Normet appoints new CEO to continue growth 06 Jun 2019

The Normet Board of Directors has appointed Ed Santamaria as the new President and CEO of the Normet Group, taking over from interim President and CEO, Aaro Cantell. Santamaria will be based in the Normet Espoo office in Finland and will start in his new role in November at the latest.

Ed Santamaria

Santamaria is an Australian citizen and brings to the position a wealth of experience of the mining industry and from his current role as President of the Parts and Services Division at Sandvik Mining & Rock Technology. He has spent in total 13 years in different management roles within Sandvik and spent the previous 20 years with SDS Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of drilling equipment, which was acquired by Sandvik in 2006. He is an Australian citizen with an MBA degree. He is married and has two children.

“I am extremely pleased that we have found a new CEO of this high calibre from our own industry sector,” said Cantell, who is also Chairman of the Normet Group. “Ed knows well how to lead people in this kind of a global matrix organisation. He also knows personally many of our customers and their future plans. I believe he can help us find areas to improve our operational efficiency as well as help identify new growth areas.”

“I am excited to join Normet,” said Santamaria. “Joining an entrepreneurial and agile company with a global reach is an opportunity for me. Using my experience and my MBA degree credentials, I can contribute to the further development of the Normet business both within the tunnelling and mining sectors.”

News of the new CEO announcement comes soon after Normet reported a strong year of growth and profitability improvement for fiscal year 2018. Turnover grew by 21% to €315 million and earnings, before depreciations and amortizations (EBITDA), reached €38 million, almost double that of 2017.

The Normet Equipment and Services businesses achieved the strongest growth while the Ground Control and Construction Technology division declined modestly compared to 2017. Profitability improved in all business lines.

Part of the range of new SmartDrive machines

The turnover forecast for year 2019 is estimated to be at last year’s level or slightly better. EBITDA is forecast to be at the 2018 level at 12-14%.

“The outlook for year 2019 is still positive, although the market growth is slowing down,” summarized Aaro Cantell, as interim CEO of the Group. “We are in the process of scanning new growth areas to secure our renewal and future growth. Our aim is to identify and launch two to four of these growth initiatives during this year.”

An important launch for the company this year is the Normet SmartDrive technologies for sustainable and green mining and investments. Another is its investment in expansion of its factory in Iisalmi, Finland.

SmartDrive, is a fully electric offering for mining and tunnelling construction. Launched at the international bauma equipment trade exhibition in Munich, Germany, earlier this year, the fully electric technology on all SmartDrive fully electric battery-operated machines is a sophisticated and fully engineered battery electric architecture operating underground totally emission-free and saving costs at the same time.

With the SmartDrive launch, Normet also introduced its SmartScan 3D laser scanning technology to validate the quality of sprayed concrete and shotcreting quality. SmartSpray is the next step towards fully automated concrete spraying technology. The new offering gives Normet customers a new option for safe, sustainable and productive mining and tunnel excavation.

Investment will expand the factory at Iisalmi

To accommodate the manufacture of the new SmartDrive range of equipment, Normet is investing in its Iisalmi factory to build a new digital testing center, expand the production capability and invest into production automation. Demand for fully-electric as well as diesel-powered machines is expected to grow. The immediate factory expansion investment will be about €4 million and will continue with a next phase. The target is to improve productivity at the Iisalmi facility to ensure both competitiveness and to have manufacturing capacity to support business growth.

“Iisalmi is our main production and global research and development site,” said Kari Hämäläinen, SVP Equipment Business Line. “We want to ensure we have the best technological capabilities and the most advanced offering to strengthen our position as a global technology leader in our business segments. Streamlining the manufacturing process and increasing productivity is also critical to ensure our competitiveness going forward.”

Normet, with its broad offering of underground mining and tunnelling equipment, construction chemicals, rock reinforcement products and services, currently employs more than 1,200 business professionals from its headquarters in Finland to its global operations in more than 50 bases in 30 countries.