Mr Lambrechts, Bray is a global company. How is Bray Europe & Middle East positioned within the international structure?
Rick Lambrechts: Bray is organised as a global company with clearly defined regional structures, and Europe and the Middle East are managed as one combined region. This setup allows us to combine the strengths of a worldwide organisation with a very focused regional and local market approach. On the one hand, we benefit from Bray’s global footprint, engineering expertise, broad product portfolio, and manufacturing capacity. On the other hand, we remain closely aligned with local market requirements, standards, and customer expecta-tions. Today, Europe and the Middle East is an and important region and pillar to Bray’s global business.

What are your main strategic priorities in Europe and the Middle East?
Rick Lambrechts: Strategically, our priorities are very clear. We want to achieve sustainable growth, further strengthen our valve automation, control, and service capabilities, and position Bray as a trusted long-term partner for end users, OEMs, and EPCs across the region. What matters to our customers is not only the prod-uct itself, but also the fact that Bray can offer engineering, manufacturing, assembly, distribution, and lifecycle services from a single source. That integrated value chain is a significant advantage, particularly for customers who want technical consistency and clear responsibility throughout the project and operating life of their assets.

Bray often describes its approach as “Global Company, Regional Focus, Local Presence.” How do you put that principle into practice in Europe and the Middle East?
Rick Lambrechts: That principle very much reflects how we operate on a daily basis. As a global company, Bray has access to substantial engineering resources, a wide product range, and production capabilities across several regions. This gives us the scale to support both major projects and fluctuating demand volumes. At regional level, we coordinate resources and capacities across Europe and the Middle East so that we can re-main flexible and reliable when project activity increases or when customers face changing requirements.

At the same time, local presence is essential. Customers expect their supplier to understand national regula-tions, technical specifications, and market conditions. They also value close communication and, wherever possible, support in the local language. We believe that consistent global quality only creates real value when it is combined with local responsiveness. That combination is exactly what enables us to remain close to our customers while still benefiting from the scale and expertise of a global organisation.

What role do your production and assembly facilities play in supporting this strategy?
Rick Lambrechts: They are a key part of it. Bray operates major production sites in Germany, Glasgow, China, India, and Houston, and we are also expanding our facility in Malaysia. In addition, we have established a new assembly area in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, which further strengthens our position in the Middle East. This network allows us to combine global manufacturing strength with regional flexibility and local support. It ensures that we can respond efficiently to different market demands while maintaining the quality and con-sistency that customers expect from Bray.

How important is the Italian market for Bray?
Rick Lambrechts: Italy is a very important market for us. It is a large, mature, and highly innovative industrial environment with a strong base in heavy industry, OEMs, engineering companies, and EPCs. Particularly in Northern Italy, there is a remarkable concentration of valve manufacturers, equipment builders, and indus-trial expertise. This creates a dynamic and demanding market, but also one with considerable growth poten-tial for a company like Bray. What makes Italy especially attractive is the combination of industrial depth and innovation. It is a market where traditional process industries are highly relevant, yet at the same time there is strong demand for advanced, application-specific solutions. For us, that makes Italy not only an important existing market, but also an exciting one for continued development.

Focus on efficiency, safety, sustainability, and automation

In which industries are you currently seeing the greatest demand for valve solutions?
Rick Lambrechts: We are seeing strong demand across a number of sectors. Traditional heavy industries such as oil and gas, chemicals, petrochemicals, refining, and power generation remain highly important. At the same time, demand is growing in water and wastewater, pharmaceuticals, and in OEM-driven segments such as process equipment manufacturers, skid builders, and specialised machinery suppliers. Applications linked to the energy transition are also becoming increasingly relevant.

What all of these sectors have in common is a rising expectation in terms of efficiency, safety, reliability, and regulatory compliance. Bray is well positioned in this environment because our portfolio is broad enough to address both standard and highly specialised applications. In our region, we also see relevance in sectors such as data processing and mining, which further illustrates the diversity of market requirements that our products and solutions need to address.

