Gates Industrial Corporation plc
TypePublic company
Founded1911 (1911)
HeadquartersDenver, Colorado, U.S.
Number of employees
15,050 (January 1, 2022)
Websitegates.com
Gates Corporation sign at company headquarters in 1144 Fifteenth, Denver, Colorado

Gates Industrial Corporation plc, based in Denver, Colorado, is a manufacturer of power transmission belts and fluid power products, which are used in diverse industrial and automotive applications.[1] The company employs over 15,000 and has sales and manufacturing operations in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.

History

On October 1, 1911, Charles Gates Sr. purchased the Colorado Tire and Leather Company located in Denver, Colorado beside the South Platte River. Colorado Tire and Leather Company made a single product, the Durable Tread, a steel-studded band of leather that motorists attached to tires to extend their mileage. In 1917, the company began phasing out leather in favor of rubber and Charles Gates changed its name to the International Rubber Company.

That same year, John Gates, Charles's brother, developed a belt made of rubber and woven threading called a V-belt, due to its shape. It replaced the hemp and rope belt used on automobiles and industrial machinery at the time, and was a model for the common serpentine belt. The belt's success propelled the company to become the largest manufacturer of V-belts, a title it still holds.[2]

In 1919, the International Rubber Company changed its name to the Gates Rubber Company. Gates continued its expansion across the United States, opening more factories and hiring thousands of people. Then, in 1954, its first international manufacturing facility was built in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Expansion to other countries followed. In 1958, the company opened Gates Rubber de Mexico. In 1963, Gates built a belt and hose plant in Erembodegem, Belgium, the first of many European facilities.[3]

The former Gates Rubber factory, for many years a Denver landmark, was demolished in 2014.

In the 1980s, Gates expansion continued when the company acquired the Uniroyal Power Transmission Company and became the world's largest synchronous/timing belt manufacturer, firmly establishing its growth path in the Asia-Pacific region.[4]

In 1996, the company was acquired by the British-based engineering firm Tomkins plc, ending 85 years of family ownership.[5] In 2003, Gates changed its name to The Gates Corporation, a move reflecting the company's expanding range of industrial brands, product lines, and customers. The Denver factory closed, and by 2001, some buildings hadn't been used in nearly a decade. Asbestos contaminated the buildings and trichloroethylene in the groundwater was still under remediation in late 2014. While parts of the property had been redeveloped, the original factory remained deserted until November 2013, when demolition of the final factory buildings began. The site was purchased by Denver-based Frontier Renewal in September 2014 with the intention of completing the cleanup preparing it for future development.[6][7]

After an unsolicited approach, in July 2010 Tomkins was acquired by a Canadian consortium of private equity firm Onex Corporation and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for £2.9 billion. In July 2014, The Blackstone Group, the world's largest buyout firm, agreed to acquire The Gates Corporation from Onex Corp. (OCX) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $5.4 billion.[8] In December 2017, Gates Corporation filed an initial public offering and became a public corporation.[9] The company's headquarters are located at 1144 15th Street in Denver, Colorado.[10]

Products, services

Gates designs and manufactures industrial belt, hose and hydraulic products for various industries:

  • Energy, exploration and extraction: Products and services for the energy, marine, mining, oil and gas, and oil refining industries.
  • Infrastructure & Agriculture: Heavy-duty applications, including construction, agriculture, logging, and material handling.
  • Transportation: New build and replacement products for fleet and heavy-duty vehicles, freight, towables, and rail applications.
  • Automotive: OEM automotive aftermarket products for cars, light trucks, and snowmobile, sport, fleet, and heavy-duty vehicles.
  • Bicycles: Carbon belt drives as replacements for bicycle chains.[11]
  • Process and specialty: Hoses and belts for products used in homes, offices, laboratories, food processing plants.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Gates Corporation". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
  2. ↑ "Gates History". Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  3. ↑ "100 Years of Powering Progress" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-20. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  4. ↑ "Uniroyal to Sell Unit to Gates". The New York Times. 1986-05-22. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  5. ↑ Grimond, Magnus (1996-01-31). "Tomkins Finalises Gates Acquisition at Pounds 768m". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  6. ↑ "Denver brownfields developer Frontier Renewal buys former Gates plant". Denver Post. 2014-09-15.
  7. ↑ "Gates: Broadway rubber plant demolition to take a year", Denver Business Journal, 2013, retrieved 2014-04-14
  8. ↑ Banerjee, Devin (2014-04-04). "Blackstone Agrees to Buy Gates Global in $5.4 Billion LBO". Bloomberg.
  9. ↑ Svaldi, Aldo (27 December 2017). "Denver-headquartered Gates Industrial bouncing back with initial public offering". The Denver Post. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  10. ↑ McClung, Kelcey. "From IPO to 6 new floors: Manufacturing firm sets up HQ in new Denver skyscraper". Denver Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  11. ↑ Caitlin Giddings (September 24, 2015). "The Gates Carbon Belt Drive Is Coming for Your Chain". Bicycling. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
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