Sapa Group

History

Skandinaviska Aluminiumprofiler AB (Scandinavian Aluminum Profiles) set up its first extrusion plant in Vetlanda in 1963, with sales of aluminum profiles from the Swedish plant beginning in 1967. The Norwegian corporation Orkla Group acquired Sapa in 2005 and delisted the company from the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

Sapa and Alcoa engaged in a joint venture in 2007, thereby creating one of the leading extrusion companies. One year later, in December 2008, Alcoa and Orkla executed an asset swap transaction. In this transaction, Orkla took over Alcoa's soft aluminium alloy extrusion business, which was then organized under the Sapa name, and became the sole owner of Sapa.

The next big step in the growth of Sapa's extrusion operation occurred in 2009, when the company acquired the 10 North American extrusion plants that belonged to Indalex. At the time of the purchase, Indalex was under bankruptcy protection. The acquisition covered six plants in the United States and four in Canada.

In October 2012, Orkla and the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro announced that they had agreed to combine the aluminium extrusion businesses of Sapa and Hydro into a new 50/50 joint venture, which would keep the Sapa name. This joint venture would bring together the industry's two largest global players. After having received approvals from all relevant authorities, the joint venture transaction was closed and a new company, Sapa AS, was established on September 1, 2013. Its management is based at the company's head office in Oslo, Norway. Egil Hogna serves as the company's President & CEO, while Orkla's top executive, Peter A. Ruzicka, chairs Sapa's board of directors.

Organization

Internally, Sapa AS has four business areas. Two of them, organized geographically, are within Sapa Extrusions. The other two are Sapa Precision Tubing and Sapa Building Systems. The company has some 100 production sites in more than 40 countries. Sapa AS has about 22,800 employees across the world, according to its annual report.

Sapa Extrusions

Sapa Extrusions is a producer of extruded aluminium profiles. Sites also handle cutting, bending, CNC processing, hydroforming, fusion welding, friction stir welding, electromagnetic pulse forming, electromagnetic pulse welding anodizing and painting. Extrusions is organized internally with two business areas, covering North America and Europe. Its extrusion activities in Asia and South America are organized within the Precision Tubing area.

Sapa Building Systems

Sapa Building Systems develops and sells aluminium-based window, door and facade products. This includes the development of energy-saving concepts. Sapa has a portfolio of global brands - Sapa Building System, Technal and Wicona - as well as various regional brands.

Sapa Precision Tubing

Sapa Precision Tubing develops and markets aluminium tubing and tubing solutions primarily for heat transfer applications in the automotive industry and in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry. The business area also is responsible for Sapa's general extrusion operations in Asia and South America.

Innovation

Sapa starts a new development project every working day of the year. The company’s 1,000 engineers – most with material science, physics, chemistry, or mechanical engineering backgrounds – work in research and application development at nearly 40 locations globally. Their combined competence paces the field when it comes to aluminium extrusion-based solutions. As an example, Sapa introduced friction stir welding (FSW) to enable a process of solid-state joining as a production method. The method drastically advanced the production capacity at Sapa, and has brought to life new applications for customers the world over.

Sustainability

Sapa's move toward a circular economy involves an emphasis on recycling aluminium. Aluminium can be recycled and reused over and over without any reduction in quality, consuming only 5 percent of the energy that was required in the primary aluminium production.

The environmental benefits of using recycled aluminium are quite obvious, and, according to Sapa's Sustainability Report 2015, the company is investing to improve the productivity in its existing casthouses, and to build new ones. In 2014, more than half of the aluminium used in Sapa’s production stemmed from internal scrap recycling and billets of remelted aluminium provided by external suppliers.

Locations

Sapa AS has production and/or sales activities in the following countries: