Baldor Electric Company

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This article is about the Electric motor manufacturer. For other uses, see Baldor (disambiguation).

Baldor Electric Co.

Type	Public (NYSE: BEZ)
Founded	St. Louis, Missouri (1920)
Headquarters	Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States
Key people	John A. McFarland, Chairman & CEO Ronald E. Tucker, President, CFO & Secretary Randall P. Breaux, V.P. - Marketing
Industry	Manufacturing
Products	Electric motors Industrial automation Generators
Revenue	▲$721.6 Million USD (2005)
Net income	▲$43.0 Million USD (2005)
Employees	3800 (2005)
Website	www.baldor.com

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

1 History
2 Products
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Baldor Electric was founded in 1920 by Edwin Ballman and Emil Doerr. The name of the company was derived using part of each of their names. In 1967 the 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.

Presently, Baldor customers can gain access to their account information, including stock checks, placing and checking existing orders, and managing their accounting information via / 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.