[Interview] Willem Vis, Founder, Induct Industrial Contracting, The Netherlands
Willem Vis is Dutch entrepreneur, innovator and founder of Induct Industrial Contracting, located in Katwijk near The Hague, The Netherlands, but with operations reaching as far as Africa.
His interview with Africa Business Communities:
Would you please introduce Induct Industrial Contracting?
Induct is a very innovative turnkey contractor for controlled environments such as clean rooms, HACCP rooms, laboratories and controlled areas in dangerous environments as living quarters and control rooms for the chemical and/or oil and gas industry. We design, engineer and build the civil works such as construction, ceiling and partitions as well as the installations to create the internal climate as required by the client.
What are the USP’s of your business?
At Induct, our belief is that the investment does not only exist in the money spent, but also in the money not earned. For this reason our unique selling point is that in existing facilities, we can implement an upgrade with minimum disturbance to ongoing production. The client can keep on earning money while we perform the job required. Another focus in our designs are the operational costs in terms of energy use and maintenance. Keeping this in mind while designing benefits the client in the long term.
In which industries does Induct operate?
We operate where our clients do, and we have our clients mainly in food and beverages, pharmaceutical industries, laboratories, high tech facilities, microelectronics, chemical, and oil and gas industries.
Why did you start Induct?
Induct was born out of circumstance. It happened that in the construction of controlled environments there were always disagreements between civil contractors and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) contractors, especially when there were tight schedules and deadlines to be met. Each contractor tries to get as much time as possible to perform their own part of the contract, and this never seemed to be the most convenient solution for the client.
The eye opener was in 2005 when a civil contractor at a challenging overhaul project, at which we were building the mechanical part, got bankrupt during the execution of the project. The client asked me to take over his activities, guaranteeing that all the workers belonging to the now insolvent civil contractor would be paid should they remain with the project. So we took over, the project was completed in time and within budget, and was a complete success. We found ourselves with a competent team for future projects and we started sourcing for more jobs where we could act as principal contractor.
You will be participating in the Amsterdam Business Networking Event on March 8. With whom would you be most interested in connecting, in terms of networking?
With people whose interests coincide with mine. What Induct does well is to streamline ideas into practical, realistic and achievable plans with a deadline. If you want to build a controlled production area, lab, cleanroom or other kind of area with a specific temperature, humidity or cleanness specifications, this is of high interest to us. Also if you want to upgrade your current facilities to HACCP, GMP or FDA standards, I’ll be looking forward to speaking with you.
What can you say about the targets, plans and ambitions of Induct in 2016?
This year 50% of our turnover will be done in Africa. We see a lot of inefficient use of energy in the facilities in Africa. With our knowledge of the different processes, and our out-of-the-box overview, we have the ambition to decrease energy usage of the facilities we build or upgrade. Sometimes in taking production to a higher level, extra energy cannot be avoided. But even then, we will suggest the most energy efficient system and look for sustainable ways to reuse energy from your process.
www.twitter.com/willem_cleanair
Africa Business Communities Networking Event
Tuesday 8 March 2016
5:00 - 7:00 PM
Amstel Hotel | Amsterdam | The Netherlands
amsterdam.intercontinental.com/en/
After great editions in Hamburg, Lagos and Accra the Africa Business Communities Networking Event is returning to Amsterdam!