Atlas Copco: 140 years strong
Any company that has been in business for more than 140 years is obviously doing something right. Companies like the Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) and Canadian Pacific Railways (CPR) are two familiar names that have both reached that 140-year plateau, but in the world of mining, the name Atlas Copco stands alone when it comes to sustainability through “staying in touch” with the times.
Thanks to innovation, imagination, and keeping pace with modern technology, the company has positioned itself at the forefront of delivering solutions to world-wide problems and demands.
From its beginning in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1873, Atlas Copco has gone from designing and manufacturing products for railways to now, 140 years later, being recognized in more than 180 countries as an industrial leader in the supply of mining and construction equipment, compressors and power tools, as well as entire air-treatment systems.
It’s been a long road since the late 1800s, but the company has travelled it well and since arriving in Canada in 1949, it has grown from its modest headquarters in Kirkland Lake operation to 33 locations from coast to coast.
In fact, history shows that the company has been “pushing ahead” ever since George Blomdal, a Norwegian Engineer, arrived here in Canada and started selling a new type of Swedish-designed handheld rock drill featuring a “pusher” leg.
Word of the drill, with its unique support-leg attachment, soon spread throughout the mining industry and the term “The Swedish Method” soon became synonymous with Atlas Copco’s revolutionary tool that not only performed well but moreover, made rock drilling less of a backbreaking job.
As more and more miners heard about the drill, more orders were placed and within a year of being introduced to the Northern Ontario mining market, Atlas Copco opened two branches in 1950, one in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) and the other in Vancouver.
With orders continuing to come in, administrative requirements also grew and in 1951, the company moved its headquarters from Kirkland Lake to Dorval, Quebec, where there was a greater supply of clerical workers available to handle the increase in business.
Toronto and Montreal offices soon followed thanks to a growing demand for the drills and because the tools are powered by their own compressors, that area of business also started to grow.
As mentioned earlier, designing and manufacturing compressors for power tools was a big part of the company’s business and as more uses for compressed air emerged, like air-treatment systems, the company spread out farther across the country and in 1952, a branch office was opened in Truro, N.S. to handle the emerging mining industry in Canada’s eastern townships.
Throughout the balance of the 1950s, “The Swedish Method” continued to grow in popularity and so too did the company and its other products.
With branches now located from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Vancouver, and a host of locations in between by the 1960s, the company broadened its focus to the forest industry as a source of new business.
One of the first tools Atlas Copco built for the forest industry was a drill rig built on a log skidder with a PTO-driven compressor on board to power a pneumatic rock drill.
But mining, the company’s “bread and butter,” was (and still is) its main source of interest and as mines grew in size and excavations got wider and deeper, so too did the machines required to drill farther and faster.
Most of the 1960s were spent designing and building drill rigs designed to handle the likes of Quebec’s massive hydro electric projects or the growing number of mines in Ontario’s Sudbury region.
With the 1970s came the start of infrastructure rehabilitation in Canada’s major urban centres and once again, Atlas Copco engineers were called upon to design and build drill rigs capable of working on subways and other underground facilities without disrupting above-ground services.
Compressors and air tools, too, have a very diversified customer base and the most important segments are manufacturing, process industries, utilities and the service sector, By the late 1970s they made their way (from the east) to Alberta’s oilsands.
The 1980s and 1990s saw continued growth and Louka Geladi, Vice-president, Atlas Copco Canada, credits the company’s success to its ability to translate long-time values into daily activities.
“Our history guarantees long-term industrial experience as well as innovative products and solutions to current and new customers, to suppliers as well to current and future employees.
With more than 39,800 employees world wide, Geladi says that “celebrating 140 years is a fantastic opportunity for everyone in the company to create pride among themselves and show enthusiasm about future opportunities.”
As mentioned earlier, one of Atlas Copco’s greater strengths is in its employees’ abilities to come up with new and innovative products and solutions for current and potential customers and Geladi is confident this will continue as the company expands and modernizes its facilities around the world to meet global demands.
“In India, for example,” says Geladi, “we just opened a compressor manufacturing plant near Pune, as well as making a donation to safe drinking water projects from the company’s Water for All organization in the United States, and several customer events in Australia.
“And in keeping with our global interests, Atlas Copco proudly earned a spot on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list, the most prestigious corporate sustainability ranking.”
It’s achievements like this that Geladi says helps maintain the company’s world-wide status, but he emphasizes that it’s the corporate presence within local communities that is the real reason the company’s success.
With its 33 locations across Canada, Geladi says the company operates within reach of its customers; even as those customers stretch from Prince George, British Columbia, to Pasadena, Newfoundland, over 9 million square kilometers.
With regional hubs located strategically in Langley, BC, Winnipeg, MB, Sudbury, ON and Val D’Or QC, and with 23 Branch locations scattered throughout Canada, Atlas Copco’s mission to increase its presence in Canada is coming into place now.
Anne Marie Grossi, Branding and Communications Manager for Canada says: “It is evident that customers want their supplier to be close and we recognize that customers shouldn’t wait more than 24 hours for parts or service. The intention is to have key parts available closer to where customers need them.”
From its Sudbury (Lively) facility, Grossi says they are strategically located in the heart of Ontario’s mining community, and now with the new head office in Mississauga (just a few miles from Pearson International Airport), it is even closer to the crossroads to all points north for shipping.
“Consolidating Atlas Copco’s national offices in Mississauga made it possible for the customer centre to be located in Lively to streamline operations. Consequently, the hours at the Central region hub have been increased to seven-days-a-week from their previous five-day-a-week schedule.
“It only makes sense that service support is available seven-days-a-week to accommodate the vast majority of customers who operate seven-days-a-week as well,” says Grossi.
“Sustainable productivity is within reach — now, more than ever.”
Just over an hour to the east along Highway 17 in North Bay is the Atlas Copco Exploration Products centre where Daniel Misiano, Vice-president of Marketing, Consumables, says about 110 people work with state-of-the-art equipment to make specialized products for the mineral exploration industry.
“Our team manufactures a complete range of diamond core drilling equipment for distribution globally. We export into just about every major mining area of the world and we’re proud of what we make. It’s an extensive range of products including everything from the top of the drill to the tip of the bit, and comprises well-known products such as Christensen surface core drills, Diamec underground core drills, in-hole tools, Craelius, Hobic and Excore diamond tools, and Swellex rock bolts,” says Misiano.
From Stockholm to Sudbury, from St. John’s to Vancouver, Atlas Copco has Canada and the world covered and it’s through its global outlook, yet community thinking, that has resulted in the company being recognized as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations.
It’s a lofty status that each and every employee at the company has worked hard to achieve but what’s even more worthy of congratulations is for Atlas Copco reaching its 140th Anniversary. Well done, and Canadian Mining Journal salutes you!
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