Chances are you’ve used a Fortive product and you didn’t even know it.
Stop at a convenience store, get a tire changed or drink a glass a milk.
One of the companies owned by Fortive could very well have made the gas pumps at the store, the wheel balancer at the shop or the sensor that made sure your milk was safe to consume.
Fortive is the new Fortune 500-level company that opened its corporate headquarters in Everett last month. Few of the companies owned by Fortive are household names, but they all make products that directly or indirectly have a big impact on modern life.
Fortive, which is trading on the New York Stock exchange under the ticker symbol FTV, is a spin-off from industrial giant Danaher, a Washington, D.C.-based company that has grown into one of the world’s biggest businesses by acquiring smaller companies.
Danaher made the decision to break into two companies last year after a $13.8 billion merger with the Pall Corp.
Fortive — the name is derived from the Latin root ‘fort’ which means strong — kept the businesses involved in industrial technologies and test and measurements. Danaher retained companies focused on life sciences, health and dental.
“The strategic rationale was that Danaher was going down the path of a different business model,” said Jim Lico, Fortive’s president and CEO, in an interview last month.
“We often referred to it as razor-razor blades. You sell an instrument and then a set of consumables over time. If you look at all the businesses in Danaher, they all look like that.”
Fortive’s businesses build products that are generally bought a single time.
“The opportunity to create Fortive as this industrial growth company focused on instruments, components and equipment, we think was a unique opportunity.” Lico said.
In the split, Fortive brought along 25 companies that employ 24,000 people worldwide and did $6.2 billion worth of business last year, enough revenue to rank the new company among the largest in the nation as well as one of the biggest in the state. Fortive’s companies include Everett’s Fluke Corp.
Fortive established its corporate offices at Fluke’s campus at 6920 Seaway Blvd. Lico, along with one of Fortive’s senior vice presidents, Barbara Hulit, are former presidents at Fluke.
The move is seen as a boon for Everett.
Although the headquarters only brings a small number of jobs — just more than 50 — attracting a Fortune-500 level company brings a cachet to Snohomish County, said John Monroe, Economic Alliance Snohomish County’s chief operations officer.
“It has to help us in the future recruit other Fortune 500 companies or get in the running for a Fortune 800 company,” Monroe said. “These guys know what they’re doing and they go through an evaluation and make a decision to establish a facility on a site.
“They’ve done their business work. They’ve done their due diligence.”
Fortive is also opening its in-house training and leadership courses — what it calls the Fortive Business System University — at the Fluke campus.
Employees from around the world will travel to Everett to learn at the Fortive offices.
Fortive will follow in Danaher’s footsteps in important ways. For one, Fortive won’t put its brand on any of the products under its umbrella. It will let its own businesses stand on the reputations they build in their fields.
And Fortive, like Danaher, expects to grow. Fortive says in its report to investors that it has a bias toward mergers and acquisition.
“One of the things that gets investors interested in Fortive is the fact that we have a strong dedication to growth both in an organic way and inorganic way through acquisitions,” Lico said.
To that effect, Fortive brings a wealth of experience and expertise.
Fortive’s senior managers, who are veterans of Danaher, have made more than 200 acquisitions, according to Bloomberg News.
The spinoff has the power to make $3 billion of acquisitions over the next two or three years, Lico said.
Still growing for growth’s sake is not the goal, Lico said.
“I’m always focused on building a better company not a bigger company,” Lico said. “I think Danaher has gotten bigger from a dedication and commitment for being better.”
Here are some of the bigger companies under the Fortive umbrella:
Anderson-Negele
Headquarters: Fultonville, New York (European headquarters: Egg an der Günz, Germany)
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: www.anderson-negele.com/
Anderson-Negele is a global instrumentation company that provides hygienic instrumentation and services for food, beverage and life sciences processors. Founded in 1930, the Anderson Instrument Company repaired and then later made chart recorders for pasteurization of milk. In 2004, Anderson joined with Germany-based Negele Messtechnik GmbH.
Anderson-Negele focuses on sanitary solutions that fulfills its role as a guardian of safe food, beverage and life sciences processing.
Fluke
Headquarters: Everett
Employees: 2,400
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: www.fluke.com/
Fluke manufactures, distributes and services electronic test tools and software. Since its founding in 1948, Fluke has provided testing and troubleshooting in manufacturing and service industries. Typical customers and users include technicians, engineers, metrologists, medical-device manufacturers, and computer network professionals. Fluke has achieved the No. 1 or No. 2 position in every market in which it competes. Fluke Corporation has authorized distributor and manufacturer representatives in more than 100 countries.
Gems Sensors & Control
Headquarters: Plainville Connecticut
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: www.gemssensors.com/
Gems founder Edward H. Moore developed a level indicator in his basement in 1955 and patented it in 1959. Gems designs and manufactures a broad portfolio of liquid level, flow switches and pressure switches, sensors and transducers, miniature solenoid valves and pre-assembled fluidic systems.
