Reflections on ACE24 and other Mid-Year Observations from Jon Taft, Regional Manager

Post-ACE Mid-Year Thoughts from Jon Taft,  Regional Manager 

Regional Manager Jon Taft shares his thoughts on ACE, where he sees the industry mid-way through 2024, and how SIGMA provided a solution for customers facing a challenging problem. 

Question: How was ACE24? 

Jon Taft:  Overall, the show was awesome. There was great energy, attendance was strong, and people seemed happy to be there. ACE offers a nice opportunity midway through the year for us to connect with friends, colleagues, and customers, always an event we look forward to. 

Q:  What market trends did you spot at ACE and where do you see the industry now and for the remainder of 2024? 

JT:  Our industry is not one for rapid transformation, that is just the nature of waterworks. But there are always new and innovative ideas and products to learn about.  This year started off rather slowly for a variety of reasons—weather, affordability in the residential sector. But we saw some momentum build in spring and anticipate that continuing through the summer and for the rest of the year.  The continued anticipation of the Fed making a cut is keeping markets on edge. If that happens, it should act as catalyst to further improve construction in the private sector moving forward. 

Q: What has SIGMA done this year to encourage growth? 

JT: One significant move we made was to address a concern among our customers regarding guaranteed performance of wedge action mechanical joint restraint on DI pipe. We had heard from manufacturers, distributors, and most importantly, end-users that there was a gap or qualification in the performance guarantee on some wedge action mechanical restraints on DIP:  

“The pipe can meet the accepted AWWA standards, but for some manufacturers, their restraints now require additional physical characteristics of the pipe exceeded those standards.”  

We have been very active in promoting our “No Disclaimers Just Restraints” campaign. The SIGMA ONE-LOK has a superior design with guaranteed performance on all DIP conforming to AWWA C151 Standards. A simple solution for a hard-to-identify potential problem in the field. 

While our industry may not embrace rapid change, efficiency and confidence in the field are paramount and SIGMA leads the way. 

We had a great opportunity to showcase this product and message at ACE and it was all very well received.