While today, Gullco International has locations in six countries and distributors in more than 80, selling cutting-edge welding and cutting automation products, the company’s origins are much more modest. When Jack Gully started the company, as The Gully Company, it sold welding electrode ovens. When Mike Harris and his business partner purchased the Gully Company in 1954, they changed the name to Gullco and set the company on the path it still travels today.
“At the time, there was the emerging ship building industry and Canada needed some form of welding automation to help with ship building,” says Nick Drake, marketing manager at Gullco.
Harris designed the original carriage, which can still be seen in the designs today. Those strides toward automation shaped the company and are especially relevant in today’s business climate.
“As welding has moved offshore to places like China and India, we’ve had to, as an industry, improve our productivity to be able to compete,” says Drake. “You need to be able to improve your productivity as a big evolution in the industry has been toward automation.”
Gullco has steadily grown and evolved since 1954. Today, the company has more than 100 employees worldwide.
“The company has grown and moved every seven years,” says Drake. “As sales improved and different products were added to the product line, Gullco moved from Toronto to where we are now in Newmarket in 2007. We have added 30,000 sq. ft. to our facility in the last seven years as well.”
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