Centre for Advance Photonics and Process Analysis (CAPPA) CIT and Water Technology Ltd.
Water Technology Ltd. (WTL), based in Cork city and was formed in 1985 and now has 75 employees on site. The company provides expertise to other businesses in areas such as water treatment, specialised cleaning and detergent applications, operational optimisation, troubleshooting / fault-finding, Clean in Process (CIP) Validation and sustainability initiatives and engineering solutions. WTL works with a number of the larger food and beverage suppliers/manufacturers and has projects in diverse areas such as public water supplies, sustainability and environmental impact.
In 2017 WTL approached the CAPPA Centre at CIT with a view to examining a number of potential consultancy type projects that it viewed as important to the company’s future development. Partnering with CAPPA has led to a number of consultancy projects since then which have had significant impact for the company and its ability grow its markets.
CAPPA is an Enterprise Ireland funded Technology Gateway based at CIT which is successfully delivering photonic solutions for industries in the Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage and Medical Device sectors.
The consultancy projects undertaken by WTL and CAPPA had specific outcomes for the company allowing them to offer more prescribed solutions to its customers and consequently improved competitiveness in the market place. Additionally, cost savings and efficiencies were highlighted by CAPPA allowing the company to be more financially stable. Through a particular project CAPPA were able to significantly assist WTL with a fault finding/trouble shooting issue that was presented with by one of their major external industry clients. The additional expertise gained by WTL thorugh the consultancy project now makes them the “go to” partner for this client for other troubleshooting issues and may lead to a set of more concentrated R&D type collaborations between the two companies.
Other projects carried out by CAPPA have delivered other commercial impacts e.g. Strengthened customer confidence and securing future business contracts. These projects have been crucial for staff retention within WTL over the last number of years.
As a Technology Gateway, CAPPA is specifically tasked with engaging with industry clients and now has a very well established, long term relationship with WTL. CAPPA is engaged with WTL on several short and longer term consultancy projects. The flexibility available from CAPPA suits the requirements of WTL and its client base and the close geographical arrangements of the groups makes for a very efficient interaction.
