ProAll International Manufacturing: A small town company with global reach

ProAll International Vice President of Sales and Marketing Andrew Coates of The Canadian Business Quarterly

Based in Olds, Alberta,  ProAll International Manufacturing produces mobile concrete mixers with the aim of creating a simpler, more eco-friendly way to pour concrete, taking long waiting times out of the equation.

Before being named Vice President of Sales and Marketing at ProAll International Manufacturing in March 2020, Andrew Coates held roles in the company as a National Sales Manager, and spent 2 years as the General Manager of ProAll USA in Fort Worth, Texas. Driven by a passion for business and people, Mr Coates takes pride in the success of the organization and the people he works with. Mr Coates spoke recently about the company’s half a century of service, the impressive technology that powers its products, and the benefits of being a small town company with global reach.

Volumetric concrete mixers

“We are a manufacturer of volumetric concrete mixers,” Mr Coates says, “which are essentially concrete mixers that batch concrete right onsite, so all the materials are stored separately – stones, water and cement powder – and then mixed onsite, as opposed to the traditional drum mixers which bring the concrete already blended.”

The company has a fairly diverse group of clients, with concrete being used anywhere from pool building to skyscrapers and backyard DIY projects for homeowners. The company’s niche tends to focus on smaller jobs.

“[We’ve] been around for 50 years. We were Reimer Alliance, and then merged with our steel manufacturer, Project Industries, back in 2013, and became ProAll. Currently, we’re about 130 employees, which is a pretty big uptick – last year at this time we were about 85. We’ve seen quite a bit of growth in the last year or so.”

Web 3 - Proall International Manufacturing feature in The Canadian Business Quarterly
Based in Olds, Alberta, ProAll International Manufacturing produces mobile concrete mixers with the aim of creating a simpler, more eco-friendly way to pour concrete, taking long waiting times out of the equation

ProAll manufactures everything in its facility on a 10-acre property in Olds, Alberta, from raw steel to the finished project. However, with a reach much further than Canada, the market in Alberta is less than 2% of company sales.

“In the North American market, less than a fraction of a percentage of concrete is poured with a volumetric mixer,” Mr Coates explains. “That number is obviously growing, but over in the UK about 10% of all concrete is poured with this type of equipment.”

This means there is a lot of room and potential for growth in the North American market. Fulfilling this growth will rely on the acceptance of the technology in the market, the hope being that companies will recognize the benefits over traditional drum mixers.

“We’ve been around for fifty years, but I’ve only seen some real explosive growth here recently. Although we’re an international company, we do sell all over the world, but the bulk of our sales come from the UK, where it’s a big market, and North America.”

One of the main differentiators between ProAll and its competitors lies in the technology that the company has put into the mixers, which allows for more consistency in the way concrete is mixed.

“Concrete is a lot more technical than people realize, and there are chemicals that are added. With technology being added that means that we can eliminate operator error and we can have more consistent mixes and know what we’re pouring. That’s really helped us stand apart from some of our competitors still using manual operations.”

The industry has seen a lot of growth in areas that the public would know about, such as the 5G network, which in North America is being laid in micro trenches that are covered by a fast-setting concrete to make it easy to remove.

With its global reach and impressive technology, ProAll is truly changing the game in mobile concrete mixing

“It’s always been done for utility lines, but growing this 5G network is something that’s happening very quickly and a lot of dollars are being spent on it. We have a few customers in the US who have contracts with Google to do this work, and they’ve been purchasing our equipment for that use. So that’s a game-changer.”

There are pros and cons to doing business in a small town, but ProAll takes a lot of pride in building a product that is used everywhere from Australia to the Philippines to Africa, as well as all across Canada.

“Being a small town company here in Olds,” Mr Coates concludes, “with a population of about 10k – being able to have that reach is a pretty neat thing, and something that we’re all pretty proud of here at ProAll.”

With its global reach and impressive technology, ProAll is truly changing the game in mobile concrete mixing. Find out more about ProAll International Manufacturing by visiting proallinc.com

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