Named for Eos, the “rosy-fingered” Greco-Roman deity and the personification of the dawn, Eos Lightmedia harnesses the power of light to help its clients “step into a new dawn.” Positioned as a premium brand, it continues to push the boundaries of design with light and sound to create architectural spectacles that elevate spaces, places, and experiences that leave a lasting impact.

Power of light
Where this story begins is with the acknowledgement that vision is the first point of experience. By leveraging the latest in interactive lighting, audiovisual, and systems controls, as well as the creative drive of the talent within its ranks, Eos Lightmedia helps its clients and their end users test the limits of their imaginations.

As Founder and Principal Designer Douglas Welch notes, “We actually named the firm Lightmedia because we recognized at the time that the future of the industry was this convergence of technologies of lighting, theatrical lighting, architectural lighting, audiovisual systems, big digital screens—that the technologies were going to cross over and although we couldn’t see into the future, we tried to anticipate it.”

The company evolved out of the recognition that the procurement and integration of lighting systems was an industry challenge rather than a niche specialty, and as such, the company identified ways to expand its offerings and capabilities to meet the industry’s needs. Building on its experience in lighting design for museums and themed attractions, the firm dedicated itself to the supply, integration, and maintenance of these advanced lighting and audiovisual systems to become a full-service design-builder and design-integrator of lighting controls and automation, audiovisual systems, custom interactive software applications, lighting programming services, remote management, technical support, and lifecycle planning.

As Director of Strategy Shireen Khimani explains, “We want to make sure that we’re being good stewards for their spaces in the realm of technology,” a sentiment that was reiterated by Director of Special Projects Scott Hendrickson who notes, “We’ve taken that sense of building something that can last to all aspects of technology.”

This level of specialization is what truly elevates Eos Lightmedia’s offering, and the timing of its launch also coincided with an important paradigmatic shift that was taking place in the industry at the time. Hendrickson, who joined the firm just over a decade ago as a lighting designer and programmer, draws attention to the fact that at that time, “It was this excellent time where lighting started to become computer-driven. With the advent of LED technology, the relationship between lighting and audiovisual systems started to become closer and closer.”

Layering experiences
This technological evolution enabled Eos Lightmedia to expand its value proposition for clients by creating layered experiences, augmented reality, and projection mapping, allowing the team to undertake larger projects with a more challenging scope, including more immersive themed projects.

“If you want to draw someone into a museum experience, you need to be at the same level as the rest of the competition. We incorporate the way creative technology is integrated in marquee themed attractions, like theme parks, and use it to create impactful immersive experiences at any scale, in many different environments,” Hendrickson explains. “So, designing real interactive elements where folks can be a part of the experience.”

Clients are thus able to see beyond their visions to more innovative, interactive spaces and experiences. From Hendrickson’s perspective, this enables them to “paint with a bigger canvas. You can try something that’s never been done before because that’s mostly what we do: things that have never been done before. And it does give people the confidence to dream a little bit bigger.”

Artistry illuminated
There exists an insatiable curiosity at Eos Lightmedia that fosters innovation, evident in the company’s efforts to create “new ways of interacting with light and technology.” As Hendrickson explains, “There’s an investment at the firm level to celebrate innovation, and that’s something I don’t think that a lot of firms have.”

With its head office in Vancouver and integration facility in Orlando, where the team supports customization, rack building, testing, and assembly activities, the company’s reach is as expansive as its impact. It supports these ends by investing heavily in research and development, software development, and control systems design, as well as modelling technologies like BIM, Revit, pre-visualization, and rendering to become a single source for its clients’ needs.

This understanding that extends beyond its specialty to include the construction aspect of projects has made Eos Lightmedia invaluable in the market and has catalyzed its growth and its ability to undertake landmark projects around the world.

“We bring a very personal touch to every project. If a project needs help, we will fly out there to ensure that quality is met and managed,” says Hendrickson. From projects for the Smithsonian and the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Eos Lightmedia is proud of what it has done for clients around the world.

Sharing stories
Among the notable projects in Eos Lightmedia’s portfolio are projects for Indigenous communities across Canada and the United States, where the storytelling dynamic becomes very rewarding for the firm. “It’s an important story that we have the opportunity to help tell. It’s helping amplify communities and voices that have been historically under- and misrepresented that makes these projects special—helping communities have voices and shedding light on histories and cultures that had previously been shadowed in the museum and cultural sector,” says Hendrickson.

Projects of this calibre are possible because of the expertise, collaboration, and passion of the team at Eos Lightmedia, whom Welch credits for much of the firm’s growth. “The enthusiasm for the work that we do is also the catalyst for growth, and I would like to think that our clients pick up on that and respond to it.”

Adds Hendrickson, “I think we have a high quality of touch. We have a lot of passion. We have a lot of internal training, and we are blessed with a lot of employee retention,” a consequence of the culture that has been fostered at Eos Lightmedia, which extends from its own people to its clients and end users.

For him, the most important thing is that, “whether that’s the end user who gets to go to a museum and be inspired by the work that we’ve done, or whether that’s a client who gets to go home happy at the end of the day that their stuff was delivered on time, or whether it’s building sustainable, manageable careers,” Eos Lightmedia is up for the challenge.

Acknowledging that this rewarding work is incredibly challenging, the goal moving forward will be to continue to push the envelope and to create the most immersive experiences in themed entertainment. This approach will see the firm continue to invest in its people and its capabilities and stay at the leading edge of technological changes—even those that move at the speed of light.

The post Where Extraordinary Innovation Shines Bright<p class="company">Eos Lightmedia</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Catalyst provides crews and pumps for energy companies in the Permian Basin, a region straddling southeast New Mexico and West Texas that contains abundant oil and natural gas deposits. The firm has also been thinking about expanding into new locales as it tweaks its flagship product.

For the second-generation Vortex Prime, the company has “enhanced and optimized certain aspects of the technology. We were really proud of what we made, and we’re continuing to support that technology, but we saw the opportunity to improve on certain aspects of it. That’s probably been the biggest technological change at Catalyst in the last ten months or so,” explains Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Seth Moore.

Vortex Prime is used for hydraulic fracturing—fracking—a method of breaking up underground rock formations through high-pressure blasts of sand, water, and/or chemicals that are pumped down a wellbore. Once the rock has been penetrated, underlying natural gas and oil deposits are extracted. While fracking is not new, Vortex Prime, launched in 2022, was the industry’s first pumping system to feature direct-drive turbine technology. Pumps on the solution are fitted to military-grade turbines that are powered by natural gas.

The self-contained system offers up to 15,000 pounds per square inch of pressure and 25 barrels per minute per pump unit, depending on configuration. It produces 40 percent fewer emissions than traditional fracking fleets.

Vortex Prime also offers a speedy set-up time of two days, rather than four days for a standard fleet, and fewer cycles, which means less fuel consumption, less manpower, and fewer trips to and from the worksite. The system requires six to eight pumps as compared to 20 on a conventional fleet, reducing space requirements by over 50 percent. And its compact size means it can be used in tight quarters that conventional fleets cannot access.

The new, improved version, which will be released shortly, is also more reliable and safer than its predecessor, according to Moore. “We were able to upgrade some of the components [to have] more reliability under harsh working conditions,” he says. “We don’t always operate in the most pristine environments; the roads we travel aren’t always the smoothest, so having components that live up to the demands we put them through is really important.”

