Company type | Publicly traded aktiebolag |
---|---|
Nasdaq Stockholm: ALFA | |
ISIN | SE0000695876 [1] |
Industry | Manufacturing, engineering and service |
Founded | 1883[2] |
Founders | Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm |
Headquarters | Rudeboksvägen 1, Lund, Sweden |
Key people | Tom Erixon (President and CEO), Anders Narvinger (Chairman) |
Revenue | 40.911 billion kr (2021) [3] |
6.142 billion kr (2021) [3] | |
4.801 billion kr (2021) [3] | |
Total assets | 64.361 billion kr (2021) [3] |
Total equity | 32.344 billion kr (2021) [3] |
Number of employees | 17,883 (2021) [3] |
Website | www.alfalaval.com |
Alfa Laval AB is a Swedish company, founded in 1883 by Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm. The company started by providing centrifuges to dairies to be used to separate cream from milk. It now deals in the production of specialised products for heavy industry. The products are used to heat, cool, separate and transport such products as oil, water, chemicals, beverages, foodstuffs, starch and pharmaceuticals.
Alfa Laval is headquartered in Lund, Sweden and has subsidiary companies in over 100 countries around the world, including South Africa, Denmark, Italy, India, Japan, China, Netherlands, and the United States. As of the end of 2021, Alfa Laval had a global workforce of 18,574 employees and revenue of $4.77 billion. [4] [5]
Alfa Laval is a heavy industry company that focuses on the large-scale operations, such as the Marine, Energy, Food & Water industries. [6]
Alfa Laval manufactures valves, pumps, heat exchangers, evaporators, distillers, oil separators, filters, ballast water treatment systems, and all other hardware vital to the operation of the a ship's engine room. As of 2011, Alfa Laval consolidated its Marine, Offshore, and Diesel divisions into one, Marine & Diesel, division in an effort to simplify logistics and administration of its marine wing to better serve maritime industry. [7]
Alfa Laval’s Marine division works with end-markets in shipbuilding, offshore oil and gas, and diesel & gas-engine power. The division also develops technology to help marine customers comply with environmental regulations. [8] [9] Product areas include marine separation and heat transfer equipment, boilers and gas systems, and pumping systems.
In 2014, Alfa Laval acquired marine pump manufacturer Framo AS. It was Alfa Laval’s largest acquisition to that point, in order to further expanded the company’s offering of marine equipment. [10]
In 2021, Alfa Laval acquired StormGeo, a weather analysis software provider for NOK 3.63 billion ($440 million). The use of StormGeo's digital products is increasing the decarbonisation of the industry; since 2018, their use has saved carriers 2.1 million tonnes of fuel, reducing CO2 emissions by 6.2 million tonnes. [11]
Also part of the strategy to expand digital services for offshore vessels was the acquisition in 2022 of Danish company BunkerMetric, a developer of advanced decision support tools for offshore bunker vessels. The use of tools from both solutions will help optimise and improve the efficiency of maritime carriers. BunkerMetric's procurement optimisation tool will be part of the subscription of StormGeo's existing offering. [12]
Alfa Laval’s Energy division has a long track record working with end-markets in oil & gas drilling and production, oil & gas and renewable fuel processing & transportation, oil refineries, and the petrochemicals industry. Other areas include HVAC applications, district heating and district cooling, power generation, engine cooling, pulp, paper, municipal and industrial waste treatment and recycling, bio-based material, mining and minerals. Product areas include heat exchanger and industrial scale centrifugal separation technologies.[ citation needed ]
Alfa Laval’s Food & Water division works with end-markets in food manufacturing, dairy, pharmaceuticals, ethanol, starch, sugar, municipal wastewater and industrial wastewater treatment, proteins, biotech, vegetable oils, and breweries. Product areas include high speed separators, food systems, food heat transfer, decanters, and hygienic fluid handling technologies.
