Market extension: Adapt your product for use in a new market. Create new services or features to support existing customers.
Details: Almita Manufacturing Ltd.
Employees: 70
Sector: Manufacturing and Sales
Key Business Activity: Designing, fabricating and installing screw piles
Contact: 9415-45th Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB
1-800-363-4868
www.almita.com
When Edmonton-based screw pile specialist Almita Manufacturing Ltd. opened in 1992, its clients were mainly from the oil and gas sector. Things have changed. While many companies are losing momentum and feeling the effects of a spiralling economy, Almita is forcefully moving in the opposite direction.
Screw piles, used in drilling holes for deep foundation work, are effective and versatile. Almita now produces screw piles for a variety of other industries, including commercial construction and power transmission. “We’re in a unique situation,” says president Larry Kaumeyer. “The market for screw piles is opening up faster than the reduction in the general piling market.”
Kaumeyer says that the company’s three-pronged approach to being a productive business is translating into market extension opportunities.
The first approach centres on engineering. “Ours is an engineered product, so we have to convince engineers to use it,” says Kaumeyer. “That’s not easy because the engineering community is used to driven and concrete piles. Screw piles are relatively new.”
To get the word out, Almita has worked closely with the Deep Foundations Institute (in the United States), a group whose engineers look at innovations in the foundation industry.
The second approach has been the adoption of lean manufacturing, including an emphasis on robotics. “When you do that, you have to educate your people,” says Kaumeyer. “We’re doing quite a bit of training and looking at our end-to-end process, trying to be better at what we do.”
The final approach the company is taking to increase productivity is to concentrate on brand management, putting a lot of work into understanding customers’ needs and increasing visibility. For example, the company now has an online presence where potential clients can see that Almita offers turnkey solutions — they can make a custom screw pile, engineer it, fabricate it and then install it. “We take a lot of headaches away from our clients,” Kaumeyer says.
A critical step came when the company restructured to split various markets into segments. Almita now has specialists who focus on each of their markets. “That’s increased our ability to add value,” says Kaumeyer. “You have to know what you’re doing. A power transmission foundation is very different than a commercial building foundation. You have to understand how each will operate in order to pass the value on.”
New Markets
Until Almita tackled the problem, screw piles weren’t an option for foundation work on larger buildings. “We’ve worked on trying to open up the commercial construction area,” says Kaumeyer. “It’s about convincing engineers that you can put a steel-structure building on screw piles if it’s designed that way from an engineering perspective.”
Almita is also working at new opportunities in the alternative energy market. Screw piles, for example, can be used in drilling the holes needed to erect a wind turbine. While the alternative energy market currently accounts for about five per cent of Almita’s annual revenue, Kaumeyer expects that figure to double or triple in the next decade, potentially accounting for 40 per cent of the pie further down the road. “People are looking for cost savings and alternative foundation products for their projects,” says Kaumeyer.
But devolving new markets requires plenty of work. “You have to understand your ability to compete in that market,” Kaumeyer says, “who you are competing against and what your value proposition is, relative to your ability to compete in that marketplace.” Developing a new market means recognizing barriers to your own effectiveness.
It’s also crucial to be aware of the economic conditions. “Can you build that market?” asks Kaumeyer. “What are the resources like? Can you get people? Can you train people so that they understand exactly what you need to deliver?” With a keen focus on answering these questions, Almita continues to show growth every year.
