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Desmi A/S (ID: 17061)
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Until April 1, 2003 the officially registered name of the group was A/S De Smithske. However, over the years the name DESMI has become more and more used in brochures and other marketing material. So in order to avoid confusion between the officially registered company name and what the company has been colloquially called, it was decided to change the official name to DESMI A/S. On June 9, 1834, the Aalborg citizen Henning Smith, Gold- & Silversmith, was granted the Royal privilege to start an iron foundry in Aalborg. Henning Smith sat up his iron foundry in Algade 54, vis-a-vis the Cathedral of Budolfi, where stoves, kitchen ranges, windows etc. were made. Already in 1848 the activities were split into foundry and machinery works with a total of 47 employees. At that time the population of Aalborg was approx. 8,000 and A/S De Smithske was the second largest industrial enterprise in the city. In 1875 the business moved to bigger and better facilities at Vesterbro, close to where the Aalborg Congress Center is today. The same year Denmark passed its first Companies Act and the activities were immediately transformed into a Limited Company under the Registration no. 538. Thus today DESMI A/S is one of the oldest companies in Denmark. From 1900 until 1970 the company also manufactured church bells, which was quite a unique trade. About half of 4,000 churches in the country were supplied with church bells from A/S De Smithske, and most of them are still in use today. In 1935 and 1936, foundry, machinery works and boiler shop were moved to the outskirts of the city at Annebergvej. Over the years the activities increased to a size that necessitated an expansion of the facilities, and in 1966 the locksmith shop was moved to a newly built welding plant at Skydebanevej. On July 1, 1977 the foundry was closed down, and by the end of the same year the machine works, together with the subsidiary Skalborg Maskinfabrik A/S that manufactured gearboxes, moved to the present modern facilities at Tagholm 1, Norresundby. At the same time the boiler shop was organized as a separate division - the Steel Division. In 1979 Skalborg Maskinfabrik A/S merged with A/S De Smithske. By the end of the 70?s DESMI started to develop and manufacture equipment for combating oil spills at sea. This business area has developed well and is today managed by RO-CLEAN DESMI A/S, a marketing and sales company owned jointly by Roulunds Fabrikker A/S in Odense and DESMI A/S. DESMI?s environmental equipment is recognized world-wide and is part of contingency planning in more than 60 countries. In 1993/94 DESMI acquired the pump division, Thrige Pumper, from Thrige Titan A/S in Odense. The activities and products of Thrige Pumper supplemented DESMI?s own business areas very well. One could say that Thrige Pumper?s main strength was "onshore" whilst DESMI?s main strength was "offshore". With the acquisition of Thrige Pumper the turnover and the number of employees were doubled. The motive behind the purchase and the merger of the two companies was the wish to create a strong company able to face the challenges of a still more competitive and internationally oriented business world. The purchase of Thrige Pumper also included their German subsidiary, Rotan Pumpengesellschaft mbH. In 1999 DESMI took over the marine activities of its then distributor, Mess- und Fordertechnik. The name of Rotan Pumpengesellschaft mgH was at the same time changed to DESMI GmbH Rotan Pumpengesellschaft. DESMI Ltd. was established in 1978, and in 1998 the acquisition of Rotan Pumps Ltd. in the U.K. took place. DESMI Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on September 20, 1991 as the U.S. subsidiary of A/S De Smithske, with offices in Cleveland, Ohio. On January 1, 1994 the acquisition by DESMI of Thrige Pumper also included their U.S. subsidiary, Rotan Inc., with offices in Monroe, North Carolina. On September 31, 1994 the management of DESMI decided to merge DESMI Inc. and Rotan Inc. into one company, DESMI Inc., with offices in Norfolk, Virginia. An analysis of the profitabillity of maintaining two major production units in Odense and Aalborg, resulted in favour of centralizing the pump production. It was therefore decided to transfer the Rotan activities from Odense to Aalborg (Norresundby). The transfer process started early April 2000, and from early September 2000 all activities in connection with the manufacturing process are performed in the Aalborg plant. At the turn of the year 2001/2002 part of the group's transmission activities were sold to Randers Tandhjulsfabrik A/S. However, the production and sale of gearboxes to waste-water treatment plants together with the distributorship of Twin Disc marine gears were maintained as activity areas within DESMI. As part of the group's growth strategy, which is based on product and market development, DESMI bought as per May 1, 2002 the company of K&R Pompen B.V. which had been the company's Dutch distributor for many years. The Dutch company entered the group under the name of DESMI K&R Pompen B.V. Also in 2002, October 1, DESMI established a subsidiary in Norway, DESMI Norge AS, which is based in Kristiansand. DESMI Ltd. established the group's third company in 2002 as a subsidiary. This company, DESMI FHS Ltd., is member of a consortium of world class companies who have agreed to co-operate in the sales of Fuel Handling Systems world wide. Other members are Dunlop GRG, Angus Flexible Pipelines, Cobham Fluid Systems, GKN Aerospace, FPT Industries and Joseph Ash. The long term goal of the company is to carry through a growth strategy based on selection and development of specific areas. The mission of Desmi A/S is to develop, manufacture, sell, and service pumps and pumping systems, environmental equipment, and special products....... Desmi A/S