Interview with Martin Sembach, Director Strategic Business Development, GoGaS.
Easy Engineering: How was this year in terms of turnover?
Martin Sembach: 2020 was a year with challenges and opportunities. Looking at GoGaS business, being built around sustainability, energy efficiency and safety, our opportunities where much bigger than the challenges. One major reason for this has been SARS-CoV-2 and its impact to all business around the globe. This global pandemic challenge has basically split the market into two segments. Companies whose business model had already been challenged before and companies who took the challenge and did benefit from the fact, that SARS-CoV-2 gave them a strategic advantage in the markets they served.
Our company has clearly been on the winner side, allowing us to benefit from our clear strategy, serving all our customers with the most sustainable, energy efficient and total lowest cost solutions, in all the fields we served.
While many of our competitors got stuck with their old style and legacy type of products and business, 2020 clearly showed the dramatic need, to be a true system and turnkey partner to customers.
E.E: What new products / services have been launched this year?
M.S: Looking at our Building Solutions division, we have worked hard for the past 5 years, putting a true, best in class energy efficient and sustainable portfolio together, helping our customers and the various stakeholders in this market, getting the best value for their money. In 2020, when many companies had to focus on protecting and safeguarding their investments and business, this became the unique opportunity of this strategy. Prior to SARS-CoV-2 a lot of companies and enterprises talked a lot about sustainability and becoming green. In reality, also a lot of them, didn´t really understand how to achieve this and especially how to bring, often, controversial interests of different stakeholders together, making them all win. The pandemic challenge at the same time made it clear, that, they all cooperate to achieve the same goal or they will lose together.
E.E: What feedback did these product / service launches have?
M.S: As GoGaS had been extremely well positioned, providing a great value add to all stakeholders in the building and construction industry, one of the great benefits and results for our business in the past year, was clearly, that we have moved up the value chain. While before, our main group of contacts has primarily been developers, general contractors and all parties below that level, in 2020, we enjoyed an extremely high and positive perception by the investment community, which also includes global funds, such as insurance and pensions, all working hard, pulling their invests out of fossil and legacy investments, and refocusing in true sustainable and green invest opportunities. Their goal has simply speaking been to ensure a longer term ROI and profitability, hence safeguarding their invests with higher and longer term profits.
E.E: What products / solutions have customers been looking for this year?
M.S: GoGaS Building Solutions portfolio, fits best to this strategy. With technologies providing all stake holders the solution to both build CO2 neutral buildings and operate them truly CO2 neutral as well as to upgrade existing buildings, making them as much CO2 neutral as possible, GoGas had and has the answer for all of them.
As a result, in 2020, we completed more CO2 neutral buildings, together with our customers, than ever before. This trend is clearly continuing in 2020, with an even bigger challenge for all stakeholders to proof that their investments are truly green and CO2 neutral.
In fact, as another result of 2020 and a spart of our commitment to sustainability, GoGaS is no longer supporting requests, simply based around cheap, low cost and old legacy products. We are part of the true green value chain, protecting our customers business, invest and environment.
E.E: What can you tell us about your Health & Safety portfolio?
M.S: Another major success story of our business in 2020 has been our Health & Safety portfolio, we provide to all of our customers in the building world. Since more than 70 years, GoGaS is an expert in overall wavelength management, such as IR, UV and UVC along with a unique know how and expertise in air flow simulation and air flow management in buildings, both in ventilation, and air conditioning. This expertise brings strategic benefit in managing a save environment during SARS-CoV-2 times in buildings. – The control of Air Flow – fighting against infectious aerosols.
E.E: Given the current context, was there a need to diversify the portfolio of services / products?
M.S: To provide the best sustainable and environment friendly solutions fighting infected air, GoGaS provides its global customer base, environment friendly and chemical free disinfection solutions, all based around the save and well established UVC technology.
