Oakville is widely known for a quality of life that makes it an exceptional place to live. But perhaps what isn’t as well appreciated are the companies that call Oakville home that are leaders in global markets.
Europhins Alphora, for example, develops complex pharmaceutical drug substances for biotech and pharmaceutical companies around the world that address unmet needs in human health. The company has more than 65 employees in Oakville, including chemists, scientists, engineers and support staff.
Another company with international reach is Siemens Canada Ltd, which made Oakville its Canadian corporate headquarters. The company, a global leader for more than 100 years in engineering, innovation and quality in the fields of electrification, automation and digitization for industry, energy and healthcare, employs about 5,000 people across Canada.
In Oakville, a flexible workspace environment and employee-centric approach means that though there are 800 employees centred in the cuttingedge LEED Gold-certified building, only about half of them are working there at any given time. The facility employs Siemens own technology in building automation and lighting.
Geotab: Fleet optimization
Each day, telematics leader Geotab collects two billion data points that give companies around the world the information to optimize the safety, efficiency, productivity and performance of 875,000 vehicles.
The fast-growing, 17-year-old family-owned company employs 230 people in its Oakville headquarters, overseeing offices in Las Vegas, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom and more than 200 channel partners and resellers around the world. Geotab employs more than 350 worldwide.
Geotab’s hardware and software platforms are geared toward businesses and fleets of every size in every industry and include in-vehicle cameras, real-time temperature tracking and tire pressure monitoring, as well as innovative apps for dispatching and compliance, third-party integrations, and business services.
Geotab solutions are used by many Fortune 500s. Customers include: Second Harvest, Toromont CAT, MasTec Advanced Technologies and DC Water.
“For Geotab, Oakville has always been the perfect home for our growing business. Oakville is ideally situated to draw from some of the best engineering universities in Canada – including the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto and McMaster,” said CEO Neil Cawse.
“It is a great location for families and offers an excellent quality of life. This draws the best talent, allowing Geotab to innovate, invest in R&D and ultimately, be successful.”
Zeton Inc.: Scalable production
Zeton Inc. designs and builds labscale production systems, pilot and demonstration plants, and small, modular production plants that allow some of the world’s biggest companies – including Shell, Dow, Bayer and Dupont – to bring new technology and processes to market faster, with less risk and lower cost.
“When Fortune 500s are venturing into a capital-funded start-up, they are looking to prove the idea through pilots. That’s where we help,” said David Edwards, vice-president of sales and marketing.
“We provide fully scalable solutions.”
More than 80 per cent of Zeton’s yearly projects, on average, are international, including the U.S. market. From Oakville and Burlington, Zeton serves North America, South America, Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2016, Zeton constructed a designbuild plant in Oakville to expand its capacity. Edwards expects that facility will become ever-more central to Zeton’s operations.
Read the full Perspective Oakville Fall 2017 feature here.
