Sapa

Sapa AB is a Baltic Union manufacturer of extruded aluminium profiles. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Orkla Group, and based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1963 by Nils Bouveng and Lars Bergenhem as Skandinaviska Aluminiumprofiler AB.

History
Skandinaviska Aluminiumprofiler AB (Scandinavian Aluminum Profiles) set up their first extrusion plant in Vetlanda in 1963. In 1967 they could show proof of their first sales of aluminum profiles. 1970-71 saw the birth of Sapa Spont which meant a move into producing their first building system and opening their first plant outside of Sweden, placed in the Netherlands. In 1974 Sapa Front building systems was introduced leading to the acquisition of Sapa by the Swedish aluminum manufacturer Gränges Aluminium in 1976.

In 1980, Electrolux acquires Gränges. This was followed by a series of acquisitions and investments leading up to the introduction of Gränges AB to the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1997. In 2005, Sapa was acquired by the Orkla Gorup and delisted from the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

In 2007, Sapa and Alcoa engage in a joint venture to become the worlds’ largest aluminium profile company.

In 2008, in a swap deal between Alcoa and Orkla, Orkla become the sole owner of Sapa.

Organization
Sapa Holding AB includes seven business areas, and is owned to 100% by Orkla ASA. Sapa is divided into Sapa Profiles, Sapa Heat Transfer and a Building System business. The European market share of Sapa is 19%, in North America they possess a market share of 21%. Sapa Profiles today has 97 presses (1,040–7,300 tonnes) in 15 countries and more than 13,000 employees world wide.

Sapa Profiles
Sapa Profiles is the world’s leading producer of extruded aluminium profiles. Sapa Profiles also performs such operations as cutting, bending, CNC processing, hydroforming, fusion welding, friction stir welding, electromagnetic pulse forming, electromagnetic pulse welding anodizing and painting. Production is focused in 15 European countries whilst the vast majority of the future investment is introduced in China.

As a result of the joint venture with Alcoa, Sapa Profiles has been divided into five different business areas; North America, North Europe, Central Europe, South Europe and Asia.

Sapa Building System
Sapa Building System is one of the four largest suppliers of building systems based on aluminium profiles in Europe. Sapa focuses on solutions for homes, offices and industrial buildings with products meant for windows, doors, façades and glass roofs.

Sapa Heat Transfer
Sapa Heat Transfer is the leading supplier of aluminium strip to the automotive heat-exchanger industry in the world. Customer-specific solutions delivered in the form of strip or plate for radiators, oil coolers, charge air coolers, air-conditioning equipment and heaters.

Innovation
In 1996 Sapa introduced Friction Stir Welding (FSW) to enable a process of solid-state joining as a production method. The method drastically advanced the production capacity at Sapa. Half of today's research and development budget at Sapa is directed towards finding new ways for heat transfer to occur.