The Multinational ABB, a specialist in electricity equipment and technologies, is launching an estimated $ 130 million project to acquire a new development and manufacturing center which will be located in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, on the southern outskirts of the Montreal metropolitan region.
With this investment, ABB wants to relocate the activities and the workforce that are shared between its two aging factories which are located in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, on both sides of the Richelieu river.
This grouping of activities will take place in a new building with an area of 340,000 square feet, or a third (or 33 %) more than the total area of the two current factories.
This new site for the development and production of electrical equipment, the opening of which is planned in two years, in the summer of 2027, will be equipped with advanced technologies in automated and digital control.
Also, the new building will be provided with advanced energy efficient equipment which, according to ABB, could reduce by almost 95 % the energy consumption and the carbon emissions of its two existing installations in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
According to ABB’s management in Canada, this new development and manufacturing installation of electrical equipment will allow it to “meet growing demand in key sectors such as public services, renewable energies, transport, residential projects and infrastructure projects throughout Canada”.
Thus, according to ABB, this new industrial activity site grouped will allow the “support” of the 600 existing jobs in its current establishments in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The company also anticipates the creation of positions which will be necessary “as the addition of new product ranges and the increase in production in the future”.
This project, described by ABB as its “greatest investment in Canada to date”, has reduced costs of reduced costs of 16 million from the company of the Crown Investissement Quebec.
Image provided by Abb Canada
The future center for the development and production of electrical equipment from the Multinational ABB in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, an investment estimated at $ 130 million
According to Khalid Mandri, president of the Division of Electrical Installation Products at ABB, this investment of 130 million in new RD and production facilities “will support our future growth in Canada, while demand continues to grow in the fields of the sustainability of networks, energy distribution, renewable energies, as well as in transportation, buildings and infrastructure projects”.
As an example, ABB is the main supplier of electrical equipment in the new Light Train REP system in the Montreal region.
Also, according to Khalid Mandri, “with recent investments made by ABB in the United States and Europe, the opening of this new site [à Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu] will be a key element in our global growth strategy ”.
According to information provided by ABB, this multinational Swiss origin has invested the equivalent of 275 million US (around 375 million CAN) in its Canadian activities for 10 years “to support advanced manufacturing, product innovation and labor development”.
This means that “more than 80 % of the solutions sold in Canada by the ABB installation products division are manufactured or assembled locally, using 70 % of local materials, including 100 % Canadian steel and aluminum”.
ABB and BREF
- Activity sectors: electrical equipment (distribution, motorization), industrial automation
- Canadian Headquarters: Montreal (Arrondissement de Saint-Laurent)
- Canadian workforce: approximately 3,200 employees from 33 business locations, including 15 factories
- Origin: descendant of the high voltage transformers factory established in 1970 in Varennes by the BBC company, which merged with ASEA in 1988 to become ABB
- World Headquarters: Zurich (Switzerland)
- Global workforce: 109,000 employees among 459 business sites in 84 countries
- Global turnover: US 32.8 billion (approx. 44 billion CAN)
- Capitalization Market (Zurich): approx. 120 billion US
