Wolf Robotics takes over ABB plant

FORT COLLINS — Same office. Similar job. New company.

Dave Prosser, one-time vice president and general manager for ABB Welding Systems Division in Fort Collins, has adopted the same title for newly formed Wolf Robotics.

The new business took shape when Ohio-based Rimrock Corporation purchased the assets of the local ABB facility from the European conglomerate. Financial details of the purchase, which closed on Nov. 16., were not disclosed.

The result of the transaction, however, is continuation of a company heritage that started in Fort Collins in 1944.

Wolf Robotics, which includes 24 holdover employees from the ABB operation, will operate at the same site — 4600 Innovation Drive — that ABB had occupied since 1991.

And like ABB Welding Systems, Wolf will continue to make robotic handling equipment for clients like Caterpillar, John Deere and Harley-Davidson.

The seeds of the Rimrock-ABB deal were planted in April, when ABB decided to tighten the focus of its robotics business to the automotive industry and to consolidate that business in Auburn Hills, Mich., near Detroit.

About half of the sales generated from the Welding Systems division was not automotive related, a fact that inspired Prosser to start a business rescue mission of sorts.

Prosser, seeing that ABB intended to shut down the Fort Collins operation, decided to lead a management buyout effort for the assets in the local plant.

“We do a lot of general industry business and a lot of systems business,”he said. The non-auto components represented about $12 million a year in annual sales.

Initially, Prosser started to gather local investors to execute the buyout.

By summer, Rimrock came into the picture.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Rimrock makes automation equipment for the die casting industry. Rimrock, attempting to diversify its own business, acquired another former ABB robotics unit located in New Berlin, Wis. That unit, now called Rimrock Automation, specializes in equipment for materials handling and press tending.

“The guy who runs that operation in New Berlin knew this was happening,” Prosser said of the planned closure in Fort Collins.

The result was that Rimrock took an interest in ABB Welding Systems as a further means to diversify. In turn, Prosser set aside his own buyout plans and agreed to run Wolf Robotics as a division of Rimrock Automation.

“It’s a nice position for us,” Prosser said. “My primary goal was to keep 25 people or so employed. Linking up with Rimrock allows us to do that in a way where we have good corporate backing.”

Growth opportunities in store

Wolf Robotics, which was Prosser’s choice for the name, has already signed its first major contract in its post-ABB existence — a $2 million deal with heavy equipment maker Caterpillar.

Prosser expects to grow the business from $12 million in its first year to about $20 million in two years, in part because of a growing demand for robotics in the manufacturing arena.

The market for industrial robotics in North America in the United States is about $200 million. “So we would expect to have about 10 percent,” he said.

According to recent data reported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, orders for industrial robots from North American companies jumped 35 percent in the first of the year compared to last year. For the period between 2003 and 2006, the North American market is expected to grow 7 percent a year.

“I think we’re hitting it at a good time,” Prosser said, referring to the economic recovery that’s under way. Capital equipment for manufacturers generally lags behind the recovery period, he said.

A key trend in Wolf Robotics’ favor is the rising cost of labor, which is encouraging more companies to automate manufacturing. At the same time, the costs for robotics is declining.

Additionally, the United States is well behind the rest of the world in the use of industrial robotics, which indicates opportunity for growth, Prosser said.

United States manufacturers currently use 58 industrial robots for every 10,000 employees. By comparison, Japan’s ratio is 308 per 10,000 workers, Germany uses 128 per 10,000 and South Korea 128 per 10,000. The U.S. is also behind Italy, Sweden, Finland, France and Spain in robotics use.

If growth meets Wolf’s expectations, he hopes to add staff in the near future.

The Fort Collins operation had 46 employees when ABB announced its shift in strategy earlier this year. Of those 46, 13 were offered positions with ABB, including three software developers who will continue to work in Fort Collins at the Wolf Robotics site.

Prosser retained 21 of the remaining 33 ABB staff and hired three new employees to fill out needs for the new company. The 12 ABB employees who lost their jobs were primarily production and administrative staff.

“I’m hoping we can bring some of those 12 back,” Prosser said.

Wolf Robotics will keep ties to ABB in several ways. ABB is the landlord at 4600 Innovation, in which Wolf is leasing 82,000 square feet. Wolf will also be a strategic systems integrator for ABB, meaning Wolf will use and resell ABB products.

Local roots run deep

Wolf Robotics traces its industrial lineage to Heath Farm Equipment, a company that started in Fort Collins by Robert Heath, a mining engineer who moved to the city that year from Alaska.

John Mattingly, who would later help to start Water Pik, invested in the company in 1948. Heath Farm Equipment soon developed a flame tool to cut metal parts, an event that led the company down the path to robotics.

The farm equipment side of the company was eventually sold in 1962 and Heath Farm Equipment became Heath Engineering, focusing on the development of industrial tools.

In 1976 the Swedish company ESAB invested in Heath, then bought out the business in 1978. ESAB Automation eventually moved from long-time facility near the Fort Collins Downtown Airpark to 4600 Innovation in 1991. In 1992 Prosser, who started with Heath in 1973, became vice president and general manager of ESAB Automation.

The next year ABB, a joint venture between Sweden’s ASEA and Switzerland’s Brown Boveri, bought ESAB’s robotic welding business.

At its most productive point, ABB generated $46 million in annual sales from the Fort Collins site and employed about 200 people. Over its history in Fort Collins, the Heath-ESAB-ABB operation has sold more than 6,000 robots, generating about $450 million in sales.

“In some ways were getting back to our roots,” Prosser said. “We’re back to a small company as Wolf Robotics.”

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