1910's
1910
Merritt Pond started the Advance Machine Shop. The business repaired
equipment for the grain milling industry in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the site
was a little wooden building with a dirt floor located at 2613 Southeast Fourth
Street, not far from the mills.
1920's
1922
The shop began repairing terrazzo grinding machines for the terrazzo floor
industry. A year later it was understood that if the Company was to grow, it
needed to manufacture a product to sell.
1924
Advance's first product, a terrazzo grinder, was being demonstrated to
contractors throughout the United States.
1928
Advance first started making floor scrubbers and polishers on a private
label basis.
1930's
1930
Advance began making the “new” Lowboy™ floor machines (called Lowboy
because it could reach under desks and furniture). By then Advance terrazzo
machines were the standard of the industry, and the business was well enough
established to survive the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
1940's
1941
Advance put its efforts into helping the American cause in World War II
by making parts for B-17 bombsights.
1948
After the War (in 1948) Advance had twelve people on the payroll.
1949The Speedboy Deluxe™ floor machine was introduced. It featured
a “flexible gear” drive, a major engineering breakthrough in floor
machine design.
1950's
1955
Several other new Advance products emerged, including the Gyro™,
Pacemaker™ (both floor scrubbers), and Hydro-Vac™ (a wet/dry tank
vacuum). Later the same year, Advance moved into a 10,000 square foot
building on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis while still retaining the
original location on Southeast Fourth Street.
1956
The first Advance national sales meeting was held at the Washington
Avenue location. There were eight salesmen and less than forty distributors
nationwide.
1958
The factory employed forty people and needed room to grow. The Company
bought a 105,000 square foot building located in Spring Park, not far from
Minneapolis. Factory and headquarter offices remained in Spring Park for almost
30 years.
1958
The first Convertamatic™ automatic scrubber was introduced. It was called a
Convertamatic because it could quickly be converted from an automatic floor
scrubber to a dry floor polisher and vacuum. The recovery unit could also be
lifted out and used separately. The Convertamatic introduced a patented
Power-Flo™ self-propelling drive, the same drive system used to propel
many Advance automatic scrubbers today.
1960's
1963
Advance opened a manufacturing operation in Canada.
1964
The CarpeTwin™ became the first two-motor carpet vacuum on the market.
1965
The first CarpeTron™ dry foam shampooers went into production.
1966
International operations began with Advance exporting machines throughout
the world.
1970's
1974
The Industrial Division was established. The manufacturing and sale of an
industrial line, including large, heavy-duty rider sweepers and scrubbers,
presented a new growth opportunity for the Company.
1976
An international office was established in Luxembourg.
1978
The Spring Park plant was expanded to 250,000 square feet, and a 200,000
square foot assembly operation and distribution center was added in Plymouth,
another suburb of Minneapolis.
1980's
1985
The international facility moved from Luxembourg to the United Kingdom with
the establishment of a 35,000 square foot manufacturing plant and office in
Cardiff, Wales. A warehouse/office was also set up in Monheim, Germany the
same year.
1985
Ground was broken and construction began on the main building at the
Plymouth, Minnesota location. The new construction consolidated Advance
corporate Headquarters, manufacturing and distribution, bringing all U.S.
facilities together in a 500,000 square foot complex.
1989
From its beginning, Advance Machine Company had been a family-owned
organization under the management of Merritt Pond, his son Harold, and finally
Harold’s son Robert. Then in January of 1989, Advance was sold to a group of
financial investors.
1990's
1994
Advance merged with a Danish company – Nilfisk A/S, a well known
international company manufacturing a broad line of industrial and
commercial vacuum cleaners marketed world wide.
1997
Advance continues the proud tradition of innovation by creating products
like the world’s first Whirlamatic™ 2700 Rider Burnisher.
1999
Hydro-Retriever™ 2800 Rider Scrubber was introduced.
2000's
2001
On November 1, a truck left our dock loaded with cleaning equipment headed
for the great city of New York. The final destination was Capital Supply (a
longtime Advance Dealer) who volunteered to help us deliver these products
to six schools at “ground-zero” for much needed cleaning. These six schools
are part of the New York Board of Education. Once the schools were thoroughly
cleaned, the equipment was sold and 100% of the sale proceeds were donated to
the American Red Cross on behalf of Advance and Capital Supply.
February 2004
Nilfisk-Advance, Inc. is pleased to announce the acquistion of ECOLOGICA a
top manufacturer of quality industrial and outdoor sweepers. ECOLOGICA,
located in Parma, Italy has a long history and an excellent reputation within
the European equipment market and allows Nilfisk-Advance, Inc. to move into the
ourdoor sweeper market.
July 2004
Nilfisk-Advance, Inc. completed the aquisition of the Alto group, to become
the world's largest manufacturer of professional cleaning equipment with annual
sales of $800 MUSD and 3800 employees. Manufacturing facilities now exist in
North America, Europe and Asia, with sales of our products through 31 wholly
owned sales subsidiaries and 1000's of Distributers.