Florida-based Holland Pump manufactures and services industrial hydraulic pumps and pumping equipment for clients, who can either buy or rent. The company serves the pumping needs of the agriculture, construction, municipal, utility, and mining industries, among others, and has built a solid reputation in the pump equipment industry for helping customers get their work done fast – and the right way.
Throughout the southern part of the country, an impressive rental fleet of over six hundred diesel-powered pumps are delivered quickly when needed, and a team of experts will stay on site until everything is set up and running. The equipment is clean and in top quality mechanical condition prior to delivery, and Holland Pump technicians return to service the pumps biweekly. This regular maintenance considerably reduces the likelihood of downtime.
A malfunctioning pump can shut down an entire project, and delays can be very expensive. When something does go wrong, the company has someone on site within hours.
“One of the primary things that set us apart is that a lot of pump companies only deliver equipment and drop it off. They don’t service or troubleshoot it. It’s just about providing a piece of equipment and picking it up at the end of the job. We’re a much more service-oriented company. We provide a complete service that helps customers finish their jobs faster and save money on the equipment and fuel,” says company President Win Blodgett.
Holland Pump provides each customer with a dedicated consultant who will help them to navigate selecting the most suitable rental equipment and offer a satisfaction guarantee. The company’s consultants can demonstrate a test of Holland equipment compared to any equivalent competitive equipment on the market. If Holland’s pumps cannot outperform the competitor, the customer is guaranteed their money back. The company believes in the quality and the performance of its products, and it stands behind them.
The company has since grown significantly since it was established in 1978, and today, its manufacturing and repair facilities, eight offices, and corporate headquarters employ roughly eighty people.
In March of 2019, the company took on a new investor called XPV Water of Toronto, Canada. XPV has invested roughly $500 million in seventeen companies operating in the water industry. Holland Pump is the first and, so far, the only equipment rental company it has invested in. This new partnership will enable Holland Pump to ramp up its growth over the next five to seven years, and the company is already leveraging the capital toward expanding its capacity, its capabilities, and its geographic reach.
Since the partnership with XPV was formed, Holland has made its first acquisition of a pump and pump accessory rental and sales company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana called Alpha Pump and Equipment, Inc. From this acquisition, Holland has expanded into the Gulf Coast region including Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Alpha Pump brings a fully-qualified, expert staff with additional engineering experience and capabilities, particularly in the petrochemical, environmental, mining, and marine industries.
“It’s great, because they have different skills than we do. They’re very involved in the petrochemical industry, so as we’re integrating we’re trying to cross-fertilize our skill-sets by getting the rest of our sales and service people to learn about what they do and vice versa,” says Blodgett. Expanding into these new sectors is helping the company provide customers with value that was previously outside its capabilities.
As the company works to integrate Alpha Pump into its operation, leadership continues to look at other potential acquisitions. It is building a list of prospects, and it plans to acquire two or three companies annually. With the investment from XPV Water, Holland is positioned for rapid growth in the coming years.
Companies that depend on diesel engines have the challenge of meeting changing emission standards. Diesel engines are a necessary evil in the hydraulic pumping world, but Holland Pump is committed to finding the most efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective approach to running them. It has built a team of experts who understand the industry requirements and can help the company meet them. By incorporating a system of regular training for its employees, and educating its customers, the company is making sure that it can provide the same level of service that the market has become accustomed to while meeting new standards.
Holland Pump works to bring the most innovative pumping equipment to its customers. Last autumn, the company had a booth at an annual technical exhibition hosted by the Water Environment Federation called the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference or WEFTEC. It showcased a new product that it is calling a “triple play” pumping solution.
The innovative product consists of a hydraulic power unit that drives three completely different types of pumps. This includes the traditional, hydraulically-driven, submersible pump that has become the standard in a wide range of pumping uses, but it also drives a prime-assisted, suction-lift pump and a hydraulically-driven, positive displacement pump. These pieces of equipment each have unique benefits in certain applications, and Holland’s triple-play system means customers have access to all three options in a single, cost-effective package.
Having one engine that can manage three pump types allows for a substantial reduction in cost over having to run three separate engines. This is particularly important in the current economic climate. As emission standards change, the total ownership cost for running a diesel engine increases, and material and labor costs are increasing alongside that. Diesel engines are expensive to run, and this new innovation enables users to reduce that expense dramatically.
Later this year, Holland pump will showcase this equipment at North America’s largest construction trade show, CONEXPO. The company aims to develop new partnerships and find distributors around the country to expand its reach and to provide more customers with cost savings.
Another way that Holland Pump is working to bring value to customers is through an increased focus on telemetry. As technology evolves, customers are increasingly interested in having more real-time information about the status of their equipment. By integrating telemetry and analytics systems into its products, the company can provide customers with information and vital operational data that can help them predict problems before they occur.
“Companies are trying to get more uptime and more reliability by predicting and preventing failures before they happen. For example, if you have a foundation excavation, our pumps are a pretty small part of the overall cost, but if the pump fails, the whole job site gets flooded. So pumping is critical to the overall success of the project,” says Blodgett.
Using telemetry enables Holland Pump users to detect failures before they occur. Components with a tendency to break or fail are outfitted with sensors that will notify technicians in advance. They can replace whatever is about to break before it does which results in a much faster time to completion and a lower overall project cost.
More than just a manufacturer or a rental company, Holland stands above competitors by working closely with customers to ensure they get the most of their products. Going forward, the company is anticipating further acquisitions and growth. It aims to have one thousand pumps on rent by 2027. Through the high performance of its product line, Holland Pump is quickly becoming a choice provider for quality pump equipment.
