Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions has finalised plans to open a nearly 40,000 square-foot facility to support its customers in Western Canada with local parts storage, a workshop for components, and customer service support. The brand new facility in its Canadian network is located in the Campbell Heights business park area of Surrey, British Columbia. Construction of the facility is already underway and is expected to be fully operational in 2022.

According to Jandre Vissser, Logistics Manager for Sandvik parts and services, the addition of the new facility is well-timed. “With supply chain constraints being experienced in all industries across the world, lead times have become longer and less predictable,” he says. “In order to mitigate this risk to our customers we are investing in inventory closer to the operations and introducing additional stock into the network.”

The facility is situated close to the Vancouver International Airport, port and major highways. The majority of the facility will consist of a large parts warehouse that will serve as a local hub for Sandvik’s aftermarket logistics group, as well as a component workshop, office space, meeting facilities, customer service centre, and training facility. The strategic expansion of Sandvik’s network in Canada is expected to improve parts delivery times for customers in the region.

Peter Corcoran, Vice President for Sandvik Canada, says the facility is the first step in a more comprehensive evaluation of Sandvik’s network across Canada. “The industry is changing and we need to be agile and change along with it,” he says. “With this new facility we are taking a long term perspective and taking action today to establish our presence in the West to be able to support our customers with their incorporation of electrification, automation, data & analytics and end-to-end optimisation in their mines.”