Reveyron partners with Beltservice for distribution

WASHINGTON—Beltservice Corp. is partnering with Reveyron to distribute its products in North America and provide factory level service in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. for Reveyron slabs and fabricated products.

The move is part of an effort to expand on Beltservice's lightweight conveyor belting, Paul Hirschmann, director of lightweight products, said at the NIBA annual meeting, held recently at the Gaylord National Hotel in Washington.

"We've always had that part of our business, but in the last three or four years, we've put a lot of emphasis into trying to grow that," Hirschmann said. "Reveyron's been one of our partners for over 10 years."

In the past, Beltservice has been looking to partner with and "fly the flag of a brand or company" specifically based in Europe, Hirschmann said. What makes the partnership work is Beltservice's focus on servicing and being dedicated to being a partner to distribution in the marketplace, rather than selling to end-users. As the market has been changing with how larger manufacturers approach it, there's an opportunity to grow the business.

"It's a great partnership. We've put together a team of people to go out and promote these products," he said. "We've worked with Reveyron for years, and we just think it's going to be something that the market will embrace and take advantage of."

The partnership will work in a similar function to Beltservice's agreement with Movex, where Beltservice is the direct factory representative and will promote the brand in North America for Reveyron, he said. As part of the development of Beltservice's lightweight program, the company has invested in hiring, bringing on about four new salespeople with industry experience, some based on the West Coast. It also is educating and training its current sales staff on the new products. The team will cover the entire North American region.

Reveyron is bringing on a new manufacturing line at its Lyon, France, facility. The company had been producing polyurethane conveyor belts with powder coat with the capability to make very short runs, Reveyron President Pierre Reveyron said. The belts can be produced in slabs about 330 feet long by about 6.5 feet wide with multiple possible colors and thickness.

Production for the powder coat line is full, and Reveyron invested in a new extrusion/calender conveyor belt manufacturing line in the same facility, he said. The line, also producing at about 6.5 feet wide, has been installed and the first test was run recently. The two lines give Reveyron the flexibility to do long-run manufacturing with customized short runs. Polyurethane belts have applications in the food industry, but are expanding to include other markets, he said.

"More and more we are selling PU belting in industrial applications," he said. "Polyurethane belts are more abrasion resistant than regular, so for some applications we can shift to that type of belt. They are much more easy to customize. … It's tighter, it's very strong, it can go wide and fast."

As Reveyron has worked on the new manufacturing line, it brought on four more employees, bringing the company total to about 60, he said.

The Beltservice partnership is a natural extension of Reveyron's ongoing relationship, and it made sense to move forward with it as the company was bringing on the new manufacturing line, he said.

"We tried to find the best way to get closer," Reveyron said. "This is important for us, not to consider Beltservice as a distributor, but this is the arm of Reveyron in the U.S. We are producing the belt, they are selling it. … We consider that they are part of our company."