Atlas Copco, a Swedish company with Rock Hill ties, celebrates 150 years in business
Company officials joked Tuesday that Atlas Copco may be the biggest employer around, that no one knows. Business leaders, though, know the Rock Hill company well.
“They’re invested in Rock Hill like we wish everyone would invest in Rock Hill,” said Mayor John Gettys. “They’ve been doing it for generations.”
Atlas Copco operates in close more than 180 countries. The Swedish company has about 6,000 employees in the U.S. and almost 50,000 around the world. The company with about $13 billion in sales last year works in a variety of industries related to manufacturing. This month, the company celebrates 150 years in business.
Its compressed air and gas headquarters moved five years ago to the Lowenstein Building, part of the major redevelopment of the city’s core that once employed mill workers. Atlas Copco also has a mobile air, pumps, power and light facility on Paragon Way, near I-77. About 100 employees work for Atlas Copco at the Lowenstein. In all, the company has about 1,000 employees in the Rock Hill and Charlotte region.
The company recently signed another five-year lease extension in Rock Hill. Gettys recalls one of his first activities as mayor, in celebration of the 2018 move to Lowenstein with a ribbon cutting.
“That was the next chapter in a long history of Atlas Copco in Rock Hill,” Gettys said.
The company started with a 1997 move of its Chicago Pneumatic brand to Waterford Business Park. The company grew and moved its compressor functions to a new facility near Riverwalk. Investment in Rock Hill, Gettys said, dates back three decades to some of the earliest days of the city’s investment in Tech Park, Waterford and business sites aimed at determining the type of city Rock Hill wanted to become.
As part of the 150 year celebration, Atlas Copco officials will join leaders from other long-time companies in New York on Feb. 21 to open the NASDAQ stock exchange. More than half a dozen area employees with 25 or more years experience, regardless of management level, will be there to participate.
Robert Eshelman, president and General Manager of Atlas Copco Compressors, told members of the Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation on Tuesday why his company isn’t necessarily a household name.
“We’re all pretty much business to business,” Eshelman said.
Consumers don’t typically see the Atlas Copco name on store shelves. Yet company industrial products are used to create many of the items, up to roads and cars, that consumers use.
“Virtually every manufacturing plant has compressor system,” Eshelman said. “We sell the machines that compress the air.”
More than a quarter of the company’s global business happens in North America. Products are made in this country and in Europe. The company has about 60 brands.
Paul Humphreys, company vice president of communications for North America, said the reason Atlas Copco remains in business after 150 years is the right mix of stability and change. There have only been a dozen CEOs and three major name changes. About 80% of management, Humphreys said, comes from internal promotion.
Yet leadership at the smaller company levels changes out every three to five years. Investment in research and development means a consistent inventory of new and advanced products.
“New product development is everything,” Humphreys said.
Humphreys came to the area 15 years ago, and sees the Rock Hill and Charlotte region as another mix both of stability and change. The Lowenstein offices are part of a new, vibrant work area far different from the expanse of dilapidated mills a decade or more ago. One of the earlier Atlas Copco sites in Rock Hill will house the next big job expansion, announced just this week with the 400-plus job addition of Pallidus.
For Atlas Copco, the Rock Hill and Charlotte area has been a great place to do business. This area provides workers in distribution, manufacturing, marketing, sales and finance.
“Really this area does everything across the U.S.,” Humphreys said.
“Literally every job and every skill we need and we use in this area.”
