Tekmar Control Systems and Watts Water employees make meaningful contributions to various community causes
VERNON – 2024 is a milestone year for Tekmar Control Systems and Watts Water.
Tekmar began as a family business manufacturing electronic components in 1984 and is celebrating 40 years in the Vernon market. 12 years ago, the company was purchased by publicly traded Watts Water, which started 150 years ago.
Tekmar manufactures electronic controls in the HVAC industry focused in hydronic heating applications, which are systems that use water to heat the space through either warm floors or convection systems. They also design and manufacture products for other brands within the Watts family.
“We manufacture electronic controls for HVAC applications and specialize in hydronic heating which is heating with water,” notes Greg Leupin, Tekmar General Manager. “We design and manufacture anything that has to do with a boiler/furnace room.”
Michele Niles in Human Resources states “As part of Watts we are all about the stewardship of water and sustainability, and how to use it in a more globally minded way.”
Shivani Khera, who looks after Strategic Marketing for the company, adds “We are the brains. When Michele says we manufacture all these things, we do this with our stand-alone technology, to be the brains of that technology. We make the projects more intelligent, and we are always looking at the future.
Tekmar Control Systems and Watts Water employees make electronic controls for the HVAC industry
“Our expertise is in innovation and engineering, even though we are an electronics company. We are always asking how can we make people’s life easier and better?”
Michele notes that Tekmar’s acquisition by Watts gives the company a global edge.
“Now we have inter-company work for the many different brands of Watts in the European market, China and Dubai. That partnership has allowed us a broader canvas upon which we can get our products out.”
Shivani concurs, adding “it has opened up whole new markets for us, including Europe. We’re working with some of the major brands there. We are market leaders in smart boiler controls, which complement heat pumps, and smart controls.”
Tekmar began in a barn up the street from their current 60,000 square foot location on Silver Star Road, which is home to 102 employees who service clients across North America. The state-of-the-art facility features geo-thermal heating and cooling through water-based technology, and the building entrance utilizes its own, innovative snow melting technology, which means that through coils submerged in the pavement, there is no ice and snow.
“We have created several products over the years,” says Michele. “We have a team of hardware and software engineers and product managers, and we do everything for new product development.
“We listen to the market and come up with products to fit the need, and we build them right here in our facility with state of the art equipment. We create, build and develop products that are ready to go right into the market.”
That includes unique products such as water filtration systems that are central to ballast control systems used in cruise ships, and hydro thermostatic units, amongst many other innovations.
Michele notes that there are many employees who have been with the company for two and three decades.
“I sit on the senior management team, and some of my colleagues have been here for close to 30 years. We have some people in the manufacturing floor that have been here for 25 years,” she states. “We strive for an 11 percent turnover rate in our industry, but my turnover rate is 2 to 3 percent. I don’t even have a metric for turnover within Tekmar.
“The tenure in this team is phenomenal, and I’ve personally never experienced that type of culture and legacy. Some of our employees came to work for us and met partners here and got married and are still here,” she adds. “Most of the people in this company have grown up together. They know the culture and what we stand for, and happy employees build happy customers.”
Business Examiner Staff