PBM crosses the Irish sea to visit Instantor’s impressive testing and training centre in Santry, Dublin to discover the background behind the firm’s UK launch last year.
Sharing the same black, gold and white corporate colours as its illustrious Dublin neighbour Guinness*, Instantor also boasts a significant and longstanding heritage in its home country. Whilst not quite matching the 1759 origins of arguably Ireland’s most famous export, the Sanbra Group brand can trace its own history back close to a century with the Instantor trademark first registered by Fyffe & Co Ltd in 1926 for its ‘iconic’ Brass Compression Fittings, reportedly the first of their kind when they were introduced to the market almost 100 years ago.
Having grown to become a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-quality heating and plumbing products to trade professionals — via merchants — with what it describes as one of the most comprehensive selections of press systems on the market, Instantor provides a range of “installer-friendly, super reliable ‘fit and forget’ solutions” which remove the need for heat-based methods such as welding and soldering.
“With merchant distribution an intrinsic part of its service strategy in Ireland, the company has strengthened its UK team with a number of appointments and supports its growing merchant customer base with point-of-sale materials, literature and in-branch training and demonstration days.”
The brand officially launched its UK portfolio at InstallerSHOW 2024 last summer. Over the course of the well-attended three-day exhibition, the business presented its renowned Press System — a range of press fittings and a multilayer Pex-al-Pex pipe for use in drinkable water, underfloor heating and all general heating and plumbing applications — alongside other solutions including copper press fittings for both gas and water, stainless steel press fittings and pipe, plus a range of proven press tools and jaw sets.
Demonstrations of the Instantor Press Tool were said to be particularly popular, with visitors remarking on its ease of use, as the Instantor team showed “how it is around 35% faster than more traditional methods.” The stand additionally played host to sister company Tucson Pumps, with its range of “high quality, high performance” shower, circulation and cold water booster pumps also now available to the UK market.
Reflecting on the success of the launch, Heating & Plumbing Divisional Managing Director Alan Hogan said: “Instantor products are developed by installers for installers and are exhaustively tested to ensure they provide unrivalled reliability and true ‘fit and forget’ solutions. Seeing is believing and our product demonstrations really resonated with the tradespeople that visited our stand.”
To enhance its presence in the market still further, the company has become Industrial Associates of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, Associate Members of SNIPEF and Supplier Members of the Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors. However, in addition to targeting installers, Alan explained that the show also enabled it to reach out to potential merchant customers.
And with merchant distribution an intrinsic part of its service strategy in Ireland, the company has strengthened its UK team with a number of appointments to this end and — with examples to found on its regularly-updated LinkedIn profile — supports its growing merchant customer base with point-of-sale materials, literature, in-branch training and demonstration days and an experienced customer service team that can assist with any queries.
Moreover, Instantor has also recently joined NMBS, improving communications and allowing merchant members to benefit from enhanced pricing and promotional offers. A recent appointee to the business himself, with a more than 20-year background in the industry, UK Sales Director Dan Wild commented: “By increasing the availability of our Instantor and Tucson plumbing and heating solutions through the NMBS, we can enable even more merchants and their installer customers to access our products, which offer quicker and safer installations and assured fit and forget reliability.”
He continued: “We only use quality assured materials and components while our state-of-the-art testing and training centre based in Santry, Dublin allows us to exhaustively test products before they are made available to customers. We also have unrivalled stock holding including over 1,400,000m of Pex-Al-Pex pipe at any given time, underpinned by a modern distribution centre and advanced logistical capabilities to provide merchants with assured supply.
“Customers in the UK can stock and sell the Instantor and Tucson portfolios, knowing that our products have been tried, tested and trusted by the trade in Ireland for almost 100 years.”
The next step in its commitment to working with merchants and trade professionals has been the company’s investment into a new ‘Mobile Training Academy’ to support its existing demonstration mornings. Andy Burton, Sanbra Group’s Divisional Marketing Manager — Heating & Plumbing Division, said: “The brand-new training vehicle will be visiting trade counters and merchants’ head offices to provide a deeper understanding of Instantor’s Press Solutions and the Tucson Pumps portfolio.
“Not only will the mobile academy showcase how our products can deliver significant time and cost savings, it will also provide the latest competency training to Instantor installers and ensure merchants can stock our products with confidence that they will provide the best solutions for their customers.”
For more information on Instantor and its sister company Tuscon Pumps following the UK launch, use the shortcode www.rdr.link/mbj011
* According to the company’s website, Guinness is actually a “rather dark ruby red in colour”. Who knew?!
