Axioma Metering (Axioma) is a major European manufacturer of smart heat and water devices, energy management devices and systems, offering a range of monitoring products for different mediums and reflecting various operational methods: heat meter computers, ultrasonic heating and cooling energy meters, ultrasonic heat and water meters and ultrasonic flow sensors. These devices can be configured and tailored to meet the client’s need.
Company CEO Ignas Vosylius explains that what was established as a start-up in the 1990s by a bunch of university students has become a fast-growing company of 450 people supplying its smart products to global markets. A remarkable achievement for a previously unknown and relatively small player from Kaunas, Lithuania.
“Axioma Metering in its current form, as an independent business, has just celebrated its 6th anniversary, but the company draws on the experience and track record of its predecessor founded over three decades ago, making use of its proven technical know-how in the area of ultrasound and IoT technologies,” he says.
Reliable and eco-focused
He further points out that while smart metering is not new, Axioma has a strong differentiator – bringing its products to the mass market. “We didn’t want to focus on a niche product but on a meter that could be deployed on a large scale. To this end, we designed a lean, effective and highly automated manufacturing process which enables us to make a product that ticks all the boxes and addresses the main issues of getting critical data from infrastructures in a very cost-effective way. ”
And what makes it different from other meters on the market? “First, we didn’t try to squeeze the extra euro from the customer and over-engineer the product. We went in the other direction, offering a reliable, optimally designed meter that does exactly what it is supposed to do. No more, no less. And second, importantly, the product was designed with network connectivity in mind, using standard communication technologies. That means that users can migrate to different network operators without any limitations… This was a true game changer.”
Axioma’s meters are also extremely reliable and power efficient. “Our water meter is powered by two simple AA batteries and ensures that water flow is measured every half second, the data is reported every hour and sent three times a day to the server. It is guaranteed to work with this precision for 16 years. To design a compact product that would offer these characteristics was quite a technological challenge, but a mass-scale deployment would not otherwise be possible.”
Triple capacity
Axioma’s smart water and heat meters are designed for monitoring consumption in industrial, commercial, and residential buildings, and demand is, understandably, continuously increasing. “When we introduced our latest family of products in 2018, our annual production volume was roughly 65,000 meters. Last year, this was over one million. And the potential is huge. In a typical western city, some 25-30% of water distributed is lost in the network due to leaks or mishandling within the infrastructure. This loss is invisible to the utilities without smart metering solutions.”
This is where Axioma comes into play – its clients who start using Axioma’s solutions minimise that waste down to single digits within a couple of years. “We can say that last year our performance was not only measured by the millions of euros generated in revenue, but also by the millions of households who could manage their consumptions better, thus making a significant environmental impact.”
The potential has been well reflected in Axioma’s expansion plans from the very beginning, says Vosylius. “In 2018 we built a new factory that was twice as big as we needed at that time, anticipating growth. We also bought the adjacent plot to allow for further expansion. That has now happened – we have just commissioned our very new second factory, an investment worth €20 million which will ultimately allow for a 4-million-unit capacity.”
Ignas Vosylius, who joined Axioma in 2018, himself played a major part in this expansion, steering the company into a new chapter of its development, with a mission to introduce new products and new technologies, targeting mass product deployment. Comprehensive design-to-production process control is also something that plays to Axioma’s advantage and that he made sure was well covered within the new company structure.
“The product needs to be perfectly designed and perfectly made to meet different networks requirements, and to work without a power connection. We cannot afford any human error; therefore, our production is automated to the highest possible level, and the cooperation between design and production is essential. We don’t outsource a single operation, continuously improving the processes and the equipment ourselves.”
For global markets
Today, Axioma’s meters can be found in markets all around the world. A significant part of the output exported is sold in Europe, with the rest shipped to utilities in the Middle East, Latin and North America, with south-east Asia and India slowly catching up, says Vosylius.
Axioma’s biggest European market is Italy, where the company has won a major market share over the last few years, starting from zero. And more is to come, given the Italian government’s commitment to investing a further €1.5 billion to fast-forward the digital transformation.
Vosylius reflects that Axioma is following the trends in different markets, and it is not always the digital transformation. “In Europe, climate change is the key change driver, but different regions have different priorities. In the Middle East, it is the nature of water sourcing and the need to use ultrasonic technologies that are unaffected by sand particles; India, on the other hand is developing its infrastructures from scratch in many places and naturally demands the latest technologies that would last a long time. We are monitoring all these market drivers and are ready to meet upcoming demand.”
Summarizing the company’s latest development and its outlook for the future, he affirms that steady growth has been and will be the key task. “We are not chasing a P&L bottom line, our shareholders are patient and keen on reinvesting the profits into further expansion, seeing the market potential, and believing that we can outperform most of our competitors. So, we will continue to invest and push for growth, not just for the business’s sake but to make a positive impact on the environment, in line with our mission.”