In 2022, Alfa Laval acquired Desmet, part of the Desmet Ballestra, a world leader in engineering and supplying processing plants and technologies for edible oils and biofuel sectors. This acquisition is to support Alfa Laval's transformation towards renewable fuels. [13]
Alfa Laval was founded as AB Separator by Swedish inventor Gustaf de Laval and engineer Oscar Lamm in Stockholm in 1883. The De Laval Cream Separator Co., an American subsidiary, was founded the same year. [14] [15]
The company’s origin was de Laval’s invention of a continuous milk separator, which he and Lamm had first patented in 1878. [16] Prior to this, dairy producers manually skimmed cream from milk, which was laborious and time-consuming. Capable of handling up to 130 litres per hour, de Laval’s centrifugal separator made this process easier and more efficient.
In 1888, AB Separator also began selling pumps to transport skimmed milk from the separator. In 1890, AB Separator introduced the first continuous separator with disc stacks featuring conical metal discs called Alfa Discs, which increased the separation capacity. [14] [15]
AB Separator was a privately held company until 1901, when it was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The company continued to expand internationally in the early 1900s, opening subsidiaries in Denmark, South Africa, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Yugoslavia and Ireland by 1936. [15]
In 1938, AB Separator began manufacturing its first heat exchanger. These were produced in Lund, Sweden, where later became the company’s headquarter. [15]
In 1963, AB Separator changed its name to Alfa-Laval AB, combining the name of the company’s founder with a reference to the Alfa Disc technology in its separators. [14] [15]
In 1991, the company returned to private ownership after it was acquired by the Swedish packaging group Tetra Pak. It was then renamed Alfa Laval AB and made into an independent industrial group within the newly formed Tetra Laval Group. [17]
Tetra Laval sold a majority stake of Alfa Laval to the Swedish private equity group Industri Kapital (now known as IK Investment Partners) in 2000, who purchased the company with the intention of listing it publicly within a five-year period. [18] Alfa Laval returned to the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2002. [15] As of 2019, Tetra Laval has retained a 29.1% minority stake in the company.
Manufacturing at Alfa Laval is carried out in several countries including Sweden, India, China, the UK, and USA.
As of 2022, Alfa Laval has over forty manufacturing units globally and holds more than 2,000 patents. [19]
In Canada, Alfa Laval has had a presence for over 100 years, previously as DeLaval, which would provide such services to farmers as assisting them in the storage of their milk and providing cream separators. Alfa Laval is headquartered in Toronto and in 2009 opened a service centre in Edmonton, Alberta. In late 2010, staff in the Canadian operations numbered 74.[ citation needed ]
Alfa Laval has been present in the United States of America for more than 130 years—marketing and supplying a broad range of heat exchangers, separators, decanters, pumps, tank cleaning devices, valves and fittings to customers in a wide range of market segments. [20]
Alfa Laval's head office in UK is located in Camberley, Surrey. Their pumps and manufacturing division was located in Eastbourne before closing in 2023, with further sales office in Birmingham.
Much of Alfa Laval’s current development is focused on technologies for improving energy efficiency to reduce carbon emissions, meeting marine environmental regulations, and providing cleaner water. [21] The company is also a participant in a number of global partnerships for improving sustainability.
In 2018, Alfa Laval became a part-owner in Malta, Inc., for which they also supply heat transfer technologies. [22] Incubated at X Development (formerly Google X), Malta Inc. is developing a new thermal energy storage solution that will enable the shift to renewable energy sources. [23]
Also in 2021, Alfa Laval and Wallenius Marine formed a joint venture called AlfaWall Oceanbird. The partnership aims to supply wind propulsion solutions for the shipping industry, in order to reduce emissions. [24] [25]
Valmet Oyj, a Finnish company, is a developer and supplier of process technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper, energy industries. Flow control serves a wider base of process industries.
Karl Gustaf Patrik de Laval was a Swedish engineer and inventor who made important contributions to the design of steam turbines and centrifugal separation machinery for dairy.
Separator can refer to:
Tumba is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Botkyrka Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden with 37,852 inhabitants in 2010. A part of its statistical urban area, called Rönninge, is in Salem Municipality. The population is 35,311 (2005). The Swedish krona banknotes are printed by Crane AB at Tumba Bruk, in Tumba. Tumba is situated half-way between Stockholm and Södertälje and is considered a Stockholm suburb. In Tumba and Rönninge there are stations on the Stockholm commuter rail network.
