SKF to establish Global Technical Centre in United States
August 13, 2014
SKF, a leading global supplier of bearings with its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, has announced plans to build a new 12,100 m2 (130,000 sq. ft.) facility in Chicago, USA. The company plans to initially invest some $30 million in the project and will employ around 80 engineers within the first four years of operation. Eventually the facility may house up to 200 employees.
The Global Technical Center Americas (GTCA) joins two centres recently opened in China and India, while two new European centres are under construction, one in Holland and one in Sweden.
“One of SKF’s driving forces is to continue to deliver world leading research and innovation and to develop products which deliver significant energy savings for our customers,” stated Tom Johnstone, SKF President and CEO. “This newest centre will strengthen our global network of technical centres that support each of our key regions. The Naperville, Illinois-based R&D centre will complement our existing technical centre in Plymouth, MI and help drive our growth ambitions for the US market.”
Over the past five years investments of over $2.5 billion have been made by SKF in the United States, both by building new facilities and the acquisition of the lubrication company Lincoln Industrial and most recently Kaydon Corporation.
“The GTCA will bring world-class SKF knowledge and experience closer to our customers in order to increase the speed of delivering new products and solutions to market,” stated Poul Jeppesen, President of SKF USA Inc. “Our engineers will be working more closely with our customers in order to solve tomorrow’s engineering problems today, tackling challenges from energy efficiency to reliability and increased productivity. GTCA will also strengthen our connections to the excellent university research work in North America.”
