Baldor Electric Company

Infobox_Company
company_name = Baldor Electric Co.
company_| company_type = Public (NYSE|BEZ)
foundation = St. Louis, Missouri (1920)
location = Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States
key_people = John A. McFarland, Chairman & CEO
Ronald E. Tucker, President, CFO & Secretary
Randall P. Breaux, V.P. - Marketing
num_employees = 3800 (2005)
revenue = profit$721.6 Million USD (2005)
net_income = profit$43.0 Million USD (2005)
industry = Manufacturing
products = Electric motors
Industrial automation
Generators
homepage = [http://www.baldor.com/ www.baldor.com]

Baldor Electric Company markets, designs, and manufactures industrial electric motors, power transmission products, drives, and generators.

History

Baldor Electric was founded in 1920 by Edwin Ballman and Emil Doerr. Thename of the company was derived using part of each of their names. In 1967the Company's headquarters were moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Baldor became a public company on January 15, 1976. In 1977, Fred Ballman, Chairman and CEO -- and son of founder Edwin Ballman -- appointed the Company's President, Roland S. Boreham, Jr. to the position of CEO. Mr. Boreham, who was the Company's Chairman from 1981 until 2004, passed away on February 5, 2006.

The Company's business guidelines are outlined by R.S. Boreham, Jr., in his book, "The Road Less Traveled: The History of Baldor 1976 - 2000":

"We have chosen to keep our manufacturing in the United States. We have chosen to have an independent sales force. We have chosen to follow our own pricing policies. We have chosen to augment our product lines rather than diversify. We have chosen to respond to economic downturns by maintaining our work force, continuing our research and development, and building inventories so we are ready when times improve. We have chosen to focus equally on our relationships with employees, customers, and shareholders."

Baldor introduced its line of Super-E premium efficient motors in 1983. In creating the Super-E motor, Baldor's goal was to create the most energy efficient motor on the market. In 1985, the white epoxy washdown duty motor line was introduced. In late 1989, Baldor purchased Sweo, allowing it to offer AC vector drives in addition to DC drive products. In the year following, Baldor developed AC vector motors for use with the vector controls.

Also in 1991, Baldor began its extremely successful customer education program, which continues to this day. Classes range from motor basics to intense drive programming and motion product courses. Classes are held at the Company's headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

In 1992, the U.S. government passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992. With this new set of rules, the government could set the minimum efficiency ratings required for AC motors. Baldor successfully met the October 1 1997 deadline. Baldor Standard-E motors meet or exceed EPAct requirements. The line of Standard-E motors was chosen as "Product of the Year" by "Plant Engineering" magazine in 1998.

In 1996 alone, Baldor spent $19.9 million on research and development, correctly assuming that a large portion of future sales would depend on new product development.

In 1999, Baldor unveiled its highly customized computer system, with the help of SAP AG. Nicknamed the "Baldor Unified System" (BUS), the system allows district offices across North America to access to each other's warehouses, corporate engineering data, and customer information. In 2006, Baldor continued its tradition of education by introducing the BUS College, an employee education program focused on educating district office employees on the vast system available to them.

Also in 1999, Baldor received another Product of the Year Award with its new family of mini inverters, the Baldor 15J and 15P, from
Plant Engineering magazine.

Presently, Baldor customers can gain access to their account information, including stock checks, placing and checking existing orders, and managing their accounting information via [http://www.baldorvip.com / BaldorVIP] , an online progam connected to the Baldor BUS computer system.

In 2000, Baldor purchased Pow'R Guard, a generator manufacturer based in Wisconsin. Also in 2000, the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, formally opened the Baldor Technology Center.

Baldor promotes its home-grown Value Formula. The Value Formula was publicly introduced in the 1990 Annual Report and remains a cornerstone of Baldor's customer service today:

V (Value Perceived by the customer) = Quality (Perceived) X Service (Perceived) / (Cost X Time).

Baldor has fifteen manufacturing plants across the U.S., as well as locations around the world (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore & Switzerland). There are forty district sales offices and warehouses located throughout North America.

On November 7, 2006, Baldor Electric initiated a purchase of the Dodge and Reliance Electric brands from Rockwell Automation for 1.8 billion dollars USD. The purchase was officially closed on January 1, 2007, making Baldor the single largest motor manufacturer in the world.

Products

Motors

*DC
*AC Induction
*Grinders / Buffers
*DC Servo
*AC Servo
*Gearmotors
*Linear

Drives

*DC SCR
*AC Inverter
*AC Vector
*Solid state soft starter
*Servo
*Motion control

Generators

*Portable
*Standby

Gear reducers

*Worm

References

*cite web | title=Baldor annual report (2005) | url=http://www.baldor.com/pdf/financial/2005_Annual_Report.pdf | accessdate=May 17 | accessyear=2006

*Boreham, R.S. Jr. (2004). "The Road Less Traveled: The History of Baldor 1976-2000", Fort Smith, AR: Baldor Electric Co. OCLC 64584246

External links

* [http://www.baldor.com/ Baldor Electric Website]

* [http://www.baldorvip.com/ BaldorVIP]

* [http://www.prospec.com/ ProSpec]

* [http://www.baldormotion.com/supportme/ SupportMe]