Expert Spotlight

Meet Gert Peerlinck, Vice President of Solutions Sales & Service. In this exclusive interview, Gert shares how GEA is leading the charge in helping customers take a holistic approach to decarbonize and increase the efficiency of their operations.

Welcome in, Gert. Explain to our readers what your role entails as Vice President of Solutions Sales & Service.

Gert Peerlinck: Well, I have a double role. One is being the manager of international projects, which focusses on areas not covered by our country sales teams. I support knowledge transfer and focus on key accounts and what are known as GEA NEXUS projects.

Next to that, I am driving the Sales Excellence program for our Solutions team, which includes securing the proper use of the CRM system and organizing Sales Performance Outlook calls with all entities on which we briefly discuss technical aspects of quotations, sales strategy, and risk factors. But for those who know me well, I am also keen on taking a practical, firsthand approach and not just focusing on the theoretical. The Service part of my title involves working closely with our service team. Here, open dialogue and communication are key to ensuring our customers are well served.

Finally, I function as sparring partner in our Board where we try to anticipate upcoming challenges and set priorities. This includes order input, standardization, and alignment on future strategy.

Industrial heat pumps have quickly become a hot topic and are in high demand. What is driving that and how is GEA responding?

GP: Many factors are driving the demand for industrial heat pumps. The consumer simply requires that producers be conscious about resources and producing as sustainably as possible. It will become a license to operate, a must have. In this respect they revert to their suppliers, like GEA, to come with appropriate solutions. GEA heat pump systems are a key part of those solutions.

We are continuously pushing the borders of technology. We began with a low-temperature heat pump, then we implemented a low-pressure steam solution, and we are now testing high-pressure heat pumps. In addition to our core business of food & beverage processing, we see continued opportunities in district heating applications.

GEA offers Add Better Consulting and GEA NEXUS as elements of its customized approach to maximizing the efficiency and sustainability of customers’ facilities. What do these each entail and how are they different?

GP: As the words indicate, the consulting part is an approach whereby GEA assists customers in drafting engineering-based plans for their route to net zero. This is particularly beneficial in brownfield and greenfield projects. At this stage we are defining technological solutions in a combined view of process and heating & cooling, which includes creating heatmaps and setting up budgets.

NEXUS is about the implementation of the Add Better Consulting plans as a cooperation between our GEA Heating & Refrigeration Technologies division and GEA sister divisions specialized in food & beverage processing.

What are examples of how GEA has applied these types of solutions and what were the outcomes?

GP: In the case of Add Better Consulting, an expert team was created under the leadership of our senior director of sustainable engineering solutions. This has opened a world of applications with new customers in various industries including sugar production, papermills, and distilleries, in addition to our traditional customers in dairy, beverage, and food.

In many cases, we have been awarded orders for audits, master plans, and heatmaps. Our value relationship with customers is enhanced as we have helped to improve their operating margins and achieve their committed and measurable reductions in energy and carbon emissions. Indeed, a 30% energy-use reduction was achieved for a brownfield project, and by integrating heat pump systems, the need for carbon-emitting boilers was eliminated in a greenfield project.

One thing we need to bear in mind however is the source of energy our customers are using. The full potential of sustainable solutions is maximized when green energy is applied. Therefore, we look at the customers electrical grid mix as part of our analysis.

Does digitalization currently play a role in helping customers achieve their decarbonization and energy-reduction goals? What role do you see it having in the years ahead?

GP: Our customers are embracing digitalization at a rapid pace, and we place priority on continually innovating to move our customers’ businesses forward. GEA Blu-Red Care – our digital solution for heating and refrigeration plants to increase machine availability and safety – and connectivity of our equipment with the GEA Cloud® are positive developments in this area.

Data collection, analysis of the data – likely with the support of AI – and developing predictive algorithms will become key in our business. The power of proactive maintenance, where we prevent breakdowns and interact with customers to provide support and troubleshoot via a virtual medium, is invaluable.

We are just at the beginning, but all indications are that digital solutions will be the standard in the future. It will change our way of working and transform business models.

What type of industrial processes are best suited for the types of solutions that your group provides?

GP: In my view, there is not a single application that would not be suitable for our solutions as virtually every process needs a heating and cooling cycle.

To date, our approach has been implemented for myriad applications including breweries, malthouses, distilleries, chocolate factories, beverage facilities, hospitals and local heating networks.

How can customers determine if they are good candidates to engage with GEA in these ways?

GP: Some customers understand the need, but do not yet feel the urgency to take immediate action. Many of them have a sustainability manager, but they are sometimes working on an island between their processing operations colleagues and their utilities colleagues (heating & cooling systems personnel). They set goals based on their long-window view of implementation, not realizing that time is flying by as they struggle to determine the how and what. This can cause a loss of competitive edge and damage a company’s reputation as they fall further behind.

So, a customer is a viable candidate for our services if they have unmet efficiency, energy, and sustainability goals and they require expertise to achieve them. For larger companies that have multiple plant locations, especially significant financial and sustainability benefits are realized by applying a consistent strategy for each. We at GEA are well positioned to continue to do exactly that.

Looking five or 10 years ahead, how do you see this space evolving?

GP: It will become increasingly important to help our customers achieve their ambitious operational and sustainability targets. The only way to manage the tsunami of projects heading toward us will be to quickly develop optimal solutions, embrace digitalization, and provide innovative technical solutions, based on our customers’ changing business models.

We are now in a unique position to support customers by leveraging the GEA strengths of having processing expertise and industry-leading products in one basket. This is, and will continue to be, the work of professionals with a significant amount of expertise.

We look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve our customers and apply long-term, holistic solutions that propel their businesses to new heights and help them achieve their sustainability goals.

Thank you, Gert, for sharing your expertise and how GEA is indeed engineering for a better world. Continued success to you and the GEA team as you pursue this important work for your customers – and for the planet.