Progress MN: Uponor North America

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Business: Provides plumbing, fire safety, and radiant heating and cooling products to residential and commercial customers

Based: 5925 148th St. W., Apple Valley

Founded: 1984

President of Uponor North America: Bill Gray

Employees: 513 in Minnesota

Economic impact: Uponor NA has added 100 jobs in Minnesota in 2013 alone and grown its revenue to $228 million in 2013, up from $189 million in 2011.

Website: www.uponor-usa.com

The last few years haven’t been easy for construction suppliers. But a modest recovery and a diligent sales effort have kept Uponor North America growing.

Uponor North America is a division of Finnish company Uponor. It manufactures plumbing, fire safety, and radiant heating and cooling products.

Bill Gray, Uponor North America’s president, explains that since customers could go to Home Depot or other retail outlets for products like theirs, the company competes by offering technology or design services, training, and other added value.

They rely on a direct sales force and manufacturers’ representatives. “We have reps in all regions of North America who create relationships with contractors for more pull in the channel,” Gray said.

The strategy and a recovery in commercial and residential construction have given Uponor a boost. Its Minnesota workforce of 394 in 2011 grew to 472 in 2012 and 513 in 2013. Its revenue rose from $189 million in 2011 to $219 million in 2012 and $228 million in 2013. Of the employees added in 2013, 60 were for production capacity.

Uponor also completed a $15 million, 17,500-square-foot expansion of an existing manufacturing space in Apple Valley last year and a 3,000-square-foot employee space that included a break room, showers and other amenities. The company’s total space now comes to 230,000 square feet.

“Commercial and residential construction have been recovering since 2011, and we needed to add capacity, especially for our commercial products,” Gray said.

Last year, Uponor set up a wholly-owned subsidiary called Uponor Innovations. Its function is to sift through the business and product ideas that people approach Uponor with and decide whether they’re commercially viable — and how Uponor could partner with them.

“People have come to us in the past with new product or business ideas, but nobody was focused on taking those leads and trying to vet or prioritize them,” Gray said. The goal is to enter into partnerships where Uponor can offer channels, distribution, management expertise or other advantages.

Between adding new jobs, growing revenue and supporting innovation, Uponor is definitely making progress.