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SANIFLO Backgrounder

SFA SANIFLO INC. (“SANIFLO”), is the only manufacturer of its kind in North America, offering a complete line of macerating toilet systems for residential and light-commercial applications where it is impossible or cost-prohibitive to install conventional plumbing fixtures that require below-floor drainage.

Saniflo’s French parent company, SFA Group in Paris, developed this “above-floor plumbing” technology nearly a half-century ago and led its commercialization over the intervening decades. SFA began selling these unique plumbing fixtures in Europe in 1958, taking the line international in 1965 and entering the U.S. market in the late 1990s.

While macerating technology may be relatively new in the United States, more than 350,000 units were sold worldwide in 2005 by 11 SFA subsidiaries in 50 countries – a rise of 20% over the previous year. In this country, Saniflo sales jumped by nearly two thirds in 2005 to more than 13,600 units, as more and more tradespeople and consumers learn about the benefits of this unique technology that is changing the way Americans renovate their homes.

Saniflo products are now widely available across the United States, marketed by the company’s network of independent sales agents through several hundred wholesale distribution outlets, as well as select hardware stores and retail home-improvement centers.

Management : Johan Bouwer (photo left) is president of SFA Saniflo. A native of The Hague in the Netherlands, Bouwer emigrated to Canada in 1976. After operating his own electrical contracting business, he launched Sanitary For All in Toronto in 1987, marketing the SFA line of macerating systems. Bouwer was instrumental in develop-ing a macerating standard in the United States and Canada, while also obtaining approvals from various code bodies in both countries.

Facilities: In January 2004, Bouwer changed the name from Sanitary For All Ltd. to the current SFA Saniflo Inc., relocating the headquarters to a larger office-warehouse facility in Guelph, Ontario, in Canada. In July 2005, the company opened a new office and warehouse facility in Edison, New Jersey, the 8,700-square-foot facility houses inventories of Saniflo macerating products for shipment across the United States.

Product Line: The flagship of the Saniflo line is the Saniplus (shown in photo above), but the company also produces several other macerating and pumping units:

• Sanibest, intended for heavier toilet use, collects and pumps waste water from a variety of fixtures in a single application, including a washbasin, bathtub, shower, urinal and washing machine (which must drain into a laundry tub or sink first).
• Sanigrind works with a standard bottom-outlet water closet, instead of the special, rear-spigot toilet required by other Saniflo macerating models. As a result, Sanigrind can accommodate any conventional water closet available today.
• Sanipack and Sanistar permit a water closet to be hung from a wall and for the macerating pump to be concealed behind that wall. The Sanipack can handle not just the toilet, but also a washbasin, urinal and shower. The Sanistar can accommodate a wash basin as well as the toilet.
• Sanicompact 48 is a self-contained toilet that uses only one gallon per flush, making it ideal for small, tight-fitting residential applications, such as a clothes closet, a bedroom or even under a stairway.
• Sanishower is a gray water pump that allows the installation of a shower, washbasin or wet bar anywhere in a house.
• Sanivite, also a gray water pump, is intended for utility room sinks, kitchen sinks, dishwashers, clothes washers, and wet bars, etc. (A clothes washer must drain into a laundry tub or sink first.)

For more information about the product line, contact Saniflo at 1-800-571-8191. Or visit the Saniflo website at www.saniflo.com.

For editorial assistance, including press information and photography, contact John O’Reilly c/o LNC Communications: 815-469-9100 or John@LNCmail.com.