Testimonial Canamétal

Canamétal – Steel fabricator

Canamétal is part of Canam Group Inc., the largest fabricator of steel components in North America. Founded in 1961, then named Chesseboeuf, was a small company focused on agricultural buildings. After this, the company expanded which led to different names and different shareholders. In the seventies a new owner arrived and wanted to penetrate bigger markets, like industrial building and shopping centers. The company moved to Niort and the company name was changed into Sévrienne de Construction Métallique (SCM). During approximately twenty years the company had grown in production and turnover. Then, in the nineteens the owner wanted to sell the company and this was when Canam Group Inc. arrived. They wanted to expand their business to Europe so they bought 100% of company share. Then the company became Canamétal.

The choice for Voortman

Canam has built its reputation because of its reliability and its capacity to build significant projects. By then Voortman was the only supplier to fulfill Canamétal’s needs and requirements in terms of automation and fast processing time. The local presence of the Voortman technical and sales subsidiary in Nantes was also a big plus.

Some of Canam’s major partners recommended Voortman. Because the technical description was very strict, Voortman was the only company capable to fulfill 100% of the requirements. On automation and fast movements inside the machine Voortman is leading compared to other suppliers. Next to this, Voortman Customer Services has a good reputation in France. Just because of their local presence Voortman can respond immediately to requests.

The optimal layout

Voortman spend a lot of time and energy in coming up with the perfect solution, tailor made to perfect fit Canam’s needs and desires. Canamétal chose to combine two saw/drill lines, while in the beginning they thought about going for one big line. After Voortman made several layouts, it showed that there will be a bottleneck with one big line. So the decision was to go for two lines. Another advantage of Voortman is the high production capacity of their machines. Canamétal wanted to grow turnover from 15 to 20 million euros within several years. This means that Canam’s capacity also had to increase from 800 tons/month today to 1.200-1.500 tons/month in the future.