Happy Anniversary!

Welcome everyone to the latest issue of BVAA’s Valve User magazine!

I was reminded recently that I had just completed my 10th Anniversary with BVAA, which coincidently also marks the 12th Anniversary of another significant change – our move from being the manufacturersonly association ‘BVAMA’ to the wider valve industry body ‘BVAA.’

An often asked question is ‘why the change?’

I think it is fair to say that in the mid-00s the British Valve industry, and its association, was experiencing a challenging period. Contraction and consolidation in the industry was resulting in a declining ‘BVAMA’ membership, and importantly the marketplace for valves and actuators was threatened by hesitant demand and increased competition from low-cost manufacturing countries.

Indeed it took a couple of years for industry – and it has to be said our members – to become acclimatised to the new-style ‘BVAA’ and the wider coverage we officially encompassed but had yet to enact.

Valve and actuator distribution was a vitally important, but largely unsupported part of the industry, and from 2004 onwards BVAA made excellent in-roads in supporting that sector. Valve Repairers followed, then eventually industry Suppliers and Service companies.

Each year BVAA grew substantially and was able to develop and improve its services, often dramatically with initiatives like ‘Valve User’. Each year the industry and its marketplace improved. Each year the reputation of British companies was enhanced globally, and the threat of inferior products successfully beaten off by a mixture of consistent superior UK quality and - unfortunately for some customers - bad experiences with allegedly ‘low-cost’ products. And of course each year BVAA has grown in membership, from 55 members in 2003 to C. 185 today.

Time for resting on our laurels? Not a bit of it! Demands from the industry’s customer base are ever more challenging, as are the needs of the BVAA members themselves. The main point however is that the Association has never been so well prepared, well-staffed and well-resourced to support the industry it was created to serve.

To find out more about BVAA you can contact us at enquiry@bvaa.org.uk

Published: 5th December 2013