Anglian Compressors Profile

In each issue of the distributor newsletter we’ll be profiling one of Atlas Copco Compressors’ Premier distributors and meeting some people from the company. Here we meet Richard Hewitt and Paul Skerritt of Anglian Compressors.

Based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire Anglian Compressors was established in the late 1970’s and is on its third set of company directors with the current team of Robert Tomlinson, Paul Skerritt, Helen Skerritt and Richard Hewitt having been in place following a management buy out in 1999. The company employs a total of 14 people and has been in its current premises for twenty years. A close knit company with loyal staff, Anglian Compressors has a good reputation locally for its installation and service work.

Anglian Compressors has a broad base of customers and given its location it is no surprise to learn that food manufacturing is an important market sector. Perhaps, given the food industry’s ‘Cinderella’ status this is why , as Richard Hewitt says, “we have always done well in a recession”. But, on closer inspection, it is no happy accident of geography that has seen Anglian prosper during the latest downturn. “During the recession” says Richard “the end users in the food sector [supermarkets predominantly] were driving prices down and therefore our customers needed to focus on lowering their running costs which brought the subject of energy use to the fore.”

Energy has for some time been a real focus of Anglian Compressors and its consultative approach is really paying off. “We are not a typical compressor company in this regard” says Richard “we go onto a site and rather than just monitor current air demand with a stopwatch we log its use over two weeks via remote monitoring and can then present the customer with some meaningful data as to trends and possible solutions.” Anglian’s cost of ownership message is clearly having an effect as customers can now understand what the true costs of their compressed air system are and 75% of the compressors that the company sells are now VSD machines.

Investing in technology, as with the energy monitoring kit, is very much a part of the company’s future plans. A recent acquisition has been an ultrasonic air leak detector so that surveys can now be carried out to easily highlight energy savings to customers. Also, an air analyser which monitors the composition of air has also been purchased in order to anticipate the demand which will be created in the food industry as bodies such as the British Retail Consortium apply greater pressure to get higher food safety standards throughout the supply chain.

More investment in technology has come on the service side of business also. Paul Skerritt says “Our Air Contact system enables to remotely monitor an installation and potentially to respond to a problem before it affects the customer’s production. This aspect of our business is growing strongly as maintenance teams on customer sites are being scaled back and we, through Air Contact, are able to offer a flexible solution.”

With the twin engines of energy and service driving it forward Anglian Compressors is looking to win more plaudits and accolades to add to its Premier Distributor of the Year Award in 2008 and its multiple wins in the Quality Air Distributor of the Year. Its willingness to invest in technology and to offer its customers innovative solutions to solve their problems back up Richard’s earlier pronouncement; Anglian Compressors really is not a typical compressor company.

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