What key trends and technological developments are currently shaping the industrial valve market?
Rick Lambrechts: The most important trends can be summarised in a few words: efficiency, safety, sustaina-bility, and automation. Digitalisation is also becoming increasingly influential. Customers are under pressure to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency, and extend the service life of their equipment. At the same time, process conditions are becoming more demanding, with higher temperatures, higher pressures, and more challenging media. That means valves must deliver reliable performance under increasingly complex operating conditions.

Another important development is the growing use of intelligent data and predictive tools. Automation is playing a larger role, and technologies such as artificial intelligence open up new possibilities, whether in lifecycle prediction, service recommendations, engineering optimisation, or material selection. These devel-opments will not replace engineering expertise, but they will increasingly complement it and help both man-ufacturers and end users make better-informed decisions.

How does Bray address these requirements in practical terms?
Rick Lambrechts: We address them through a strong focus on efficient design, sound engineering, and reliable performance throughout the entire product lifecycle. Our portfolio includes valves, actuators, and control solutions that are designed to minimise fugitive emissions, reduce energy consumption, and ensure long-term reliability. Safety is supported through robust materials, proven sealing technologies, and strict compliance with both international and local standards.

At the same time, we continuously work on material selection, product design, and modular concepts that are tailored to specific applications. Sustainability is not simply a matter of discussing broader goals; it must be reflected in the way products are designed and in how effectively they perform over time in real operating environments. We also support customers through application engineering, automation expertise, and service capabilities that help improve process control, extend service life, and lower the total cost of ownership.

One of the key areas in your activities is the VAC sector. Could you briefly explain what that entails and what value it offers to customers?
Rick Lambrechts: VAC stands for Valve Automation Centre, and it represents a very important part of our offering. In practical terms, it means combining valves, actuators, controls, and accessories into complete, integrated, and tested assemblies that are tailored to the specific application. For the customer, that creates significant added value: greater efficiency, more reliable operation, improved safety, and less complexity during installation and operation.

We clearly see that many customers prefer a one-stop-shop approach. They do not want fragmented responsi-bility across different suppliers and brands. They want one partner that can deliver a complete engineered solution and stand behind it. Our VAC concept addresses exactly that need. By providing a complete assembly with clear responsibility and warranty, we can help shorten project timelines, simplify commissioning, and improve long-term operating reliability.

Valve Automation Center by Bray

How are your VAC and service operations structured in Europe?
Rick Lambrechts: In our region, we are developing and strengthening three important VAC locations: Glas-gow, Germany, and Dammam. These sites serve as centres of expertise for valve automation, customised assemblies, and lifecycle services. They operate with qualified personnel, standardised processes, and mod-ern testing and documentation methods, ensuring consistency, traceability, and quality throughout project execution.

For customers in Europe and the Middle East, this structure is highly valuable because it combines regional capability with local execution. It allows us to respond quickly, support both project business and aftermar-ket needs, and maintain a high level of technical reliability.

Bray to make its debut at IVS in Bergamo

In addition, Bray offers cleanroom services in the United Kingdom. For which applications are these particularly relevant?
Rick Lambrechts: These services are particularly relevant in industries where product purity, contamination control, and process integrity are absolutely critical. That includes pharmaceuticals, life sciences, semicon-ductors, specialty chemicals, and other high-purity process applications. In such sectors, it is not enough to deliver a technically correct valve; it must also be assembled, tested, and documented under highly con-trolled conditions.

Our cleanroom services in the UK are designed to meet exactly these requirements. They ensure controlled assembly environments, full traceability, and compliance with strict customer and regulatory expectations. For customers, this provides confidence that the equipment is ready for immediate use in sensitive applica-tions and that the risk during commissioning and operation is minimised. We also see potential to expand these kinds of services in other regions in the future.

