Endress+Hauser inaugurated its new Edgmont Campus this week, opening a 100,000-sq-ft facility that brings it under one roof with its sales representative for the eastern U.S., Eastern Controls Inc. (ECI). The event capped a busy week for the company, which two days earlier celebrated a similar inauguration at its facility in Greenwood, Ind.

"These two inaugurations within three days— we do not take them for granted," said Dr. Peter Selders, CEO of Endress+Hauser, while addressing assembled guests, customers and local officials at the newly-built facility in bucolic Edgmont Township, about 35 miles east of Philadelphia. "It really signals the momentum we are experiencing as a company, and it shows our continued commitment to long-term, sustainable growth."

The Edgmont Campus, constructed by The Norwood Company, will serve as both an Endress+Hauser regional center and the new headquarters for Eastern Controls—a family-owned instrumentation and process control representative that has served the mid-Atlantic region since 1969. The co-location is deliberately unusual, and Endress+Hauser USA’s General Manager Todd Lucey said that's precisely the point.

"It's very unique in the industry," Lucey said. " No one that I'm aware of has done it—bringing an independent sales representative together in a co-facilitation like this,"  he told Control, on the sidelines of the ceremony.

He also acknowledged that the arrangement defies conventional thinking about manufacturer-rep relationships. "A lot of people stay away from these things because of the brands. You keep the independent brands. But our commitment to the reps is generational. We have a different view than just a 30-day contract view. This is a partnership that we have for life."

Partnership rooted in trust and familiarity

The story of how Endress+Hauser and Eastern Controls ended up sharing a campus in Edgmont is as much about relationships and real estate as it is about strategy.

Eastern Controls President Cliff McLaughlin, whose parents founded ECI in the 1960s with a $5,000 loan, recounted the family origins of the business—and the property—at the inauguration ceremony. McLaughlin owned the land on which the new Endress+Hauser building now sits.

"We bought the land that the building sits on from him and his family," Lucey explained. "It made sense to keep it in this particular area because the workforce is here. Relocating somewhere else would make it harder. "

ECI's relationship with Endress+Hauser dates to 2015, when a former colleague of ECI, now with Endress+Hauser reached out with an introduction. "We were invited out to Indiana, and we saw a world-class, absolutely spotless, highly automated manufacturing facility," McLaughlin recalled. "They were considering adding a rep company in the Philadelphia area, and they asked if we were interested, and we said yes."

The timing was fortuitous. "We really believe the rep model, the go-to-market model, has been very successful—and has been truly instrumental in the growth we've seen."

That growth has been substantial. Lucey noted that ECI, combined with partner organizations George Booth and PCI into a broader regional rep network, now represents roughly $130 million in Endress+Hauser business, making it the company's third-largest rep relationship in the U.S.

The Greenwood facility opened earlier in the week and a facility in Houston, Texas, are the others co-located facilities for the company. More are expected in the future.

For McLaughlin, the new campus is deeply personal. "[The] inauguration represents more than just a milestone,” he said. “The company my parents built was based on people, and it was never about transactions. It was about building relationships with people and trust."

He reflected on nearly four decades working every role in the business, from putting stickers on catalogs as a five-year-old to running the company today. "Partnering with such a preeminent manufacturer for almost 11 years has been one of the best decisions we have ever made—not only for our business, but also on behalf of all the families that we support."

Collaboration, customers and community

For both companies, the shared campus is more than reducing overhead or shared parking. Lucey described the daily operational benefits he has observed at earlier co-located facilities. "What we see every day now is the collaboration opportunities — having Endress+Hauser people and the rep people meeting together on a daily basis. They lunch together. You have these events together. You get to do talent development with the innovation studio, the community curriculum, and education programs. It just puts a bond that you can't put a price tag on."

Selders framed the co-location as a direct competitive advantage for regional customers. "By bringing both together here in Edgmont, we can support customers faster, better and more comprehensively—from life sciences and chemicals, to water, energy, and food and beverage," he said.

He added that the facility would serve as a critical hub in Endress+Hauser's national process training network. "This is already the seventh process training unit in the U.S., and this is not only good for our customers, but also important for our industry."

McLaughlin underscored the competitive differentiation for ECI's customers. "One of the things we really love doing is inviting customers to visit and really touch and feel, put their direct the equipment," he said. "By having a process training unit with control valves, actuators, gas detection, and all the Endress+Hauser instrumentation, customers can touch and feel the products before they make an investment. On top of that, we can help them learn how to use them — starting with the fundamentals of instrumentation, through particular technologies, all the way to device-specific operation."

That direct capability is also opening new market segments. "Data centers really weren't a significant market for companies like us two years ago, and they've become very, very active," McLaughlin said.

Lucey described the three primary growth industries in the region: life sciences, water and wastewater and chemicals, with food and beverage and power generation rounding out the mix. He also highlighted the significant opportunity in regional infrastructure investment. "A waste treatment facility needs to be upgraded. A power facility needs to expand capability. Bridges, roads and sewer systems need to be redone. All of those kinds of investments in infrastructure are important for us to support."

Company’s long view

Lending a distinctly multigenerational perspective to the proceedings was Steven Endress, president of the supervisory board and a third-generation member of the founding Endress family.

"As a third-generation member of the Endress family, I often reflect on a simple question: what allows a family business to remain successful across generations?" he said. "Many people would answer with technology. Some might point to strategy. I believe the true answer lies deeper—in vision, culture and values, because these are the long-serving components of success."

Endress drew a direct line between the family ownership model and the philosophy behind co-locating with Eastern Controls. "One of the privileges of family ownership is that you can look beyond the next quarter, beyond the next business cycle. We can think in terms of generations. We ask ourselves not only what is right for today, but what will strengthen our company and our people for decades to come."

He described the Edgmont Campus as "a clear expression of that long-term thinking—not because of its size or the technology inside it, but because it reflects belief in the future, belief in people, belief in relationships."

He also drew a pointed contrast on culture. "I attended a session at our annual innovators meeting a couple of weeks ago, and what impressed me most was not the technology, it was the people,” he said.

For Endress, the relationship between Endress+Hauser and Eastern Controls offered perhaps the most telling proof of those values. "Talking to people from Endress+Hauser and Eastern Controls, you wouldn't know the difference," he said. "I think that's a great testament to the quality of the relationship that has been formed here over so many years."