Key Business Outlooks 2026 brings Brian Barr, Director of Sales at Heat and Control, into focus as he reflects on how shifting demand patterns, labour constraints, and cautious capital spending reshaped processor priorities in 2025. He explains why optimizing existing assets, accelerating automation, and delivering value-driven efficiency gains are now central to investment decisions, and how Heat and Control is aligning innovation, sustainability, and real-world performance guarantees to support processors pursuing resilient growth and stronger returns in the years ahead.

Looking back at 2025, which customer pressures proved structural rather than temporary, and how did they reshape your commercial or product strategy.

2025 was definitely a challenging year for many industries, including the potato sector. Changes in consumer spending, shifts between the foodservice and retail markets, and the continued challenge of labour availability all required our customers to adapt their capital equipment spending.

To meet these market and customer pressures, we focused on helping our customers optimize their existing assets — achieving production needs while minimizing spend — while also driving innovation in automation and high-efficiency equipment solutions that improve operating metrics, reduce downtime, and lessen reliance on scarce labour resources. 

As you plan for 2026, which market assumptions are you revising, and where do you see the greatest hesitation or uncertainty among your customers?   

As our customers navigate changing market landscapes, we aren’t so much revising assumptions as adapting to the evolving needs and timelines of our customers. Our focus is on having equipment and support solutions ready and on standby as plans change, allowing them to pivot as needed to meet shifting consumer demand.

How do you expect investment behavior among processors to evolve in 2026, particularly regarding capacity expansion, efficiency upgrades, and automation?

We’re positive about the investment outlook for 2026. The market challenges of 2025 — and the resulting delayed investments — have left many processors operating with aging assets that can be less efficient and often require more operational staffing compared to current technology offerings.

As a result, we see our customers increasing investment in efficiency and automation projects that increase volume and operating efficiency while reducing labour dependency, maintenance requirements, and total cost of ownership. These investments will help processors achieve the aggressive ROI targets required in today’s marketplace.

Where did your strongest growth opportunities come from recently, and what did those projects reveal about changing customer priorities?  

With our wide portfolio of equipment solutions across the potato industry, Heat and Control’s growth opportunities span every segment of customer production. From potato handling, storage, washing, and cooking through to packaging, inspection, coating, and conveying — the clear and enduring priority is value.

We help customers improve their products and processes with value-driven solutions. Recent prioritization has focused on systems to improve product quality and throughput, while also reducing operating costs and advancing sustainability initiatives.

Strong examples of this value-based approach include our new Slice Wash Support Module (SWSM) and Process Recirculation Support Modules (PRSM) technologies. With water sustainability at their core, these technologies significantly reduce water usage while improving process time, operating costs, and overall efficiency.

How do you balance near-term customer demands with longer-term R&D investment, especially in a more cautious capital-spending environment? 

Innovation is in Heat and Control’s DNA, and our R&D efforts and investment have continued to increase even as customers have slowed capital spending. As problem-solvers, market challenges drive us to develop higher-performance, higher-efficiency solutions that are easier to operate, maintain, and sanitise — always with sustainability in mind.

Which external drivers — energy, labor availability, regulation, digitalization, or sustainability requirements — are most influencing equipment purchasing decisions today? 

While Heat and Control’s broad customer base faces varied decision drivers, labor availability, performance improvements, and sustainability have led purchasing decisions over the past several years.

To support customers facing workforce variability and labor availability challenges, we’ve focused on automation, HMI and operator-interface simplification, and formalized training programs. These efforts are designed to simplify equipment operation and minimize operator actions/requirements, while enhancing operator effectiveness through improved performance.  

Performance improvements are also a key driver in purchasing decisions. Increased throughput, higher operating efficiency, reduced downtime, and improved product quality all support customers in achieving their ROI objectives.

Finally, and of growing importance, is sustainability. Our customers are highly conscious of the environmental impact of their operations. We offer multiple solutions that deliver improved performance while requiring less energy and water, helping customers meet both operational and environmental goals.

How do you see the relationship between promised technological performance and real-world operational results evolving, and where do customers now demand clearer proof of value?

We see a strong and growing focus on the alignment between promised technological performance and real-world operational results as a condition of sale. With cautious capital spending, customers must be confident that investments will deliver agreed performance levels and achieve — or exceed — quality and ROI targets.

While we have invested heavily in global test systems and facilities to validate performance pre-purchase, we recognise that repeatable, real-world, in-plant performance is the true measure of success. For more than 75 years, Heat and Control has believed our success is defined by equipment performance in customer operations — not in our factories or test labs.

Our quotes represent our guarantee, and our full focus is on meeting or exceeding performance expectations throughout start-up and across the full lifecycle of our customers’ investments.

What is your five-year vision for processing technology in the potato sector, and how does your company plan to remain relevant as customer expectations mature?

As processing technology continues to evolve, Heat and Control’s five-year vision is centered on continued technical and operational improvement, sustainability leadership, and — most importantly — listening. 

We will continue to adapt to both market-level and individual customer needs to ensure we meet technical and commercial requirements while delivering flexible, future-ready, and sustainable solutions. This will be achieved through continued R&D investment, guided by close collaboration with the industry, customers and strategic partners — allowing us to help our customers consistently deliver their best products to consumers.