RE:interesting read , not on TMG , on steam from Bronte CapitalNot having read the whole article, let me weigh in with what I know. Spirax provides steam traps, among other things, and therefore it is a direct competitor to TEI GEMs in that respect. Obvoiusly a much bigger and more established company as a whole. And they really grew into this company roughly from the time that TEI was founded.
TEI may argue that Spirax traps are not really a competitor but they are....because they go towards addressing the same problem.
Key differences....Spirax traps are considered consumable. They fail, they have to be replaced. TEI's are not. Spirax steam traps seem to command a smaller profit margin than GEM...but as a consumable that offers opportunities for renewed sales, this smaller profit margin is earned continuously over time. And given the Spirax growth as a company now roughly a billion British pounds in steam thermal solutions (likely not all traps, but you get the drift), it is not a losing business model.
From TEI's perspective, lowering the quality of GEM traps so that they eventually fail and you get repeat sales kills the sales value proposition. So, you don't want to do that, or certainly not at this time when you are struggling to get a lot of companies to adopt your technology.
But building Flu-Aces that provide clients a payback of a few short years, but they last for a couple of decades, is something that should be revisited so that there is a prospect of future repeat sales for same plants, as opposed to "one-and-done" considering the amount of effort to win one.
In conclusion, steam systems are still vastly used throughout the world. We should be doing better with our steam traps by now....IMO.