Sulzer Turbo Services Deepens Its Investment in Edmonton

Edmonton, Alberta is now home to Sulzer Turbo Services' first Canadian facility. This division of Sulzer Corporation (Switzerland) is the world's largest independent provider of repair and maintenance services for turbines and other rotating equipment.

Engine Expertise Welcomed

Turbines convert kinetic energy from sources such as wind or water into mechanical energy by causing rotors or blades to spin. Many Canadian industries such as oil and gas, power, and pulp and paper rely on the efficient function of turbines. Should one of these machines falter, operations can come to a grinding halt.

Canadian companies can now entrust the repair and maintenance of these sophisticated machines to the experts at Sulzer Turbo Services. With more than 175 years of experience, Sulzer Turbo Services can repair literally every piece of equipment in the turbomachinery business.

"I'm not exaggerating when I say that we are the world's experts at this," says H. Terry Moon, President of Sulzer Turbo Services Canada. "With a piece of machinery that rotates as fast as 40,000 revolutions per minute, we're talking about repair work that's got to be down to the Swiss-watch level. That's why there's such strong demand for our level of expertise." Its facility runs on a 24/7 basis and regularly dispatches repair teams anywhere across Canada.

Alberta Oils the Wheels for Investment

Sulzer Turbo Services began to appreciate the potential size of the Canadian market for its services when its Houston, Texas facility developed a growing list of clients in the western provinces.

"It was the oil and gas industry that initially attracted us to Canada," explains Moon. Alberta boasts the world's second largest crude oil reserves and aims to produce 2.5 billion barrels of oil sands and heavy oil a day by 2020. Technology and services to fuel the oil and gas industry are constantly growing in demand.

To meet this demand for complementary services such as Sulzer's, the Alberta government offers a number of attractive investment incentives. These include:

• Business tax advantages: low corporate income tax rates, no capital tax, no general sales tax, no payroll tax, and the lowest gasoline tax of any province.
• Research and development dollars: government research and development spending in Alberta is among the highest per capita in Canada.
• Streamlined regulations: Alberta's streamlined regulatory regime eliminates red-tape headaches and time-delays for investors.

Build it, and They will Come

To best service Alberta's massive oil and gas industry, Sulzer Turbo Services chose the city of Edmonton. "We knew that western Canada had a need for our services, but since establishing a presence here, we've been getting calls from as far west as Vancouver Island, British Columbia to as far east as Halifax, Nova Scotia," says Moon.

"I'm thrilled to say that our market has very quickly expanded from just the Alberta region to all of Canada," says Moon. To accommodate a market of this size, Sulzer Turbo Services Canada recently completed a 5,000 square-foot addition to its existing Edmonton facility.

Edmonton will soon be the first location in the world to offer three Sulzer divisions in one locale: Sulzer Turbo Services, Sulzer Chemtech and Sulzer Metco. All three divisions are active in Canada's booming oil-and-gas sector. Moon explains that since "manufacturing opportunities in the region are virtually without limit, so too are the opportunities for companies to successfully service this sector."

Investing in Canada, Investing in Canadians

Sulzer Turbo Services brings more than just investment dollars to Canada; it also brings high- quality jobs. The company currently employs 25 people, including 24 Canadians, and expects this number to grow rapidly. "To attract and retain our high-caliber staff, we really invest where it counts the most," explains Moon. "For us, that means our specialized and comprehensive employee training program and our health, safety and environment program (HSE)."

"Even in a tough economic climate, Canadians can count on Sulzer to offer stable careers that challenge the minds of the best and brightest in the engineering lab and on the shop floor," says Moon.

To learn more about investment opportunities in Canada, consult: www.investincanada.com

Prepared by the Invest in Canada Bureau, Spring 2009