During the month of July, we traveled to Valencia with the CEO Juan José Vila and the Equipson Group Marketing Manager Nick Dimes, to discover the reality of FANTEK INDUSTRIAL, a 100% Spanish company with a long history and capable of offering a wide and constantly evolving range of lifting towers, trusses, platforms, stage components and accessories, as well as customized special solutions.
As Juan José Vila, COO of Equipson, which has owned the FANTEK brand since 2015, will tell in the interview below, it is a company that was founded in the 1940s and today applies its long experience and know-how to the production of quality products, conform to current manufacturing standards.
During our stay at FANTEK, we got to know a company that recently announced its entry into the “heavy-load” truss market with solutions with a very balanced cost/feature ratio and that at the same time is very active in making its contribution in certification paths and European rules of use. Experiences that have resulted in, among many others, the innovative LoadSense system found in the Spanish company’s lifters.
There was also no shortage of visits to the production and R&D departments, where the levels of experimentation, testing and production quality are very high and the activity is well organized.
The large production area is spread out in length, with various production stations for processing, assembly, testing and shipping. There are many numerically controlled machines although there is no lack of human touch especially in welding.
Also present is an elegant exhibition area with the entire FANTEK sample collection and a theater inside the Equipson headquarters where various demos involving the entire catalog of the two companies are set up as needed.
LightSoundJournal.com: let’s start with the FANTEK reality narrative…
Juan José Vila: FANTEK was founded in the 1940s under a different name. The company started to produce trusses and lifters in the late 80s, and at that time, it was primarily producing OEM for other manufacturers. Then, in 2008, the company created the brand FANTEK and began producing their products under their own brand.
LightSoundJournal.com: tell us about products and target markets…
Juan José Vila: regarding market presence, FANTEK is becoming very strong in the US specially with high load llifter systems. A next step will be to enter the Asian market.
To date it is the most used brand in Spain especially for trusses. Equipson bought FANTEK in 2015 with the goal of expanding the production of our lifters, and we realized that we could do a great job by continuing to exploit the FANTEK brand, which presented a build quality and quality comparable to the market leaders. Then we successfully entered the overseas market by focusing on the larger systems like the 76, and by September we should be ready with our pre-rigging system. We chose to focus on the high-load because all the companies are producing the 30 and 40 standards, and it is difficult for us to be competitive in this market, whereas thanks to a step-by-step growth process and some innovations we are working on, by next year we will have the opportunity to be a reference in the high-load market. So basically we have done a very good job of growing both lifting systems and trusses, choosing to stay in the high-value PRO arena.
LightSoundJournal.com: what kind of support and advice do you offer to your clients?
Juan José Vila: We receive constant consultancy from well-known riggers, professionals and customers. We use their feedback to understand their needs and focus on developing products that truly meet those needs. We are also studying a web-based system to facilitate easy setups, and we are working on making our product libraries available for major design software such as Vectorworks, Wysiwyg, and many others. Finally from our site you can download the various certifications, manuals, etc…
LightSoundJournal.com: how are you organized in terms of compatibility between different standards?
Juan José Vila: We have our own proprietary connection system, but we also produce other connection systems that may be compatible with those of other European manufacturers. In the case that an end user mixes trusses from two manufacturers, the installer must verify the technical data for both trusses to ensure compatibility. Once these factors have been taken into account, contrary to some claims, this does not impact the position of the user and/or manufacturer, nor does it substitute or alter any responsibilities or legal liabilities. Remember that it is always the responsibility of the end user to correctly assemble the system and follow the load diagram, using the weakest load values from the manufacturers involved..
LightSoundJournal.com: we know you are very active regarding certifications and regulations. What are the differences between Europe and the rest of the world?
Juan José Vila: among our company group staff, we have three expert members on the UNE/CTN311 committee, and two of us are also expert members on the CEN/TC433 committee. We are participating in the development of the EN17206 standard, and I want to emphasize that part 2 of this new regulation is dedicated to lifters. What we want is to always on track to listen, learn and participate in the development of new rules.
The major difference between Europe and the United States with regard to certifications is that in Europe the rules are more restrictive. In Europe the laws are made to prevent the problem, whereas in the U.S. you are free to do what you think but if you get it wrong you end up bad (ed. Laughs!). In the rest of the world they often settle for just European certification.
LightSoundJournal.com: future developments?
Juan José Vila: FANTEK is involved in the development of further innovations in lifters according to the upcoming EN 17206/2 standard, with the introduction of the LoadSense system in telescopic and front-loaded lifters. Before releasing this innovation, we carried out a large-scale field test by supplying selected companies with some lifters throughout last summer season. We then collected the various feedback, further improved the development, and are now ready to ship the first series.
Talking about trusses on the other hand, as I said we are focusing on heavy-load systems and some new solutions that I cannot say anything about yet, except that they will have a good cost/feature balance and have been developed by involving service and other companies. Professional trusses with good features, affordable and in full compliance with EN 17115 (ed. Entertainment Technology – Specifications for the design and fabrication of aluminum and steel trusses).
LightSoundJournal.com: have price increases affected your industry as well?
Juan José Vila: The price of aluminum has gone up but it has gone up for everyone and is determined for the whole world by the London Metal Exchange. So the negotiation with suppliers is based on pennies and we prefer to spend a little more but have an aluminum not only of quality but also with a very good finish. A good part of the trusses we sell are made with a matte black finish in origin. This actually improves strength and is beautiful to look at.
LightSoundJournal.com: do you make hoists as well?
Juan José Vila: for now, we don’t do hoists. We are considering partnering with a company focused in the hoist sector so we can offer a 360-degree service.
A final tidbit worth recounting is a totally unexpected visit to the Equipson basement, where we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in a vast collection of musical instruments belonging to Juan’s father, José Luis Vila bassist of the historic Spanish band Los Genios, who over the years has collected a huge amount of vintage instruments. I’ll leave you to the pictures that comment on themselves….
Walter Lutzu
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