KOMET Canada and Castelar Tool celebrate shared location

Both companies believe there is plenty of room for growth in the Canadian market.

Cutting the ribbon: Renato Evola (left) and Joseph Tabri

Cutting the ribbon: Renato Evola (left) and Joseph Tabri

In the fall of 2013 Castelar Tool of Mississauga, Ontario became the first Canadian member of the unique KOMET SERVICE partner network, and now Castelar and KOMET Canada have further enhanced that relationship by moving into a shared location. To celebrate, on April 15th the companies held a joint grand opening event to show off their new space.

Together Castelar and Komet Canada now share a fresh 24,000-sq. ft. facility minutes from Toronto’s Pearson airport with a production area, warehousing and office space with meeting and training rooms.

Customers, colleagues, KOMET America executives and Komet Service partners from across the U.S. were all in attendance at the grand opening event, which included an official ribbon cutting.

“The fact that KOMET Canada and us now share the same roof really accentuates our commitment to working together and to develop this marketplace in a more concise way, and a way that we can benefit from each other’s expertise,” said Renato Evola, owner and president of Castelar Tool, whose father started the cutting tool manufacturing and grinding company 43 years ago.

“We are definitely two separate companies working together to bring stronger benefits to our customers, elevating service levels, more expertise, and more speed to market,” said Joseph Tabri, president of KOMET of Canada Tooling Solutions.

Castelar is currently the only Canadian partner in the KOMET SERVICE Partner program, a concept the German-based cutting tool company launched in Europe in 2009 and imported to North America three years ago. Today there are 30 partners globally, 20 in Europe and 10 in North America.

The concept has KOMET partnering with quality-oriented local shops that will service and support Komet cutting tool customers with sharpening, modifications and manufacturing of KOMET geometry specials.

[gallery type="slideshow" link="none" size="large" ids="109943,109944"]

“We’ve retained our independence and continue to service and manufacture the same tools we made before and our own geometry specials, but now as a service partner we have the benefits of KOMET being able to integrate the proven KOMET geometries into our tools as well as work our magic on their tools,” said Evola.

KOMET of American president and CEO Jan Pflugfelder, commenting on the bright and fresh interior of the new production floor, cited the new facility as a “benchmark” for KOMET service partner locations. It’s the first location where the company is sharing a building with a service partner.

Castelar installed its first CNC tool grinder in 1989, and on its production floor the company has multiple five-axis CNC tool grinders, a wire EDM cutter, and a CNC mill. In addition to acknowledging Castelar’s technology Evola made a point of celebrating his staff, a group with an average of 18 years of service—a fact he was proud to share.

Both Evola and Tabri believe there is plenty of room for growth for both of their companies in the Canadian market.