No plateaus for Taco

CRANSTON, RHODE ISLAND — John Hazen White Jr., chairman of Taco Inc., will not stand in place. “I have a threshold theory,” White said recently in a telephone press conference. “When you hit a certain threshold, then you won’t grow without making a major change.”

White certainly isn’t standing still.

“Three to five years ago I set a list of goals for the growth of the company, for a lot of reasons,” White said. “I needed to protect the company because without growth on the top line there is no growth on the bottom line, and if you don’t have that, then you don’t have a sustainable business unit that I need to protect my 500 employees.”

The first thing White, who is more typically referred to as “Johnny,” did was hire Wil VandeWiel as president and now CEO as White has stepped back from day-to-day management. VandeWiel, who has extensive management experience in both the U.S. and the Netherlands, has expertise in sales and marketing as well as mergers and acquisitions. He also brought a fresh set of eyes to the company, White said.

Positioning Taco as a global leader in energy efficiency has been a major goal, especially because of Department of Energy efficiency regulations. Taco is well-known for its line of residential circulators and is now making inroads in the commercial pumps from 3-30 HP.

White said that Taco and its major competitors have not been waiting for DOE. Instead, they’ve been working with energy efficiency rebate organization to drive adoptions of electronically commutated motors (ECM) into the market.

“If you waited for DOE to write the standards, it would put you five years behind, in my opinion,” he said.

The company is compliant now with standards that will take effect in 2020.

Two years ago, Taco reached an agreement with Askoll Holding srl to acquire 100% of Askoll Sei, a world class manufacturer of high efficiency pumps, located in Sandrigo, Italy. The company, renamed Taco Italia, brought with it expertise in high-efficiency small circulators. Taco Italia will be producing pumps in Italy and in Cranston, R.I., and eventually in the Czech Republic.

His dad’s ‘baby’

Announcing a new acquisition, White recounted that in 1961 his dad, John Hazen White Sr., started Swiss company, Taco Armaturen, and sold it in 1980 to Guinness, the brewer. The firm has been bought and sold several times in the intervening years and was owned by the largest fuel oil dealer in Switzerland. White had an agreement with them that if they ever wanted to sell it, that they would give White the right of first refusal. They called a year ago. After a year of negotiations, White has brought home his father’s baby from 1961, now called Taconova.

The acquisitions of Taco Italia and Taconova were critical additions, first because of the energy-efficient technology they bring and because of the enormous size of the European hydronic market.

Taconova Group is a leader in hydronic solutions for heating, plumbing, and solar energy applications in residential and commercial buildings. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, Taconova has more than 55 years of experience in creating intelligent building technology solutions. The company offers a broad range of hydronic applications, including hydronic balancing, underfloor heating, distribution technology, system technology and valves. The acquisition was announced November 16.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming Taconova back into the Taco Family,” said White. “The reputation of the Taconova brand will help further strengthen our presence in Europe, which began in 2015 with the acquisition of Askoll Sei.”

“In addition to providing a strong brand, Taconova will give us access to northern European markets, broaden our product offering in the whole of Europe to include valves and systems, add a competence center for engineering expertise, and provide additional manufacturing capability to support future growth,” said VandeWiel.

Technological leaders

The acquisitions of Taco Italia and Taconova were critical additions, first because of the energy-efficient technology they bring and because of the enormous size of the European hydronic market.

White referred to this as “leapfrog technology” and likened it to seeing concept cars at an auto show. Some of it will stick. The next move will be into connectivity that will be paired with a mobile platform so that contractors can find information about a pump, such as instruction sheets and parts manuals, on their phones. Eventually contractors will be able to get diagnostic information.

Taco is early on in the connectivity realm, White admitted, and the users who have seen Taco’s solution have received it warmly. Now the firm has to figure out how it wants to advance it. White believes that diagnostic information will be important, using vibration of commercial pumps as an example. When a commercial pump vibrates, the seals and the couplers are in jeopardy. If a pump goes down, it costs the facility owner a lot of time and money if processes are shut down. Taco wants to monitor and alarm a product, alerting the contractor and owner in order to preempt problems.