What role do local partners play in your market development, especially in key markets such as Italy?
Rick Lambrechts: Local partners play a very important role for us. They have deep knowledge of the market, close customer relationships, and a strong understanding of local standards, practices, and expectations. In Italy, for example, we work with partners such as Eteria S.R.L. Such cooperation helps us translate local customer needs into solutions that can be delivered through Bray’s global portfolio and technical capabilities.

In a market like Italy, where customer requirements are sophisticated and competition is strong, local pres-ence and local knowledge are essential. Partners therefore complement our global strengths in a very effec-tive way.

Bray will be exhibiting at IVS in Bergamo. How significant is this trade fair for your company and for your activi-ties in Italy?
Rick Lambrechts: IVS in Bergamo is highly significant for Bray and for our development in the Italian market. It is one of the key meeting points for the Italian valve, actuator, and service industry, bringing together end users, OEMs, EPCs, and technology partners. For us, it is much more than a trade fair presence. It is an op-portunity to strengthen existing relationships, engage with new contacts, and demonstrate Bray’s capabilities in valves, automation, and engineered solutions in a market that is strategically very important to us.

Why is IVS in Bergamo such a strategically important trade fair for Bray?
Rick Lambrechts: What makes IVS particularly important is its strong regional relevance. It provides direct access not only to the Italian market, but also to the wider Mediterranean valve and process industry commu-nity. At the exhibition, we want to present Bray’s company philosophy, our broader product portfolio, and in particular our control valve offering. For a company like Bray, which sees Italy as a key growth market, IVS is an excellent platform to increase visibility, deepen market engagement, and gain valuable insight into cus-tomer expectations and market trends. Compared with other industry events, IVS offers a very distinctive opportunity because of its focused regional character and strong visitor reach.

At the same time, Bray is also taking part in ChemUK in Birmingham. Which target groups are you addressing there, and what are your priorities?
Rick Lambrechts: ChemUK in Birmingham is a very important platform for us to engage with the UK chemical and process industries. We are primarily addressing decision-makers from chemicals, specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and related process sectors, as well as OEMs, EPCs, and plant operators. Our priorities there are to demonstrate Bray’s capabilities in engineered valve and automation solutions, in safety-critical and emissions-focused applications, and in lifecycle support.

The UK is a long-established market for Bray. We have been present in Glasgow for around 30 years, and we know how important the local chemical and process industries are. ChemUK gives us the right setting to show how Bray can support customers facing current market challenges such as high energy costs, stricter emissions targets, and increasing sustainability requirements. In that sense, the event is highly relevant for us because it allows us to demonstrate not only products, but also practical solutions to the issues the industry is facing today.

Looking ahead, what developments do you expect in the industrial valve sector over the coming years, and how is Bray positioning itself for that future?
Rick Lambrechts: I believe the sector will be shaped above all by sustainability, digitalisation, and increasing performance requirements. Customers will continue to demand solutions that reduce emissions, improve en-ergy efficiency, and deliver reliable, safe operation under more demanding process conditions. At the same time, lifecycle value, standardisation, and faster project execution will become even more important, par-ticularly for OEMs and EPCs.

Bray is positioning itself for that future by continuously expanding its engineered valve and automation port-folio, strengthening its VAC and service capabilities, and investing in technologies that support efficiency, safety, and compliance. Another essential point is serviceability on a global scale. Customers expect spare parts, service support, and technical assistance to be available wherever they operate. That is something Bray can provide. Our ambition is not simply to supply products, but to support customers with complete, reliable solutions that help them meet current and future challenges alike.

Hydrogen is also increasingly discussed as a future market. How relevant is this field for Bray?
Rick Lambrechts: Hydrogen is definitely becoming more relevant for us. The energy transition and the ongo-ing transformation within the chemical industry are creating growing demand for hydrogen-related applica-tions and solutions. For Bray, this is an important area because our products and engineering capabilities are well suited to support such developments. We are therefore following this segment very closely and are in-creasingly engaging with the market through relevant events and industry platforms.