Vortex Prime has always been a safe system, but “a lot of the components have been configured in such a way to [ensure an even] higher degree of user safety,” adds Moore.

The company still manufactures the Vortex Prime system pump in Odessa and emphasizes rentals over sales. “We build it in-house. We feel we can build the quality in. We can control the build process better that way. We have a team of dedicated manufacturing professionals, most of [whom] worked in the field and have run the equipment,” he says. The company worries that quality might diminish if it handed over production to an outside firm.

As a pay-for-service business, Catalyst contracts its equipment and personnel to energy companies for fracking assignments. Its crews travel to the customer’s site, set up the Vortex Prime or another system—the company also has traditional diesel and dual fuel pumps on hand—and assist with hydraulic fracturing work. Catalyst has an ongoing partnership with GD Energy Products (GDEP), a firm that has been involved in the oil and gas equipment business since the Victorian era. The Vortex Prime system is currently fitted with a Thunder 5000 pump from GDEP, with 5,000 referring to the maximum horsepower of which the unit is capable.

“We continue to partner with them; it’s been a good partnership,” says Moore. “There are other players now that have technology that probably could compete with the Thunder 5000, where that wasn’t the case several years ago… but I still think we have the highest horsepower density of any technology available as far as horsepower per square foot of space.”

At the time we last spoke, Catalyst was entirely focused on the Permian Basin. While the region still offers an enormous amount of work for hydraulic fracturing firms and industry service providers, the company has broadened its horizons. “There’s been so much interest in what we’re doing outside the Permian Basin,” Moore says. “There are discussions about providing our service in other oil and gas basins [with clients] who see the value in what Vortex Prime brings to the table.”

More evaluation needs to be done, but Catalyst is at least pondering the possibility of opening new branches outside the Permian Basin. “If we go to the Northeast, we would have a branch somewhere in that area. If we go to the Rockies or outside the U.S., we would need a place” to establish operations, he explains.

Certainly, Catalyst has faced some major challenges recently due to developments in the natural gas and oil sector. “The market has really been saturated with excess capacity in the last 12 months,” Moore explains. This excessive capacity has meant less work for the company. Corporate consolidation within the Permian Basin has led to downsized fleets which has hurt it too. And the company is faced with another, rather unique problem: “We’re a victim of our own success. We’re much more efficient today than we were a year ago, from a pumping perspective and a pumping hours per month perspective. So, it’s taking fewer fleets to do the same amount of work that it took a year or two ago,” he says.

The number of personnel at Catalyst has fluctuated since the previous profile when the company had 185 employees. It currently has “close to 140 employees,” and is hiring again, Moore says. There are some job-specific positions, but in general the company looks for new hires with a good work history, a continuous improvement mindset, and a collaborative spirit. “I tell everybody, frac is a team sport. It requires all departments, everybody working seamlessly in order to meet the efficiency demands that are required,” he explains. Catalyst has no intention of sitting on its laurels, as evidenced by moving ahead with enhancing its already impressive Vortex Prime solution.

Unsurprisingly, Catalyst cites innovation as a key company value. Other values prized by this team are integrity, respect, creativity, accountability, safety, communication, competition, and partnership. Keeping abreast of industry trends is also imperative, which is why Catalyst is paying close attention to the emerging trends known as simul-frac and e-frac. In a simul-frac process, two horizontal wells are utilized concurrently to enable simultaneous fracking.

“Simul-frac is continuing to grow… There are some efficiencies with simul-frac, where you’re fracking two wells at the same time. It requires fewer people and accomplishes more in the same amount of time,” states Moore.

E-frac refers to a pumping process that relies on electricity, not diesel or gas. While e-frac fleets produce fewer emissions and use less fuel than their conventional counterparts, they require onsite electrical generators to meet their high energy needs. Since it is a direct-drive system powered by natural gas-fed turbines, Vortex Prime does not require standalone electrical generators, switch gears, variable frequency drives, or similar components.

Vortex Prime is less complex, with fewer moving parts and more robust components than an e-frac fleet. Many e-frac components were designed for use in static sub-stations, not portable pumping systems that have to be transported on rough roads, Moore points out. As a result, “componentry life is greatly reduced, which drives a big operating expense for e-fleets that we don’t have. I think e-frac has its place,” he adds. “When it can tie into a micro-grid and get power, I think it makes sense, but when you have to generate your electricity onsite, and you have to move a generator set and all that associated componentry, it doesn’t make sense from a cost perspective or an efficiency perspective.”

Going forward, the company has to decide whether to expand its reach beyond the Permian Basin, the region where the company has earned its reputation. Regardless of how that decision plays out, Moore says that Catalyst will “continue to be an innovator, continue to offer world-class service, and continue to be viewed at the forefront of delivering the most efficient technology from an emissions, safety, and fuel savings perspective.”

The post A Texas Firm Enhances its Pioneering Pump<p class="company">Catalyst Energy Services </p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Formerly known as Sunwell, Deepchill® was established in Canada in 1978, inventing the slurry technology and still the market leader today, offering superior slurry ice production, storage, and distribution systems.

With unique solutions that have revolutionized a variety of industries—including food processing, transportation, and HVAC—the company has been introducing innovative technologies to the world for more than 45 years.

Used in a variety of applications, Deepchill® offers an all-natural and risk-free flexible cooling and preservation medium with a technology that delivers quick, uniform, and long-lasting ‘superchill’ to a variety of industries. Depending on requirements, it can be applied in a variety of forms, from a liquid paste to a dry crystal form.

The one and only
In short, there’s no other ice technology like Deepchill®. Composed of small pearl-like microcrystals produced in fresh or salt water and dispensed as a liquid slurry or crystal form to superchill and hold valued products at peak freshness, no other slurry ice technology has Deepchill®’s effectiveness, adaptability, or simplicity of use.

“The thing is this industry didn’t really exist before us,” says Kyle Morrison, Director of Sales. “We invented slurry ice in the 1970s and invented a system to do it. Before, people did essentially what they do now, which is adding ice to water, and then boom, there’s ice-water slurry—which is not the same thing.”

The company has not only helped the fishing industry deliver fresher fish over the years, it’s helped processors keep those fish fresh via several cutting-edge developments.

“We’re one of the only companies that can create snow without the ambient temperature being below zero degrees Celsius,” Morrison says. “We’ve done some really interesting projects over the years, whether it’s the snow in the penguin exhibit in San Diego, or helping fishermen quickly and effortlessly chill their fish after being caught, or processors keeping those fish cold during processing, or transporters keeping those fish cold as they’re sent to the end user,” he explains.

“There’s a whole cold chain, and I would prefer to think of this not just as any single part of the chain but the whole cold chain.”

Pushing boundaries
The company’s continued innovation and willingness to push the boundaries of technology by providing fast, uniform, and long-lasting cooling are just a few of the reasons for Deepchill®’s success.

“If I had to describe this company in just a few words, I would boil it down to the fact that we get food colder faster so it stays fresher longer,” says Morrison. “That’s it.”

Getting food colder faster involves superchilling, or bringing the temperature of food below zero degrees Celsius, but above the point where it actually freezes. Only pure water freezes at zero, and once you start adding salt, for instance, that freezing point goes lower, which is why sea water doesn’t freeze at zero degrees Celsius and why salt is put on the roads in the winter to melt ice.

