Airnord: Charting an Independent Course for Clean Air
Airnord develops technology that helps reduce industrial air pollution around the world. Following a divestment from FLSmidth, the company has become an independent business with support from DI
Balasubramanian Manickam, Managing Director of Airnord India and Flemming Jensen, CEO of Airnord at their new office in Chennai, India.
Presenting Airnord
Airnord, formerly a product division of FLSmidth, is now an independent company specializing in high-technology air pollution control products. They design, deliver and service electrostatic precipitators, large-scale industrial equipment that removes dust from flue gases in heavy industries such as cement, mining, pulp and paper and iron and steel. Their filters are critical for maintaining low emissions.
Following a strategic divestment from FLSmidth to UK-based Rubicon Partners, Airnord is now establishing its independence. Their primary markets are growing economies in Asia and Latin America, where there is a demand for new plants and adherence to increasingly tough emission standards. Airnord aims to grow by expanding its global presence and leveraging its purpose of providing clean air and enabling environmentally acceptable industrial production.
After talking to Airnord CEO Flemming Jensen, it's clear that Airnords strategy involves having ‘boots on the ground’ to facilitate direct customer service, visits and prompt support, which is crucial for their business model focused on high-quality solutions and robust maintenance. This allows them to effectively serve their industrial client base.
Transition to independence with help from Danish Industry globally
Airnords divestment from FLSmidth marked a pivotal moment. While it presented a massive opportunity for Airnord to grow and define its own future, it also brought on challenges.
“We were taking over a company with 120 employees in several countries with basically no finance function because that was handled by FLSmidth,” explains Flemming. The immediate aftermath of the divestment presented Airnord with a daunting task: building an entirely new operational backbone. This meant establishing legal entities, arranging insurances and running payroll for the first time, all across diverse international jurisdictions.
DI’s International Business Development (DIBD) team provided a comprehensive solution, acting as a trusted partner across multiple areas. DI has helped in establishing subsidiaries through their own offices and through their partner in Southeast Asia: Acclime. Today, Airnord uses essential functions from Danish Industry, handling things from payroll, compliance, taxes and HR services in order to operate their entities outside of Denmark.
Flemming highlights the India office as one of the biggest successes so far. Airnord India sits in Chennai in the office space of DI India, where they moved in as of February 1st with 40 people. Together, DI India and Airnord celebrated their new office space on the 11th February with visiting partners, clients, members and friends from Denmark and India.
Airnords office space in Chennai, India on the day of the official inauguration.
Flemming praises DI’s approach. He underscores the value of DI’s commitment to member success, emphasizing that having a single point of contact who understood the possibilities and could open doors across different geographies was invaluable. He mentions that DI “knew the possibilities... they could easily open the doors and direct us, take us in the right direction.”
Next steps for Airnord
The next step and immediate focus for Airnord is to fully establish itself on these new markets and further focus on their growth. They are expecting to hire 10-20 new sales and service personnel globally this year to demonstrate increased sales from having people on location. Attracting and retaining qualified, highly specialized technical talent is a high priority for them.
The goal is to demonstrate that this increased customer-facing capacity directly translates into increased sales and revenue. Once a degree of stability is achieved, Airnord will then evaluate further growth avenues.
Opportunities for Danish companies
In his conversation with DI, Flemming was asked what advice he would give to other small to mid-sized companies considering international expansion or undergoing similar transitions. His response was: “small mid-sized companies who want to establish themselves, they should start talking to DI.”
Danish companies can find significant opportunities in India due to the country’s large and fast-growing economy, expanding middle class and continued openness to international trade and investment. Considering the new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between EU and India, even more opportunities present themselves. However, India’s complex regulatory framework, administrative processes and cultural differences mean that entering and operating in the market can be challenging to navigate without help.
Airnord has appreciated that having someone with local insight who shares the same cultural alignment as your own business can ease the process. It simplifies understanding and speeds up processes, while helping to understand market specifics.
Overall, DIBD can provide members with strategic consulting on market analysis, export stategy, networking and establishing operations through DI’s offices abroad and through partners and sister organizations around the world. Read more about our services here: Scaling your business internationally - DI
