to be done to get its line properly prepared for the market. “When we said we need to do these things to have it right for the market, they said, "All right, tell us how long that takes and then go take it to market.' “