“You can actually do the same thing with food,” Morrison says. “You can bring that temperature below zero but keep it above the point where it freezes. And this really extends product freshness, shelf life, and quality.”

Whether it’s milk which has been left in a lunch bag all day, broccoli, bass, or salmon—when food gets relatively warmer, it goes bad much faster. “We’re wasting something like 35 percent of every kilogram or every pound of fish that we take out of the oceans,” Morrison shares. “Half of it is wasted due to bad temperature control, so if that food had been kept fresh from the time of harvest to the time of processing, to the time of shipping, and to the time when the end user gets it, we would be wasting a heck of a lot less,” he says.

“When we see what’s happening to our oceans and the food supplies we have, respecting that cold chain and doing more with less is really what we need to do as a species moving forward.”

So how does the industry continue to push boundaries for better quality, longer shelf life, operational efficiencies, and even better market reach?

Morrison has a few ideas including, first and foremost, greater market reach. Mussels, he says, are generally all transported by truck because of their weight. But there is a delivery range with shellfish like mussels, oysters, and clams; if you can Deepchill® them and keep them very cold before and during transport, there is a significant increase in that zone that you can ship to, because now that customer who’s 10 days away is reachable by the transportation company at an economical cost.

A few degrees
“Quality and shelf life go hand in hand,” says Morrison. “A few degrees’ difference in temperature makes a massive difference. The difference between two degrees and negative one degree is the difference between eight days or 18 days, so what we give people is double the freshness and double the shelf life in relative terms,” he says.

“The biggest challenge we run into is the mindset of people,” Morrison says. “People don’t understand what slurry is and they don’t understand Deepchill®. They understand chilled water, a chiller, coil and pumping tons of water over the chiller. Or putting ice on the fish. Or there are the people who put fishing water in, and then ice, and there’s the ‘slurry.’ Sometimes something can look like a duck and quack like a duck, but it’s not a duck.”

While every piece of ice ever used in your life has formed on a surface—water freezing on something—what Deepchill® does is completely different. The company’s unique process forms crystals in suspension in water, so water goes through the heat exchanger and is agitated, with ice not allowed to warm on the heat exchanger on the surface. As the water goes through, it’s chilled down below the point where it freezes, but can’t freeze on the surface of the heat exchanger.

This results in tiny ice crystals—0.1 to 0.2 millimetres in diameter—forming in the water. Under a microscope, they resemble crystals of snow.

It’s all in the particle
“The size and shape of the particle we produce gives our slurry different thermodynamic properties,” Morrison says. “It’s these properties that give us a high coefficient of performance, which is just a funny way of saying that’s how we’re able to suck the heat out of food really fast, because of the uniform and small size and shape of our particle.”

Morrison compares the process to people who are happy watching black and white TVs versus those with a new flat-screen TV connected to the internet. “The latter solution gives you so much more functionality; it’s so much newer and a much better mousetrap,” he says.

“It’s the same thing we’re dealing with here. We either get people who use chilled water and think it’s a good solution, or people who use ice because their great-great grandfather used ice and that’s what they’ve always done. That’s the biggest competitor to us right now: what they did previously is somewhat okay, so why should they change?”

Changing that mindset is the obstacle Deepchill® faces, even within its own industry. At a recent aquaculture show in New Orleans, Morrison was the only vendor talking about what happens when fish are harvested, how to maximize yields, and how to maximize return in the aquaculture operation.

“They were talking about how to keep the fish alive and how to filter the water and get out all the contaminants and make this a hospitable place for fish,” he says. “We don’t think about it, we just take it for granted. And I’ve met companies who don’t use any cooling whatsoever until after the fish are filleted and it goes into their freezer. And they wonder why they run into these quality issues, whether gaping in the meat or why their quality is not as good as this other person’s. And it all comes down to temperature control.”

Real slurry, real solution
The bulk of Deepchill®’s competition makes the fake slurry ice that Morrison refers to, using conventional technology to make ice crystals before grinding those ice crystals into a pulp and adding that to salt water for a slurry. “So what sets us apart is really 45 years of intellectual property, and understanding how slurry ice flows in different concentrations.”

Between 10 and 40 percent concentration, the company’s slurry ice looks and feels a lot like ‘thick’ water, but between 40 and 70 percent, the consistency becomes something like soft ice cream, which is a consistency most of Deepchill®’s competitors can’t get close to. “We, however, understand how slippery ice works; we understand how it interacts in its environment; we understand the ‘non-Newtonian’ nature of the fluid,” Morrison says.

Deepchill® is also able to do interesting things that other companies can’t do, he adds, like deliver a higher fraction slurry over a long distance, or use its technology in the baking industry or the ice pigging industry. “There are a lot of industries that are available to us that are not available to the competition,” Morrison says.

“At the end of the day, we really do help people get things cold faster, to keep them fresher longer.”

The post Waste Not! – Keeping Food Colder and Fresher for Longer<p class="company">Deepchill®</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

At Sonoco, sustainability is a team effort. As one of the world’s foremost packaging and container manufacturers, Sonoco’s commitment to sustainability is about much more than packaging.

Reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least 25 percent by 2030, lowering water consumption, incorporating solar power and purchasing renewable energy in its operations are key initiatives to Sonoco living up to its motto: Better Packaging. Better Life.

Born into responsibility
Sonoco has been serious about sustainability since the company’s early days.

In 1899, a small team of 12 worked in a rented warehouse in Hartsville, South Carolina on the then-named Southern Novelty Company’s first product—a cone-shaped paper yarn carrier used for winding and transporting yarn. Renamed the Sonoco Products Company in 1923, the respected business today has over 300 operations globally, an expanded product line, and about 22,000 employees. Today, the company serves some of the world’s best-known brands with consumer, industrial and diversified packaging.

Sonoco serves the needs of diverse markets including food and powdered beverages, beauty and personal care, health care, household, construction, electronics and appliances, and textiles. Almost 125 years later, Sonoco remains committed to planet- and people-first packaging.

“Over the last decade, everyone has become more concerned about sustainability, especially global warming, but you can look back 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years, and Sonoco was engaged in that space,” says Ed Harrington, Director, Global Environmental.

At Sonoco, no sustainability initiative is too small, and all are focused on the greater good of the planet. This includes ensuring water used in the manufacturing process is treated to meet local standards and using recycled paper and packaging. “I think the biggest change over the last decade has been an increased urgency and activity around reducing greenhouse gas emissions to help with climate change,” says Harrington.

Using 2020 as its baseline, Sonoco has many such commitments through 2030. These include reducing energy use by at least eight percent in its manufacturing plants, recycling or causing to recycle 85 percent equivalent by weight of the products the company puts into the marketplace, reducing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, conducting water risk studies and numerous others. (Learn more about Sonoco’s science-based sustainability targets at https://www.sonoco.com/na/sustainability.)

Responsibility goes global
Over the years, Sonoco has established itself as a leader in the global packaging industry. Building on its many strengths, Sonoco brought its environmental and sustainability teams together as one. With the current team’s 22 members, the company continues its focus on the environmental aspects of sustainability and is active in compliance, permitting and executing its global responsibilities.

“We believe in approaching sustainability ethically and holistically,” says Sonoco on its website. “That’s why we build sustainability into every area of our business and choose to explain our practices in terms of circularity.” Starting with leadership, the sustainability circle encompasses design, sourcing, production, supply chain and end-of-life.