Research and development teams simulate actual application environments. Each fluidic component and sub-assembly is individually designed and pre-tested for specific applications from liquid to pneumatic, cryogenic to high temperature or vacuum to high-pressure systems.
Gilbarco Veeder-Root
Headquarters: Greensboro, North Carolina
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.gilbarco.com/us/
Gilbarco Veeder-Root is producer of technology for retail petroleum and commercial fueling industries.
The company works with 19 of the top 20 convenience store operators in the U.S., providing gas pumps, point of sale and operation management systems for convenience stores from the forecourt — where the pumps are located — to the store.
Hennessy Industries
Headquarters: LaVergne, Tennessee
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.hennessyind.com/
Hennessy Industries produces aftermarket wheel-service equipment, including tire changers, balancer, weights and brakes lathes.
Hennessy designs, builds and markets equipment, accessories and consumables under brand names: Ammco, Coats and Bada. Ammco has been manufacturing brake lathes since 1922.
In 1947, Gil Coats first designed a wheel holder for changing tractor tires in his farm-implement business.
For more than 50 years, Bada has provided selections of wheel weights, and is leading the transitioning from lead to environmentally friendly alternative, steel.
Invetech
Headquarters: Mount Waverly, Australia
Employees: 300
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: www.invetech.com.au/
Invetech makes products and custom automation systems for a broad range of market sectors, including laboratory diagnostics, point-of-care diagnostics, cell therapy, life sciences, industrial and consumer products.
Its staff of more than 300, with expertise in innovative design, engineering and manufacturing, aim to deliver products that are practical and marketable.
Jacobs Vehicle Systems
Headquarters: Bloomfield, Connecticut
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.jacobsvehiclesystems.com/
Jacobs Vehicle Systems has been in the engine braking industry in the United States for more than 50 years.
Jacobs says it provides the high-quality, high-performance, reliable engine retarders — devices used to augment or replace some of the functions of primary friction-based brakes, usually on heavy vehicles, especially going downhill.
Jacobs touts itself as the industry leader in new engine retarding and engine valve actuation developments.
Kollmorgen
Headquarters: Radford, Virginia
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.kollmorgen.com/en-us/home/
Kollmorgen is a provider of motion systems and components for machine builders around the globe with more than 70 years of motion control design and application expertise. The companies motors, drives and controls can be found on Mars and in space; ships and submarines; oil and gas drilling; surgical robots and laser eye surgery; even inside of artificial hearts.
Matco Tools
Headquarters: Stow, Ohio
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.matcotools.com/
Matco Tools manufactures and distributes automotive repair tools, diagnostic equipment and toolboxes. The company, which started in 1946, has a product line that numbers more than 13,000 items. Matco distributors operate in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Pacific Scientific EMC
Headquarters: Chandler, Arizona
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: https://psemc.com/
Pacific Scientific EMC builds pyrotechnic and safety devices or electronic and laser ordnance firing systems for commercial and military aircraft. Established in 1975, the company’s products range from fire extinguishing to parachute deployment.
Portescap
Headquarters: West Chester, Pennsylvania
Segment: Indutrial technologies
Website: www.portescap.com/
Portescap builds motors for a variety of industries including medical devices. The company has more than 70 years of experience “providing motion solutions to put precise power in the smallest places.” The company partners with customers across the globe in every phase of their product design — from selecting an optimal motion solution to customizing products to meet their customer’s application needs.
Qualitrol
Headquarters: Fairport, New York
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: n/a
Established in 1945, Qualitrol is a leading supplier of protection instruments used on transformers, an electrical device that transfers electricity between two or more circuits through electromagnetic induction. The company’s products include oil and winding thermometers, pressure relief and pressure monitors, fiber optic direct winding temperature measurement, electronic transformer monitors and liquid level gauges.
Setra Systems
Headquarters:Boxborough, Massachusetts
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: www.setra.com/
Founded in 1967, Setra Systems is a leading designer and manufacturer of pressure, acceleration, and weight-sensing devices. Setra has devoted its engineering and research efforts to the development of transducers and systems based on the highly accurate variable capacitive transduction principle.
Tektronix
Headquarters: Beaverton, Oregon
Segment: Professional instrumentation
Website: www.tek.com/
Tektronix has been around for 65 years. The company supports scientists, engineers and technicians around the world by manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and video and mobile test protocol equipment. It’s equipment is used in health, communication, mobility and space.
Teletrac Navman
Headquarters: Glenview, Illinois
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.teletracnavman.com/
Teletrac Navman equips businesses with advanced data tools for location tracking, fuel monitoring, reporting, safety and compliance — all via one platform. Teletrac Navman currently tracks more than 500,000 vehicles owned by over 40,000 organizations on six continents, making it one of the world’s largest fleet management providers. The company has offices in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
Thomson
Headquarters: Radford, Virginia
Segment: Industrial technologies
Website: www.thomsonlinear.com
Thomson invented anti-friction linear technology more than 60 years ago. The company’s products range from linear bearings to actuators to clutches and brakes. The products are distributed by more than 2,000 businesses around the world.
Source: Fortive
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