While hundreds of suppliers have been flooding the market with all sorts of, often suspectable disinfection solutions, neither truly validated or certified on a system level, charging too much for products, customers are clearly seeking for the best value and protection of the money spend, fighting SARS-CoV-2, hence, a great opportunity for GoGaS, leveraging the huge expertise in air flow management in buildings.
One of the best technologies fighting infected aerosols for more than 100 years is clearly UVC. This technology is not only 100% chemical free, other than traditional disinfection of filter methods, UVC is destroying the DNS of all infected aerosols, hence, being much more predictable and reliable in the result and overall, much cheaper, hence the best total lowest cost package.
However, to ensure the best performance, it is vital to understand air flows in buildings, without this knowledge, no matter which technology used, ambient air disinfection can even make the situation worse.
Hence, we have decided to deploy our knowledge and technology in air flow management, from our building solutions portfolio, into all our products of the Health & Safety Division, truly disinfecting aerosols. The result is our INTERx family. The entire INTERx family has been designed to provide a most modular system family, allowing all our customers, fighting infected aerosols, perfectly pitched, with the right answer. Large spaces and rooms such as Lobbies, Canteens, conference rooms, require a completely different answer disinfecting the air, that e.g. small offices, elevators, trains, buses and others. The INTERx family has been shaped in a way to adapt to all these different needs.
In addition, all INTERx systems, whether stand alone floor versions, wall or ceiling mount, or as integrated modules, ensure a controlled air flow. This is a pre-requisition, to ensure, ambient air is flowing is a most laminar way into the system and back into the environment. Without a clear control of air flow, basically all ambient air potentially flows uncontrolled, spreading viruses across the entire space, making the situation worse than before. This is the main reason, why all GoGaS INTERx system work with a balanced and controlled air flow, avoiding the spread of infected air across the whole space.
A great synergy between GoGaS expertise in air flow management in buildings and management of air flow in infected environments.
This unique answer is paired with 100% industrial components, making all systems the quietest once in the market. INTERX systems come with a noise level of just 35db(A) which is unmatched in the market and allows them to be used in the most sensible environment, even Yoga Rooms, as a reference on low noise.
The control of air flow and low noise level results in another benefit for all users. No uncontrolled air flow, hence, no complains about cold or inconvenient air flow from people around. INTERsens systems not only provide the best in class disinfection performance, they also ensure comfortability in the environment around.
E.E: What can you tell us about the tested and validated solutions?
M.S: Another big problem in the market for basically all ambient air disinfection systems and products available is the validated and certified proof of their true disinfection performance. In short, most available system in the market due not have any system level certification of their disinfection performance. Instead, they basicall all refer to the specifications of components used, such as UVC lamps and 99,9% theoretical components performance. However, integrated in a final system, most of these products, when tested at system level show an extremely poor overall disinfection result of as little as 55-63% only. Worse than this, to achieve this extremely poor performance, they usually require an exchange of ambient air of 5-6 times per hour, which makes them extremely noisy, many of them measured between 50-60db(A), hence using them in office environment, schools and others, is a clear no go.
GoGaS INTERx systems instead, all measured at system level and specified with true disinfection performance. – currently the best systems in the market. Compared with other systems, INTERx systems achieve an overall ambient air disinfection, – not just viruses, but also all other infected aerosols, of more than 70% with an air exchange of less than one. Adding this up to a permanent operation in the application, they are currently the only system tested and validated ambient air disinfection systems in the market, by fair outperforming any other solutions.
Ensuring customers can trust, all systems are independently tested and measured by external institutions and universities in Germany.
Again, customers have the right to get the best for their money, including performance, efficiency and sustainability for many years to come.
As a conclusion, 2020, has offered many exciting opportunities to GoGaS, to leverage and benefit from ist unique business model, serving ist customers and their various stakeholders. Looking forward, 2021, will allow us, helping our customers even more, protecting their investment, achieving their ROI targets and, most important, providing and ensuring a save environment to all their employees.