Sonoco’s Director of Global Sustainability Services, Scott Byrne, explains that it is important to put the packaging industry in its proper context: “We don’t make packaging as a product. Packaging exists to serve a purpose for brand owners, for our customers. So the packaging that we make for the food and beverage industry exists to protect a food product, to keep it fresh, and extend the shelf life.”

Some packaging, such as Sonoco’s ThermoSafe®, includes valuable cold chain solutions like solid shipping boxes, foam bricks and gel packs. Used by clients in health care, life sciences and other key sectors, ThermoSafe assures the safe and effective transportation of temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals and vaccines over long distances.

Packaging put into perspective
“The packaging industry enables what we take for granted in the modern world,” says Byrne. “I think that context is sometimes lost, and people look at packaging in a vacuum.”

A misconception he sometimes hears is that the packaging industry, packaging converters, brand owners, and the recycling industry and markets don’t talk to each other and that packaging is simply put on the market with little understanding of the impact on the recycling value chain. For companies like Sonoco this, Byrne says, couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Sonoco is an excellent example of where we are as a packaging converter and as a recycler,” he says. “We have five material recovery facilities in the Southeast that collect residential recycling, and we have paper mills. We get that product from recycling facilities and use the recycled content, so we very much understand the impact of the packaging we put on the market.”

Working hard throughout the value chain, Sonoco gauges the impact of making changes to its fiber-based packages, how that interacts with MRFs (materials recovery facilities) and the impact on its paper mills.

Another misconception—one which is almost universal—is that recyclability is the be-all and end-all of sustainability attributes for packaging. Byrne says there are many other attributes to consider, such as using renewable materials, the ability of packaging to protect product or extend shelf life, and the overall carbon footprint.

“We talk about global warming,” he says. “That’s one of the biggest challenges facing the world, and recyclability is part of that, but usually end-of-life is a much smaller piece of the package’s total carbon footprint compared to things like the type of materials used, the amount of materials, transportation, logistics and conversion. Sometimes I think people get a little bit too caught up in end-of-life.”

Sustaining a future
From all-paper blister packaging to pouches, wraps, paperboard packaging and other forms, Sonoco is committed to “Packaging With Tomorrow in Mind™.” Through lines such as EnviroSense® (a four-time award winner), EnviroFlex®, and EnviroCan™, Sonoco is changing the face of packaging and sustainability. These revolutionary products provide customers with environmentally friendly alternatives.

Some, like PaperBlister™, are plastic-free and fully recyclable options for traditional blister packaging. Others, such as EnviroCan, are paperboard containers made from recycled and recyclable materials. And EnviroFlex is a line of sustainable, flexible packaging solutions “focused on recyclability and the use of post-consumer recycled content.”

Other packaging, like Sonopost®, provides sustainable ways to protect white goods like dishwashers and refrigerators from damage while reducing EPS (expanded polystyrene) and plastic packaging. In late 2022, the company announced a new protective packaging facility in Bursa, Turkey, just a year after the first Sonopost operation was established in Sochaczew, Poland.

“Growing demand for our proprietary Sonopost technology created the need for a second production facility,” said Adam Wood, Vice President and General Manager of Global Paper Products in Europe in a media release. “Our protective packaging design team is working hard with our customers who are aligned with us in creating fully sustainable, paper-based packaging that protects and preserves both their product and our planet for generations to come.”

Sonoco continues to introduce new and exciting products that further its commitment to the future of the planet. From mono-material polyethylene to paper-based structures for flexible packaging and PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) clamshells with wash-off label adhesive, (making them easier to recycle), the company continuously reaffirms its status as a visionary in the industry. Along with reducing scrap at its production facilities, Sonoco is committed to clean, renewable sources of energy, including solar, and is working on significant power purchase agreements in the United States and Europe, which will likely include solar and wind.

For a better life
“At Sonoco, we believe in ‘Better Packaging. Better Life.’ and with that comes our prioritization of safety,” says Cassandra Snelling, Marketing Manager, Global Sustainability.

“There is a correlation between sustainability and safety. After we complete any updates at our facilities—whether that be LED lighting or solar panels installed—we do surveys. And surveys have found, in the case of LED lighting installations, employees report feeling safer and happier in their workplace. There’s a correlation between doing the right thing and employee satisfaction.”

Such an approach dovetails with Sonoco’s belief that “we have an inherent responsibility to help improve the quality of life in the communities in which we serve,” says Snelling. The Sonoco Foundation, Sonoco’s philanthropic arm founded nearly 40 years ago, donates millions each year to non-profit organizations across the globe. The company’s employees also contribute time, funds, and talents to a multitude of worthy causes, including volunteering, serving on boards, raising funds and participating in other civic-oriented projects.

“People build businesses by doing the right thing,” concludes Snelling. At Sonoco, that practice looks like helping customers meet their sustainability goals and volume needs—leading the way in innovation and planet-friendly packaging and implementing world-class safety companywide.

The post Wrapping Products in Sustainability<p class="company">Sonoco</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Originally starting with a turnkey automation group in Saint Joseph, Michigan, Edgewater has grown to include an additional turnkey automation group in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a fabrication group and another turnkey automation with contract manufacturing group in Buchanan, Michigan, and a west coast sales office in Sacramento, California. With a customer base including Fortune 1000 companies, Edgewater prides itself on being flexible and able to respond and pivot quickly and professionally.

Award-winning service
An A3 Certified Robot Integrator and a Fanuc Authorized System Integrator (Level 5)—the world’s leading supplier of robotics—Edgewater is a proud member of the Association for Manufacturing Technology and has other well-known and respected partners, such as Rockwell Automation, Promess, Cognex, and the Rexroth Bosch Group.

Founded in 2001, Edgewater continues to receive praise from customers and awards for its outstanding work. In 2004, the company celebrated its third year receiving the Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce Award for supporting the local business community. Just a few years later, in 2007, Edgewater made Inc. Magazine’s list of America’s 5,000 fastest-growing private companies for the first time, achieved again in 2008 and 2012. Other awards soon followed, including being named one the ‘Top 50 Companies to Watch’ by the State of Michigan (2010), and a Technology Award from Delphi Automotive PLC (2014).

Growing its staff and services, Edgewater Automation lives up to its motto every day: ‘Innovate. Automate. Succeed.’ With an ISO 9001:2015 Certified Quality Management System, Edgewater works with customers on every aspect of their projects, including project management, engineering, manufacturing, and customer support. Taking on work small and large, Edgewater applies the same professionalism to every project.

Committed to customers
Providing customers with robotic solutions, vision systems, motion control, and more requires not only years of experience, but vision and planning. Edgewater realizes that customers have their own budgets to balance and deadlines to meet. Equipped with the right people, a massive combined production space of more than 286,000 square feet across four locations, and the latest technology, Edgewater takes customers’ visions and transforms them into realities.

From concept to initial design to manufacturing, final commissioning, testing and training, and communication at every stage, Edgewater brings everything together under one roof. This one-stop approach to projects increases accountability and wards against any potential issues. The end result is exceeding customer expectations, timely delivery, and completing projects on budget. This time-tested approach has been successful with both new and repeat customers, who return to Edgewater for their professionalism, quality, and unsurpassed service.

Assembly systems, test systems, material handling systems, data acquisition, and logistics are just a few of Edgewater’s overall competencies, which also encompass fabricating machined structures and parts as well as contract manufacturing services. Continuing to build on its strong reputation, Edgewater continues serving the needs of customers in diverse markets, providing solutions for products such as medical devices, HVAC systems, lighting, circuit boards, surgical instruments, batteries, housewares, and more.

Building the future
The history of Edgewater Automation is one of success and growth. To meet the needs of its many customers, the company expanded its original facility in Saint Joseph, Michigan. The first expansion in 2004, just a few years after Edgewater was founded, saw the addition of 24,000 square feet. In the years to come, this was followed by other expansions in 2007, 2012, and 2013.

Along with adding to its original facility, the company launched a 43,000-square-foot facility with turnkey automation capabilities in Spartanburg, South Carolina and another 49,600-square-foot facility in Buchanan, Michigan for its manufacturing division. In 2020, this was followed by yet another 34,500-square-foot facility in Buchanan for a turnkey automation and contract manufacturing group. Along with that, Edgewater added 111,400 square feet of space in Buchanan for large-scale projects.

Valuing its customers and employees alike, Edgewater keeps paving the way for the future through its Apprenticeship Program and Engineering Internship Program. While apprentices must meet specific terms and conditions to qualify and remain in the program, there are numerous benefits, from paid tuition to insurance benefits and a 401(k). Similarly, becoming an Edgewater Automation intern helps young high school graduates gain valuable, paid workplace experience while boosting their résumé and skills. More information on the Engineering Internship Program and Apprenticeship Program is available at https://edgewaterautomation.com/internship-program/ and https://edgewaterautomation.com/apprenticeship-program/.

Thriving through challenges
While many companies faced tough times during the pandemic, Edgewater kept moving, making innovations and investments for the betterment of the company and its customers.

Soon before COVID was declared a pandemic in 2020, the company launched its Buchanan Automation division, located about half an hour from its existing facility in Saint Joseph. The fully equipped Buchanan division represents a multi-million-dollar investment for Edgewater. Occupying the Buchanan building since 2014—when the fabrication division started—the decision to start the automation group was finalized in late 2019.

“As a next step toward offering the market a unique experience with our company, Edgewater has launched a full-scale offering contract manufacturing facility,” explains Jamen Blake, Managing Director for Buchanan Automation. For the company, with its staff of skilled engineers, technicians, and many years of experience in custom automation, “this represents a natural progression for us. With a high-level team capable of designing and building custom automation, Edgewater is able to quickly adapt our expertise to help customers build smaller items on a much larger scale,” he says.

“Rather than just large-format projects that take up a ton of square footage, these are projects that may range from the size of a desktop computer to the size of a vending machine,” says Blake. “Instead of building one of them, we build hundreds, or thousands, of them. This new offering has allowed us to maintain a strong flow of work through our shop floor while helping to balance the peaks and valleys of custom automation that can come in waves and go just as quickly,” he says.

“We are also doing some development projects for customers as well, where they’ve got a prototype in mind but don’t have the budget for a full-blown build,” shares Blake. “So, we are working with a handful of customers in developing their solutions, and that could lead to huge wins for both them and us if these projects come to life. We are also working with businesses to help them engineer their solutions. Getting in on the ground level with some companies still bringing their [level of] automation up has been another growth opportunity for us. We can help guide them in that process, and contribute from an engineering and build standpoint, and build prototypes. So that’s been a good way we’ve been able to help our existing customers grow and find new ones as well,” he says.

“Along with having much more space than before, another advantage this recent expansion offers Edgewater is a new opportunity for finding talent; with Saint Joseph being on the north end of Berrien County and Buchanan being on the south end, the company can draw from a much larger talent pool. Collaborating with local schools and colleges to provide job shadowing opportunities, the company also offers internships and apprenticeships. Additionally, Edgewater remains a long-time sponsor and supporter of the First Robotics program, STEM education, mentorship, and supporting local schools through technology offerings, financial donations, and even space so students can set up their own robots,” says Blake.

“Edgewater is a passionate supporter of area school systems. We have always been a big supporter of the technology programs schools are offering by sharing our expertise and talent with their students,” explains Tim Tate, Managing Director of the Saint Joseph Automation Group. “It is something we believe in; it’s important that companies like ours get involved with these programs early so we can continue to share the opportunities our trade offers to students who are interested in STEM-based learning.”

Broadening markets
With its diverse skill set, Edgewater is seeing a big push toward newer sectors, including medical—typically to make devices for use outside the body—consumer goods products, and automotive, especially the electric vehicle (EV) market.

With consistent growth, Edgewater is perfectly positioned to meet the automation needs of all customers. Promoting the company through its information-packed website and social media tools like Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, Edgewater is also active in trade shows throughout the year, where the team showcases its many offerings. These include ATX West (California), Assembly Show South (Nashville, Tennessee), the Automate Show (Detroit, Michigan), ATX East (New York City, New York) and the Advanced Manufacturing Expo (Grand Rapids, Michigan). Upcoming for the company is the Pack Expo Show in Las Vegas this September, and the Assembly Show in Chicago in October.

“Edgewater is a company that’s always growing,” says Tate. “We are looking to solidify ourselves in several different niches and markets including contract manufacturing. We are growing our footprint, offering more locations to bring in new hires and more talent, and ramping up our training efforts. Additionally, we are sharpening our processes internally to ensure that we have good onboarding and training for new people.” We look forward to seeing the further growth and success that surely lies ahead for this dynamic company.

The post The Future of Automation<p class="company">Edgewater Automation</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, this respected name in the industry is known for sophisticated customer support and for delivering superb quality without fail. This explains its considerable list of longstanding customers, including some of the planet’s biggest fabricators. As RAMP is especially famous for its autonomous mobile robot technology, customers come from as far away as Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and beyond. It is also known for its planar motor technology, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and reporting alongside standard products and services like automated assembly and test equipment.

This leading Canadian automation systems integrator and product developer has a team of over 30 people who live, eat, and sleep systems integration, a skill that has led to the company’s reputation spreading by word-of-mouth. Combining forces with its parent company, Samuel Automation Solutions Group, in 2022 has given RAMP the presence and backing it needed to reach an entirely new level.

The team has a rare depth of expertise in the field, and its pioneering spirit drives the firm to continue pushing the boundaries of possibility. As a result, its clients are typically very pleased with its products and services.

“Our supplier partners benefit from having the products they distribute performing exceptionally in the field. This high performance becomes a showcase of their capabilities and ours,” says Mike Balzan, Director of Sales.

After welcoming its first customers in 2010, the company’s first large expansion happened in 2015 with a move to a new facility. Within the next five years, RAMP broke several more sales records, making it an ideal acquisition for Samuel Automation Solutions Group, North America’s renowned complex automation giant.

As developing equipment can take five months to a year, to provide customers with top-quality equipment performance, the design team, insists on conducting an in-depth conceptualization, gathering all the information needed. This phase includes gathering materials and components, defining the manufacturing process, and ensuring that the team has the capabilities to fabricate according to specifications. Thanks to the rapidly changing nature of technology, it is not uncommon in this industry to work with concepts for which the required materials do not exist yet; consequently, material sourcing typically precedes in-depth testing to ensure that what works in theory also works in practice.

Once all the preliminary work is complete, price estimations are followed by a complex design process, prototyping, and fabrication before integration and pretesting happen. Once the customer is satisfied, equipment is shipped and assembled again and the integration and pretesting process is repeated before the installation is considered complete and the project is signed off.

