Vismec establishing US foothold for its auxiliary equipment

Vismec America began the challenging process of creating a foothold in the U.S. for the auxiliary equipment made by its European parent last year, opening a facility on Aug. 1 in Spartanburg, S.C. — all with a staff of three.

“We’re pretty lean,” CEO James Jamison. “We’ve got myself, we’ve got a service technician and an engineer on staff. So, between the three of us, we can do just about everything.”

Facing a pandemic didn’t lighten the burden. “We were just starting to get to that point where we were getting a lot of traction with quotes and sales and opportunities and agents and then all of a sudden, COVID came up and kind of slowed everything down,” he said.  

Vismec Srl, Padua, Italy, supplies drying, conveying, dosing, grinding and storage equipment.

“Vismec is focused in Europe … and [is] well-known there,” Jamison said. “We have been supplying our desiccant dryers here in North America for over six years now; however, we’ve been private labeling for another company, so they haven’t been distributed under the Vismec name, they’ve been distributed under a competitor’s name.”

“We’re very similar to the Conairs or Novatecs or Dri-Airs of the U.S.,” Jamison said. He said Vismec’s line includes desiccant and hot-air dryers with a capacity of up to about 3,500 pounds of resin per hour, and central vacuum conveying systems that handle up to 6,000 pounds per hour. 

Jamison said Vismec’s entire product line is now available in North America, with the majority of the equipment arriving from Italy fully assembled.

“That’s the plan for Phase 1, which is what we’re in now,” Jamison said. “We’re not doing a bunch of assembly work, we’re bringing product in and getting known in the marketplace. And then Phase 2, we would start assembling, fabricating and whatnot here in the Spartanburg area.”

Jamison said that of the facility’s 8,000 square feet, about 6,500 square feet is used for warehouse and assembly duties, and the balance houses offices and a room the company uses to demonstrate its equipment and train customers or agents. The company also works with a network of about 15 independent sales agents covering all of North America, and about five independent contractors who handle the service and installation work. At the moment, the office space is solely occupied by Jamison, and his colleagues are working remotely.

He said for the time being, he and his coworkers have been conducting online meetings with customers, and agents have been using any downtime for training on products and applications.

“We’ve got our feet underneath us, we’ve got a warehouse full of equipment, we’ve got over a half million dollars of equipment here complete, ready to ship,” he said. “We just need the economy to kind of cooperate.”

David Tillett, associate editor

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For more information

Vismec America Inc., Spartanburg, S.C., 833-847-6321, www.vismec.com