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Metal Valley is primarily intended to boost the image of companies in the nonferrous industry. One of our objectives is to serve as a single point of contact for universities and other knowledge providers in order to preserve, bundle and expand our experience.'
Metal Valley, as it is known today, extends over 40 hectares. In its early years it operated under the name Lips, the company that produced ship screw propellers, among other things. Over the years the company’s operations have been split into various divisions and expanded to include such big names as LDM, Wärtsilä and Alcoa. Sapa, a relative newcomer to the line-up, stemmed from the joining of forces between Alcoa and the Swedish Orkla group.
Similar needs
Although the companies all are in the non-ferrous industry, their products, according to Priest, are entirely different, forming an ideal basis for collaboration. 'We don’t bite, but rather strengthen, each other, because of our similar needs for solutions to issues such as labour shortage, the environment, infrastructure and communication with governments. Moreover, together we have the power to attract anyone who contributes to our innovation.
We expect the other companies to get involved in this area as well. They have already shown an interest.' The three present collaborators - LDM, Sapa and Wärtsilä – are all part of multinationals. Shouldn’t innovation be the initiative of the headquarters of a multinational? Priest: 'I think that I speak for all of us when I say that innovations are generally created at a local level. We talk to our customers and know of their needs. And we develop the proper solutions to address these needs. This is especially the case for LDM, given our policy to increase by 10% each year the sale of our product specials, which takes the place of the traditional bulk products. We see a special as a product that international competitors cannot or do not want to produce, but which generates sufficient profit for us. This may be in relation to special compounds: a certain copper alloy, for example. Sometimes it has to do with providing value-added logistics services, for instance if a customer somewhere in the world wants to have his product delivered at specific times. In all such cases, knowledge of business is required. Knowledge is essential for the Metal Valley companies. That is why we seek to strengthen each other in our search for the right solutions.
Chocolate
Priest finds that with the collaboration comes a marketing benefit. 'We are all well-running companies, but worldwide each of us has more of a commercial sales pitch now that we can tell our potential buyers that we operate from Metal Valley where fifteen hundred people work in the same industry. This makes a global impression. I see it as a variety of chocolate flavours presented in a fantastic wrapper. |