There are several benefits to partnering with RAMP, including the company’s significant investments in design and technological capabilities which create huge gains for its customers. “Our design capabilities guarantee the success of projects. This allows our supply partners to become part of the project specifications,” says Balzan. “This ensures repeat business and internal notability, which is very powerful when customer manufacturing engineering departments are assessing new projects and setting standards.”

It is important to use RAMP, Inc. equipment according to its specifications to ensure optimum performance and longevity. Failing to do this can cause problems as the aftermath of premature product failure due to the incorrect use of machines can be nothing short of spectacular—with dire consequences and far-reaching, unfair damage to the good name of well-qualified, respected developers.

The company’s close relationships with supply firms and the educational aspect of its work are, therefore, imperative to maintaining its reputation for excellence—another element at which the company has always excelled. RAMP, Inc.’s well-known endurance in all fields has garnered the firm significant recognition, recently landing it the nod for its two biggest projects to date.

Due to its customers’ continued success, the company has continued to grow despite the economic challenges of recent years. Part of its strength lies in its well-equipped, modern facilities, with over 20,000 square feet of workspace enhanced by a custom operations management system to ensure smooth workflow.

“We have exceptional talent here at RAMP. Having a small team, we must be leaders in our disciplines—both in senior and junior positions,” says Balzan. “Our hiring practices are very selective, and we have a great group of people here. The customer feedback I get is great and it feels good to hear this from all levels.”

Indeed, the company has a history of tenacity. Right in the beginning, its initial team of four completed an enormous order considering the company’s size at the time, chasing a near-impossible deadline with everything they had in them. As employee number four, Balzan was part of that team. Doing everything from applications engineering to sales, project management, and more, he came to know the company inside out.

“I recall drilling and tapping hundreds of holes to the point that I had to wear insulated gloves to keep my hands from burning because the hand drill I was using was so hot,” he says. The hard work paid off as that client’s business brought historical expansion to the company.

“Our whole team was assembling, under the direction of our Manufacturing Manager, Ken McDonald. Once we got all the assemblies ready, our Vice President of Operations, Tom Nitsche, drove the forklift and loaded the trucks to meet the deadline,” Balzan adds. Ready to roll at eleven p.m. on a Friday, suffice it to say that this small group takes great satisfaction in looking back on the value of that work and delivering a huge system that worked perfectly. Grit and innovation have continued to define RAMP to this day.

Its hiring process is thus one of great discernment, and retaining the workforce it has handpicked over many years is one of the company’s priorities. While training new staff comes with its challenges, the company finds that its engineering team’s hard-earned, industry-specific knowledge and experience go a long way toward building the expertise needed to outperform the competition.

In addition, the company puts a lot of time into supporting local colleges in producing the future workforce, with Balzan as an industry representative at Conestoga College. He also serves on two program advisory committees, chairing one. As part of these efforts, the company takes in co-op students from both the college and the University of Waterloo, and nearly all participants are employed following their internships.

Ensuring the continuous development of staff remains imperative. As such, salaries compare to some of the best in the industry. The company also creates a sense of ownership by working with staff to develop each person’s vision for their future career development. That not only provides people with a road map but makes the firm’s intentions in terms of promotion clear. By removing doubt and uncertainty from people’s career equations and adding the element of opportunity, the company goes a long way toward building staff retention and labour stability.

In addition, seeing that people live rewarding lives beyond their desks, workstations, and the field is a priority at RAMP. This commitment comes with a host of work possibilities, like flex-time, offsite office hours, and more. RAMP also offers a specialized incentive program whereby staff members are financially rewarded every year for their contributions over and above their day-to-day tasks. The outcome is that people are always willing to go the extra mile when the pressure is on.

With this focus to succeed, RAMP, Inc. continues to meet the future, fully focused on diversification. Balzan reports market projections from five years ago going as expected with regard to the increase of artificial intelligence and automation. As such, growth remains constant, and as the Samuel group continues to improve its capabilities and asset base in conjunction with the company’s sales, expanding its geographic reach will no doubt continue to prove lucrative.

The post Taking Automation Integration to New Levels<p class="company">RAMP, Inc.</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

From its base in Clinton Township, Michigan, Xcentric Mold and Engineering provides in-house custom injection molding, CNC machining, and 3D printing services for crafting parts from plastics and metals. Its headquarters is supported by a twin manufacturing location in Shelby Township, Michigan, and both facilities are near Detroit for easy access to its main client base.

Although it serves many industries, most of the company’s clients operate in the medical, industrial components, consumer electronics, aerospace, and automotive manufacturing fields. Xcentric especially relishes bringing complex projects to life and creating components that are difficult to engineer and manufacture.

Always assuring clients of its best care, it is dedicated to aligning its products and services with their expectations and requirements. “[We have a] renewed focus on the customer experience, the speed at which we deliver quotes, quality products, on-time delivery, and high-quality interactions with our technology and teams. We’ve relaunched our amazing customer experience initiative to [underline] that customer experience is the number-one priority for our team,” says Matt McIntosh, Chief Executive Officer.

An emphasis has been placed on increased service awareness as the company expands its presence throughout the country. “We are currently focused on maximizing our potential in the United States, which we have the capability of serving in full,” he adds.

Keeping its mold design and tool-making capabilities ahead of those of its competitors, the company employs enterprise resource planning and design software suites that complement its vast expertise in injection molding. Its technological investments are not limited to the manufacturing side of the business, either. Its sales team and project managers benefit from systems such as Salesforce to support seamless communication with clients and provide a much-improved project journey over alternative communication methods.

The company improved its 3D printing capabilities about four years ago when early adopters created a heavy demand for quality and speed in this technology. Today, Xcentric Mold and Engineering’s 3D printing portfolio includes Stereolithography (SLA), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), MultiJet Printing (MJP), PolyJet Printing, ColorJet Printing (CJP), and Markforged printing (MKF), respected in the industry for rendering parts of superb complexity and strength.

3D printing is indispensable for rapidly making fully-functional prototypes at a much-reduced cost. This means going into full fabrication for clients significantly faster. Its guarantee of speed is also evident in its CNC tool machining department where machined parts have been produced within two to five days since 2018.

“Our expertise here gives us capabilities to design and manufacture tools for a range of simple to complex parts. On top of that, we do it with the speed and efficiency that our customers have come to expect from an elite rapid prototyping manufacturer,” says McIntosh.

Founded in 1995 by brothers Brendan and Damon Weaver, it was built on the expertise they gleaned from years in the industry. Concluding that molders at the time were all pretty much the same, the Weaver brothers set out to do things differently. Together, they set up processes that would transform the future of injection molding in this highly industrial area and automated what had traditionally been a mainly manual process. While several economic downturns and recessions have shaken many manufacturing outfits, Xcentric’s differentiating factors have allowed the company to soar.

Xcentric Mold and Engineering has relationships with engineers from myriad fields and a deep understanding of its specialty which means that its molds are delivered to clients with a lifetime guarantee. That is how confident this company is about its capabilities.

The company’s sales team is as well-versed in the production process as the rest of the company. An exhaustive understanding of the technical side of the product is instilled in each salesperson from the beginning by familiarizing them with all engineering and production processes. Thorough training leads to clear communication with both clients and engineers, resulting in a smoother, faster, and more enjoyable journey from the drawing board to delivery.

