Allentown, Pa. — Grundfos held a grand opening ceremony in mid-October to debut its new $4.5-million dollar warehouse, pump assembly and training center expansion here.
“Our 300% expansion (from 32,000 to 104,000-sq.ft.) was in direct response to customer demand for our products, service and training,” noted Dennis Wierzbicki, president of Grundfos USA. “Grundfos is focused on innovation, sustainability, efficiency, being responsive to our partners and the environment.”
Housed within the expansive warehouse facility, its commercial-grade, custom-build pump center offers rapid-response and typically ships completed orders within two to three days.
“Emergency orders can be completed and shipped on the same day they are received,” said John Petrella, Allentown facility operations manager. “Due to the advanced technology we incorporate into our variable-speed pumps, we can dial-in specific flow and head rates, which eliminates the need to trim impellers and grants us rapid response to our partners' needs.”
The crowd of manufacturer representatives, OEM partners, engineers, contractors and wholesale distributor visitors were given a wide-ranging tour of the expanded facilities, which included an added bonus: the Grundfos mobile training and trade-show-caliber center that's housed in an 18-wheeler trailer. The trailer body's sidewalls swing out and the floor spreads open to provide room for live-fire products, so visitors can see, first-hand, how the new Grundfos variable-speed pumps will load-match their fluid-process needs while slicing away large portions of energy costs currently associated with their applications.
“Twenty percent of the world's energy produced currently is utilized by pumps,” said Sherry Primm, Grundfos key account manager, western region. “Both the commercial and residential sectors have already begun to recognize and embrace the Grundfos variable-speed technology, which eliminates waste, reduces energy costs and extends life-spans of pumps. For example, our Magna pump on display will vary its power consumption from 10W to 450W, depending on the load and will react automatically as load conditions change. We attained ISO14001 Environmental Certification in 2002, which confirms Grundfos is dedicated to being known as a green company.”
The back third of the mobile training center houses a movie theater where more than 40 people can view a high-definition, wide-screen video showcasing the capabilities of the Grundfos product line.
Additional information is available at www.pumpsontour.com.