From Bavaria to overseas: Success story of Primus Line^® on the US market

Ten years ago, it was “going west” for Rädlinger primus line GmbH, more precisely to the USA. The Bavarian company from Cham saw considerable potential for its technology for trenchless pressure pipe rehabilitation in the United States as one of the largest economic locations with an ageing infrastructure. An external market study supported this assessment. Among other things, it determined the rehabilitation needs, which dimensions Rädlinger primus line could cover with its portfolio and which rehabilitation methods were known in the USA at the time: Trenchless methods already existed. Their use in the rehabilitation of pressure pipelines, however, was just emerging.

In order to create a stable sales network, a physical local presence was indispensable. Therefore, the Primus Line management decided to establish a subsidiary in the USA, the “Raedlinger Primus Line, Inc.”. As a preparatory measure, the German parent company had already applied for and received NSF 61 hygiene approval for the liner for water applications in 2012.

The management chose Charlotte in North Carolina as the location: This location on the east coast facilitates communication with the headquarters in Bavaria due to the smaller time difference. Moreover, other German companies with a corresponding network are already based there.

As from May 2013, the direct contact was the managing director of the branch, who initially focused on the north-east of the USA – the part of the country with the oldest water networks and corresponding rehabilitation potential. Large temperature fluctuations between summer and winter and the associated earth movements cause leaks and pipe bursts in the existing pipeline networks.

In order to make Primus Line^® known as a trenchless method for the rehabilitation of pressure pipelines, the following main tasks crystallised at that time: to identify suitable installation partners, to convince engineering companies of the efficiency of the Primus Line^® system and to further educate end customers in what trenchless rehabilitation of pressure pipelines means, which advantages a system like Primus Line^® offers and for which applications it can be used.