The AVK logo is everywhere

Though AVK’s products are found everywhere, both in Denmark and in the rest of the world, they are not particularly well-known to most people; maybe because they are often safely installed in the ground, hidden from the public. Even in the local area around Galten, where the AVK Group headquarters are situated, many might be wondering what exactly AVK in Galten is producing.

But when lowering the eyes a bit while wandering through the townscape, you’ll quickly spot an AVK street cover or two, or a red fire hydrant with the iconic AVK logo on the sidewalk – and this actually goes whether talking about the streets of Galten, Paris or Dubai or any other city within the more than 80 countries supplied by AVK. Not surprisingly, something that the AVK employees enjoy sending photos of to the head office in Denmark.

Under the street covers, approximately 1 m into the ground, you will find valves to the water supply network. They are connecting households to – or from – the main line of clean water or wastewater.

On global display

Valves, primarily for water, but also for gas. This is the AVK group’s main area of business. And things are going well. With millions of AVK street covers displaying in the streets all over, and with key figures increasing, one can wonder why the AVK name and logo is not well-known to the public. However, CEO of AVK International A/S, Morten Sæderup Nielsen, and CFO of AVK Holding A/S, Lars Kudsk, are not surprised; “Most of what we are contributing with, is hidden under the ground, so people don’t notice it”.

In the showroom in Galten, all the valves are displayed in their available sizes – ranging from the smallest of just 2,5 centimetres to the largest where a few directors can easily fit into.
The smallest valves are those that lie beneath the residential streets, supplying each single household to the main line. The largest ones are found in those places in larger cities, where the water begins its journey from e.g. the waterworks to the customer, or where surface water is collected in large dams and sent towards the cities.

The World is visiting

The two directors have just been welcoming a delegation from the water supply company of Novo Sibirsk, Russia. The Russians are at AVK to join a tour around the production area, and to later visit a local water network. And this happens often.

The Russians, alongside all the other visitors, typically wants to know how we in Denmark manage to distribute water to end-customers with a water loss of only 7 % - and without adding unwanted smell or taste to the water from the pipeline journey. Looking no further than our neighbouring country Norway, we find a loss of around 35 % in average, from waterworks to end-customer, says Nielsen, and in several developing countries it exceeds more than 50 % - just like for many countries, it is not recommended to drink the tap water due to its poor quality.

A safe and reliable water supply has great international focus in these years, where the UN has dictated a global deadline of access to safe drinking water at a reasonable price for all by 2030.

AVK have always had good collaboration with the local supply companies, and these alliances has had an impact of the development and manufacture of products able to keep tight, not contaminating the water, and that are able to last for at least 50 years. And this quality is something the world is getting eyes for. China, among others, has become a great market for AVK, with sales numbers of a three-figure million amount annually within both the water and gas segment. According to Group CFO, Lars Kudsk, the increasing interest has something to do with a great trust in AVK quality - a trust that we live off, because when our products have entered the ground, they need to last. It is far too costly digging them up again.

Worldwide production

In Galten alone, AVK produces around 540,000 valves a year, all with rubber components from own production at AVK Gummi A/S in Låsby. These valves end up all over Europe – but no further away than that. The AVK Group has chosen to keep their production close to the customers, and have manufacturing companies in e.g. Australia, Saudi Arabia, the US and China. The next markets in sight are Indonesia and Mexico.

The strategy is to be locally anchored. Our primary customers are the local supply companies, and being locally present and having close dialogue gives us the best opportunities. It is, among other factors, about adapting to the local needs which can vary greatly – in France, for example, the closing direction of the valves is the opposite than in all other countries. 

Together with local supply companies, AVK’s development department are developing new and innovative products - a very important part of the business strategy. As an example, in collaboration with Skanderborg Utility, AVK is running a local development project of testing sensors on the hydrants that are able to alert the head office every time someone taps water. This could be a sludge collector borrowing some water from a hydrant to clean the tank, but ends up contaminating the entire water supply.

“We call it smart water, and it has immense potential in the future”, says Morten Sæderup Nielsen.