Atlas Copco CEO Ronnie Leten marked the company’s 140th anniversary by ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York’s Times Square at 9:15 a.m. EST today.
The bell ringing signifies not only the beginning of the day’s trading, but also the start of a yearlong celebration for the company. Leten will be accompanied at the event by Maureen Ellis, an employee celebrating more than 40 years with Atlas Copco in the United States, select customers, and other company management and stakeholders.
Through 140 years of innovation and acquisition, Atlas Copco has grown to serve customers in over 170 countries. Today, in the United States alone, Atlas Copco has 109 locations, 1.7 million sq.-ft. of manufacturing, production, distribution and office space, employs more than 4,600 people and works with hundreds of carefully selected distributors. North America operations generated more than $2.8 billion (USD) in annual revenue in 2012.
“From our beginning in 1873 as a manufacturer of products for the railroad industry, we have expanded and adapted to hold world-leading positions in compressed air and gas equipment, construction and mining equipment, industrial tools and assembly systems,” said Jim Levitt, president of Atlas Copco North America. “ The United States is the Group’s largest single market and North America contributes about one-fifth of our overall revenue. The best way to celebrate 140 years in business is to acknowledge the customers that make it possible. We sincerely thank each and every one of them for their business.”
Atlas Copco business units across the United States will celebrate with customers throughout the year with local events, special offers, and rewards. Full details will be available at www.atlascopco.com/us on March 1, 2013.
As an additional part of the anniversary celebration, Atlas Copco North America is donating $60,000 to New York City-based charity: water, a global non-profit dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Today’s donation brings Atlas Copco’s total charity: water giving to $161,000 since 2010, with the company’s employee-run Water for All organization donating more than $239,000 since the program’s inception. To learn more about Atlas Copco’s employee-run Water for All charity program, please visit http://www.water4all.org/us/
A Brief History
Atlas Copco was founded in Sweden in 1873 as a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. At the turn of the century the company diversified its offerings into riveting and chipping hammers and drills intended for metalworking in the manufacturing industry and the air compressors needed to power them. Shortly thereafter, the company designed and set into production a rock drill for the mining industry called the Cyklop – an innovative design that would last long into the 1930s.
The company began U.S. operations in 1950 with the opening of offices in San Francisco and New York. Wwith the fast growth of the automotive and aviation industries through the middle of the last century, Atlas Copco developed new tools with increasingly improved performance and precision.
Ushering in a new era of compressed air efficiency and opportunities, the company delivered its first screw compressor in 1955. In 1967, Atlas Copco introduced the world’s first mobile screw compressor that produced oil-free compressed air and the oil-free, stationary, Z Series. With these developments, new opportunities were seen for using pneumatics in the medical care and food industries. In 1994 Atlas Copco unveiled the first variable speed drive compressor, a technology which offers significant energy savings to compressed air users.
Through the years, Atlas Copco also made significant investments and innovations in mining tool technology – from lightweight handheld drills to a hydraulic rock drill, the COP 1038, the predecessor of many of today's rock drills – and in tools for the manufacturing industry.
