Uponor Unveils State-of-the-Art Experience Center
by Alex GrossL to R: Mary Hamann-Roland, Dakota County commissioner; Andres Caballero, President Uponor North America; and Matt Bahr, Uponor Vice President of Sales
On Sept. 27, 2023, Uponor held a grand opening event to showcase its new Experience Center in Apple Valley, Minn. A commemorative pipe-cutting ceremony preceded the official opening, which included industry professionals, local officials, and members of the media.
The event highlighted the integral role Uponor plays in its local community, with attendees including Minnesota State Senator, Erin Maye Quade, Minnesota State Representative Jon Koznick, Dakota County Commissioner Mary Hamann-Roland, and Apple Valley Mayor Clint Hooppaw, as well as several members of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
A global company based out of Helsinki, Finland, Uponor began its Apple Valley operations in 1990, and has evolved throughout the past several decades. Offering innovative solutions that efficiently and sustainably move water through homes, commercial buildings, and industrial structures, Uponor products and systems help deliver hygienic drinking water, provide fire safety, and enable energy-efficient comfort with hydronic piping and radiant heating and cooling. By showcasing all the company’s advancements in plumbing and radiant systems over the years, the Experience Center helps to foster innovation and support smarter solutions for better building environments.
“It was important to create a space that addressed the needs of customers, partners, employees, and the community,” said Uponor North America President Andres Caballero. “This 4,500-square-foot facility is designed to advance technical skills for current and future industry professionals, even children in the local community who are interested in STEM.”
The Experience Center provides a flexible, immersive, hands-on educational experience for both novice and seasoned industry professionals and helps business owners, contracting companies, and engineering firms enhance onboarding and education for their employees.
The space unlocks greater potential to connect people, ideas, and skills, while building solutions, relationships, teams, and talent, thus helping to inspire curiosity that will allow Uponor to innovate and lead the industry in a greater capacity.
“For more than 30 years, Uponor has been a great business partner not only to the local community, but to the state of Minnesota,” said Minnesota State Senator Erin Maye Quade. “Uponor has been an industry leader in sustainable water and energy solutions. This new space serves as an investment in sustainability, provides a resource for students going into STEM, and offers support for the people who are going through skilled labor and training. It is a demonstration of a true top-to-bottom partnership in our community.”
Maye Quade went on to state, “Someone at Uponor mentioned hosting students in the space. This space allows students to visualize the careers they can have and get them excited for the future. That is what I am most excited about.”
In this space, the customer is at the center of the design. We were looking at solving the problems unique to each professional.
— Matt Bahr, Uponor Vice President of Sales
Because Uponor serves a varied customer base, from building owners and developers like Marriott to a two-truck plumber who is just getting his business off the ground, the space is designed to meet the needs of many different stakeholders to be effective for everyone who enters.
“This space is very dynamic, and what we’ll be utilizing it for is pretty awesome,” said Uponor Vice President of Sales Matt Bahr. “The sales organization focuses on the problems the professional is dealing with. In this space, the customer is at the center of the design. We were looking at solving the problems unique to each professional, as we analyze how we can provide better solutions that are more efficient and increase productivity on the job site.”
The Uponor Experience Center is a commitment to advancing the building industry by showcasing new innovations and sharing industry best practices with current and future generations. The space will continue to evolve to effectively guide professionals as they navigate new challenges and opportunities in the ever-changing plumbing and HVAC industry.