Xcentric’s comprehensive training process is naturally a great drawing card and so its group of around one hundred staff members is always growing. “This place is great because just walking around the building and talking to the team on the plant floor, you get a real sense for just how much they care about this business. They care about our customers, and they care about each other. Everyone here is committed to Xcentric’s success. It’s a true testament to the type of people we have here,” says McIntosh.

Complementing its attention to detail in its technology and manufacturing processes, hiring recruits is not left to the luck-of-the-draw. A strong technical background, an appreciation of urgency, and pragmatism are all qualities that are valued in prospective candidates, as is the ability to transition concepts from idea to delivery of designs that are both functional and of superior quality. Solid communication skills and a willingness to collaborate with engineers openly and productively are also essential requirements.

As with everything else this company touches, it overcame the trials that COVID-19 presented. “I’m very proud of the way our team embraced that challenge and found creative ways to stay operational. Our IT team did a fantastic job of securing technology and deploying it so our office staff could work from home. At the production facilities, we followed all state, local, and CDC guidelines to ensure a healthy and safe place for our team,” McIntosh says.

The results are outstanding. Since February, the company is back to pre-pandemic growth rates despite the knock-on effects that shipping difficulties create. “The team did a great job adapting to the influx of orders and has continued to maintain on-time delivery rates in the ninety percent range,” adds McIntosh.

While he is well aware of the difficulties ahead, the leader remains optimistic about the future. “We believe the economy is going to rebound in 2021, and manufacturing is set to take a big step forward. We have plans to increase more than thirty percent this year,” McIntosh tells us, noting that this trend is evident in the growing demand for domestic manufacturing partners.

Although it looks at 2021 as a recovery period, the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines offers great hope for employees to be able to return to the office soon. “Additionally, that is combined with an increased demand for on-shoring which should continue to create more demand for Xcentric. We continue to forecast strong demand from automotive, packaging, industrial, commercial, and medical device markets for injection-molded products,” McIntosh says. From this, there should be a corresponding rise in product developers and engineers approaching with new projects.

Plunging into a pandemic world has led the company to rediscover its true strengths from its perpetual investment in operations, lean manufacturing, and sales and marketing, and Xcentric is preparing to welcome ever-greater numbers of new partners seeking it out for unmatched service.

The post Celebrating 25 Years of Molding Excellence<p class="company">Xcentric Mold and Engineering</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Cogent supplies specifically to businesses involved in electrical machinery that use electrical steel products, with almost 100 percent of Cogent’s products and services going toward the upkeep of motors, generators, and electrical transformers for power supplies or conversion.

The company will frequently supply transformers that go into specific electrical devices like MRI machines or various other types of transformers (pull-top, padded mount, large substation) in a countryside setting.

Company president and CEO Ron Harper is quick to point out further instances involving the unique applications that the company is a part of, such as acting as supplier for a small customer out of Quebec which had an emergency need to build power supplies for hospital beds, or for one of its American customers providing power to mobile hospitals in need.

Electrical power is Cogent’s game, and it can act as a supplier for it in myriad dynamic and versatile ways.

Harper details Cogent as being a make-to-order product business with a low level of standardization and high turnaround; as a result, Cogent places a premium value on being reliable as a supplier in terms of delivering its products and being available to clients as much as possible.

Speaking the client’s language
The company’s client focus comes through in aspects like its approach to problem solving, where Cogent employees will work together with clients on a design and product applications to get the best result. “We have more client product design engineers on our staff than most competitors combined,” Harper continues. “We can speak the language of our clients.”

The company’s clientele can always feel like they have the best materials, the most reliable delivery, and the flexibility to make changes at any time.

Harper describes the company as one that is very material-driven, an identity which exists at the other end of what he views as a directional choice within the industry.

On one hand, there are those businesses in the electrical space that lean toward a commodity-focused experience due to the industry’s very nature and the raw materials that go into supplying it.

Cogent finds itself on the other side, finding great success by integrating products and services in a more solution-oriented approach to product supply.

Harper explains that 100 percent of the company’s raw material stock is a thin-gauge electrical steel product which is finished into electrical components. However, while many people in the industry have a similar background in steel and so approach it in a similar way, the Cogent team engage differently with the product.

Engaging strategy
Their difference – and their strength – comes from working closely with clients in an advisory role, and from taking up a more strategic position than many competitors, who are used to a more transactional relationship, care to do.

Looking back on 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic presented its own challenges and opportunities for Cogent as an established name. Harper feels that the company managed the unusual situation generally quite well thanks to its large and diverse workforce, which worked hard to keep the virus out of the business and implement changes and new practices to maintain and protect the bottom line.

The company was designated an essential business from the beginning with orders and demands picking up in the pandemic’s early months as clients looked to get ahead of changes in their supply chains.

Harper admits that the first couple of months were the hardest, however, due to the uncertainty and discomfort many felt at the changes in the workplace and the world. Challenges cropped up as employees began to stay away from the office out of health concerns. The company filled the gaps with workers who had been displaced at other industries due to quarantine measures.

This, along with the constantly changing communication around the virus, its effects and its spread, fostered an industry-wide tumultuous climate. Fortunately, this company was able to gets it feet back under it in quick time and remains on steady ground to this day.

Flexible and adaptable
Harper admits that a lot of the challenges faced by Cogent, outside of the outstanding global circumstances, are not unique to the company and are handled deftly by a “flexible and adaptable team which can work in a client-focused way and is willing to put the effort in.”

Cogent’s raw materials are 100 percent steel products with steel markets going through surprising developments at the end of 2020. A shortage in materials and an increase in price means that the industry is seeing supply-and-demand constraints but with an added challenge for Cogent of significant growth occurring in the electric and hybrid vehicle markets.

Demand is constraining the supply of raw materials and it is a challenge for companies to source the materials to supply long-term and potential clients, leading to a skyrocketing in prices.

Seasonal challenges
The company also has its own share of typical seasonal challenges as well as those that are more recent and market focused.

Cogent rents two large heat-treating facilities that experience a major rise in heat during summer weather conditions, which can become a health and safety problem at times.

The company is also a large supplier to the US market of distribution transformers which typically become casualties of hurricanes and tornadoes, leading to peak demands during those seasons.

There has even been a pickup in demand recently thanks to the freezing temperatures seen in Texas in the early winter months of 2021.

Dealing with these unpredictable emergencies is nothing new to Cogent, which will typically rearrange its production around clients in need, and turn its services around in a couple of days with its usual customer-first attitude. Clients’ problems and emergencies are responsibilities the company takes on as they happen and it looks to rise to the challenge even better with the aid of its new backer.

Ownership change
Since a previous feature on Cogent Power in Business in Focus Magazine in 2019, the company has undergone an ownership change, being acquired by a large Japanese company called JFE Holdings (part of the JFE Shoji Corporation), making Cogent a part of the JVI Electrical Components Group.

Cogent is now affiliated with a group inside a large business where electrical machinery, along with the specialized nature of Cogent’s products and services, are uniquely aligned with a new strategy.

Harper explains that, from a component side, the company has primarily provided transformer components, but with new ownership comes a capability and capacity that can enable Cogent to grow into more motor and core components.

JFE is also a critical supplier with Japanese auto manufacturers where future opportunities lie in electric- and hybrid-vehicle motor manufacturing, especially as gasoline and diesel systems change to more sustainable options.

