Hubert enlists Hammer to support market and competitor analysis

As part of the development of its new 5-year strategy for its Water Intake Systems business, Dutch company Hubert enlisted Hammer to support an extensive market and competitor analysis.

Established in 1880, Hubert has almost 150 years of experience in design and engineering, manufacturing, installation and service of equipment for water purification and water intake. The company’s machinery and equipment are used at major facilities around the world, both in industrial environments (power, oil refining, chemicals) as well as in water utilities.

Facing a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive market, the leadership team of Hubert set out to craft a new winning 5-year strategy for its Water Intake Systems business. This business, one of Hubert’s four main divisions, provides systems that help companies mechanically extract clean water from the sea, rivers or lakes. This screened water is used as cooling, process and potable water in multiple industries.

To feed its new strategy, the manufacturing group required clear insights in its competitive landscape, market growth and potential, and other external factors such as buying criteria of customers.

Hubert asked Hammer to support this complex exercise, which was conducted through a combination of different research methods. “Key goal of this project was to map out the opportunities for the coming years on the basis of a thorough market research. That served as key input for our new strategy for the coming five years,” said Grada van der Schoot, Managing Director at Hubert.

After a multi-week period of desk-research, the joint project team collected data across the different areas of research. For areas with lower data availability, predictive analytics and data modeling were used to reconstruct the situations and scenarios. The results were then cross-checked with experts from Hubert during several workshop sessions.

Subsequently, the findings from the internal assessment were validated by industry experts from around the world, reflecting the international footprint of Hubert.

Insights for the new strategy

The deliverables of the market and competitor analysis enabled Hubert to craft and substantiate its five-year market strategy.

“We used the results as an underpinning for our strategy,” said Van der Schoot. “It helped determine the focus in terms of industry and region. And by applying focus in our strategy we can carry out more targeted sales and marketing actions, which we believe will provide us with a greater chance of success.”

Reflecting on the cooperation with Hammer, she said: “The cooperation with Hammer was very pleasant. Clear agreements were made about when what would be delivered. Fast and good communication ensured that everything was delivered on time. Also after delivery of the project the communication was very pleasant.”

Hubert is part of Noardling, which also is the parent of Landustrie (wastewater treatment) and Desah (sustainable and circular wastewater treatment).