Tetra Laval is a Swiss-domiciled multinational corporation of Swedish origin, with headquarters in Pully (Vaud), Switzerland. The Tetra Laval Group provides packaging, processing and distribution products for a range of foodstuffs, including liquids, fruit and vegetables, ice-cream and processed food, additionally offering systems for agricultural production and herd management. The group operates in five business segments: milk production, food preparation, food processing, food packaging and food distribution. The Tetra Laval Group includes Tetra Pak, DeLaval and Sidel. Tetra Laval was included in the Thomson Reuters 2011 list of Top 100 Global Innovators.
Framo AS marketed under the brand name Framo is a supplier of submerged cargo pumps to the tanker market. The company was founded in 1938 and is located outside Bergen, Norway. The portfolio of products include submerged cargo pumps, transportable pumping systems, oil-recovery equipment, anti-heeling systems and offshore pumping systems. All of their products are manufactured in Norway.
A separator is a centrifugal device that separates milk into cream and skimmed milk. Separation was commonly performed on farms in the past. Most farmers milked a few cows, usually by hand, and separated milk. Some of the skimmed milk was consumed while the rest was used to feed calves and pigs. Enough cream was saved to make butter, and the excess was sold.
Tetra Pak is a Swedish multinational food packaging and processing company headquartered in Switzerland. The company offers packaging, filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice cream and prepared food, including distribution tools like accumulators, cap applicators, conveyors, crate packers, film wrappers, line controllers and straw applicators.
DeLaval is a producer of dairy and farming machinery, with a head office in Tumba, Sweden, and is part of the Tetra Laval group. The company has 18 factories worldwide, employs over 4,500 people.
Dairy machinery encompasses and describes a wide range of machine types that are involved in the production and processing of dairy related products such as yogurt, ice cream, processed cheese, desserts and is a slightly different genre to pure milking machinery.
Haldex AB, also known as Haldex Group, is a Swedish company operating in the commercial vehicle industry. Haldex focuses on brake products, air suspension systems and products to enhance safety for heavy vehicles. The Foundation Brake product line includes brake products for wheel ends such as disc brakes, brake adjusters for drum brakes and actuators. Air Controls comprises products that improve the safety and driving dynamics of the brake system, such as compressed air dryers, valves, ABS and EBS.
Fredrik Ljungström was a Swedish engineer, technical designer, and industrialist.
StormGeo AS was founded in 1997 and is a leading technology provider enabling weather-sensitive companies to navigate operational challenges in dynamic environments and volatile markets providers worldwide. It provides services, particularly to the offshore, renewable energy, shipping, corporate enterprise and media industries. The chief executive officer of StormGeo is Kim Hedegaard Sørensen.
Alfdex AB is a Swedish company that develops and produces separators for cleaning of crankcase gases in diesel truck engines.
Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain, the Netherlands today lags 21 of the 26 other member states of the European Union in the consumption of energy from renewable sources. In 2022, the Netherlands consumed just 15% of its total energy from renewables. According to statistics published by Eurostat, it was the last among the EU countries in the shift away from global warming-inducing energy sources. The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass, wind, solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power. In 2018 decisions were made to replace natural gas as the main energy source in the Netherlands with increased electrification being a major part of this process.
Sidel is a manufacturing company providing equipment and services for packaging liquids such as water; carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks; sensitive beverages such as milk, liquid dairy products, juices, tea, coffee, isotonics and beer; food and home and personal care.
Oceanbird is a concept for wind-powered cargo vessels under development by Wallenius Marine. The concept aims to lower emissions by up to 90 percent and the design was developed in collaboration with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Swedish maritime technology company SSPA. Financial backing for the development was provided by the Swedish Transport Agency. In 2021, Wallenius announced a partnership with Swedish heavy industry company Alfa Laval to further develop the concept's wingsail design.
Wallenius Marine is a ship design and ship management company in Sweden. Headquartered in Stockholm, the company has additional offices in Singapore and employs some 800 people.