This means that corporations like JFE will require more of the products and materials that companies like Cogent process. Harper summarizes JFE’s role: “JFE is a regional leader in Japan and has a strong strategic vision to be a bigger player as the new market emerges.”

Cogent is more than ready to be a part of the long-term vision of JFE Shoji. Harper foresees that many short-term challenges may soon crop up on the supply side of the business, but the new parent company expects growth from Cogent in the next 10 years by taking advantage of its new markets and strengthening its transformer position.

Big part of the plan
Cogent looks to continue supporting local partners moving toward electrical and hybrid vehicle solutions in that time. As Harper says of the current state of play, “Cogent is just starting down the path but will be a big part of the plan moving forward.”

The company will also continue to be part of developments in the electrical grid and will be looking into opportunities to make the grid more efficient and intelligent in how it supplies power to businesses and residences.

Cogent Power has gone through a lot of growth and challenges, but Harper recognizes that it has been built on the support, strength, and flexibility of the entire team.

“We couldn’t have gotten to where we are without a team focused on growth – a team that was a helpful contributor in getting the business to where it is,” Harper summarizes. New developments and exciting plans lie ahead for this business in the coming years.

The post New Owner, New Horizons, Same Commitment<p class="company">Cogent Power</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Believing that there was a need for a world-class, full-service information technology company in Montreal, Quebec, a small group of IT pros got together in 2007 to create a very special IT business.

Now boasting a staff of 65, Quadbridge provides software and hardware to medium and large clients across North America. The company’s abilities are enhanced by partnerships with many of the biggest and best manufacturers of technology, including Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, EMC, Juniper Networks, Lenovo, and Microsoft.

Many companies talk a good game of work-life balance, but at Quadbridge – ever since the company was founded by CEO PJ Emam – this balance has been a conscious choice and key part of the company’s DNA and its enviable success.

They certainly got that right. The information technology and services company has experienced record-setting growth topping 2,100 percent in the past six years, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Spreading positivity
Nurturing a positive company culture, Quadbridge is widely recognized as a great place to work. Making Canadian Business magazine’s PROFIT 500 list as one of Canada’s fastest-growing IT companies four years in a row, the company keeps driving success through technology.

Quadbridge’s many work-life balancing initiatives begin with its location.

From Quadbridge’s headquarters on Saint-Patrick Street, close to the Lachine Canal, employees can readily access Montreal’s bike paths. To encourage the fitness lifestyle even further, they’re encouraged to use the company’s private gym, and enjoy delicious and healthy subsidized breakfasts and lunches prepared every day by Quadbridge’s own chef.

Taking employee engagement to new heights, Quadbridge staff actively participate in charitable works, benefiting others both locally and internationally.

For the past four years, through the company’s Quadbridge Technical Education Conference program (better known as QTEC), employees have embarked on week-long training camps in foreign countries, including Nicaragua, to perform charity work.

In 2019, QTEC visited Morocco and the city of Marrakech for “an unforgettable team bonding experience.” As well as climbing the Atlas Mountains, the Quadbridge team visited schools, bearing backpacks full of much-needed school supplies, and spending the afternoon with the kids.

Early in 2020, prior to COVID-19, 40 Quadbridge staff spent a week in Cartagena, Colombia, with the goal of “giving back to the community and broadening our horizons by experiencing other cultures,” as the company describes it. For the company, the Colombia QTEC trip had the highest number of employees taking part in a trip.

Although this year’s company training trip was put on hold because of the pandemic, it hasn’t stopped Quadbridge from giving back to the community.

A big believer in enriching the lives of others, the company is also active with charities at home. These initiatives include grocery donations to families in need, donations to provide radios to CHSLD residence in Montreal, with the help of Fondation Sante Urbaine, a donation of 200 Uber Eats vouchers accompanied by individual notes of encouragement to the emergency workers at Lakeshore General Hospital in Montreal, a donation and provision of 80 meals to Chez Doris from its Simple Mealz kitchen, and donations of groceries and new toys to Sun Youth.

Aware that helping others is more important now than ever, the company donated 100 Uber Eats vouchers to nurses at Lakeshore General Hospital, and another 63 vouchers to the Old Brewery Mission, which has since 1889 provided essential services to over 4,000 homeless men and women annually through its seven pavilions.

Promoting equality
Late last November, Quadbridge’s CEO PJ Emam took part in Promoting Inclusion in Montreal’s Workplaces – an online discussion about immigration and inclusion “with regard to an inclusive recovery of Greater Montreal.”

The virtual event – held with the participation of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and Nadine Girault, Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie/Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration – featured a who’s-who of panellists including Emam, Domtar’s Corporate Credit Chief Madeleine Féquière, and others.

“We are pleased to announce that PJ Emam, CEO of Quadbridge will be participating in the virtual panel discussion on diversity in the workplace co-developed by the CCMM and Ville de Montreal, with the financial support of the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration, where you will learn how it can be a crucial driver of creativity and performance for Greater Montreal’s organizations,” the company said online.

Aimed at directors, upper management, human resources executives and others wishing to implement and foster inclusion policies in their companies, the event featured speeches, a video entitled Context and findings: professional integration of immigrants in Montreal, and a panel moderated by Déborah Cherenfant, President of The Junior Chamber of Commerce of Montreal.

Hosted by Déborah Cherenfant, the sold-out event – the most attended one, according to the organizers – featured Emam and other industry experts and highlighted the need for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, the fight against discrimination and racism, and the role businesses of all sizes can take in Greater Montreal “as an immigrant city and advocate for an inclusive recovery.”

Meeting all IT needs
With decades of combined experience, the Quadbridge team is supremely well-equipped to work with clients on the information technology requirements that can spell business success to them. From hardware and software to data-centre managed services, Cloud computing and more, Quadbridge can meet all of its customers’ IT needs.

Working its way to the future, the company keeps adding awards and accolades to its résumé. Last October, Canadian Business magazine put Quadbridge at Place 343 on its 32^nd annual Growth List of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies. With an exceptional five-year revenue growth of 139 percent, CEO Emam said how proud he was of the business and its outstanding achievement.

“For a fourth year in a row, we are proud to be part of this vibrant economy of the top fastest-growing companies in Canada,” Emam said in a company release. “During these challenging times and new reality that we are going through, we will fight even stronger with a positive attitude to protect our families, our communities, our cities, our province, our country and globe.”

Susan Grimbly, Editor of the Growth List, reiterated just how exceptional the companies making last year’s List truly were. Their stories were “a masterclass” in how to survive and grow, even when a pandemic was decimating the world’s economy. “Despite turbulence, the 2020 Growth List companies showed resilience, spirit and, most importantly, empathy and strong leadership,” Grimbly said in a press release. “As we celebrate over 30 years of the Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies program, it’s encouraging to see that the heart of Canada’s entrepreneurial community beats strong, even in tough times.”

With so many more of us working at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quadbridge’s many IT services are as much in demand as ever. Left to their own discretion, about half of the company’s own staff are presently operating at home, while the other half are spending at least some time in the company’s physical office.

A very tight-knit group of IT industry experts, the Quadbridge staff miss the pre-COVID camaraderie that comes from socializing, working out, and eating together, and look forward to a post-pandemic world, physically under the same roof, and serving a wide range of clients.

The post Balancing Work and Life for World-Class IT<p class="company">Quadbridge</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.