This May marked 20 years since the founding of our subsidiary in the USA.
Honestly, I have always wanted to find a way to start selling our products on the US market, and I believed that through our quality, creativity, and the technical excellence of our equipment, we could reach and satisfy even the most demanding customers in the USA.
The path to achieving this goal was opened for us by Mr. Gerd Lohninger, former director of SBM, which at that time was still a subsidiary of the MMM Group and focused on supplies for the pharmaceutical industry. It all started with our deliveries of sterilizer chambers for SBM around the year 2000, which were assembled at their plant in Ternitz, near Vienna. Colleagues from SBM were not satisfied with the quality of chambers for their sterilizers from their supplier at the time, so we offered them our cooperation. Engineers from SBM helped us fill in the missing knowledge in the field of manufacturing large-volume chambers for pharmaceutical operations and introduced us to solving the requirements of demanding customers in global markets. Our chambers appealed to the colleagues at SBM right from the start due to their quality and craftsmanship, and soon they offered us the opportunity to start supplying chambers for their sterilizers intended for customers in the USA and Canada. At that time, SBM was selling its sterilizers in the USA through Kuhlmann Technologies, located near Seattle, WA.
Together with SBM, we presented our chamber design to them, and after receiving a positive response, we applied for an ASME certificate, which is required for selling pressure vessels in the USA. We passed the ASME inspector audit on the first try, allowing us to accept the first orders for pressure chambers and steam generators. The engineers and sales reps at Kuhlmann Technologies also liked the chamber design and craftsmanship very much, and they began offering the chambers with a 10-year warranty on weld quality. This helped boost their sales growth, as no one else offered such a long warranty. I am very glad that now, nearly 25 years later, I can confirm that throughout this entire time, not a single one of our chambers had to be replaced under warranty.
Around that time, I also met Scott Noteboom and many other current BMT USA, LLC team members who were already working for Kuhlmann Technologies.
After several years of successful cooperation, Kuhlmann Technologies faced difficulties due to the economic situation in the US market at the time, and its owner decided to sell the company and retire. However, the new owner, the German company Fresenius, had different plans for the company; sales began to stagnate, and several key and highly experienced employees left from various areas, such as production, sterilizer design, and sales, including Scott Noteboom.
This presented us with the opportunity to expand our presence in the US market from being a supplier to becoming an owner, with the chance to directly participate in the further development of the company and build our own sales network in the US market.
In 2006, we joined forces with Scott and Prometco, LLC in Woodinville near Seattle, where several former Kuhlmann employees had also moved in the meantime. Prometco had suitable production space and equipment ready, while we had experienced employees and a new product portfolio. Thus, we became co-owners of a new company, Prometco-BMT, Inc., and began doing business directly in the USA.
After an initial four-year effort to cooperate with Prometco—which was simultaneously pursuing its own manufacturing and commercial activities—that was not entirely successful, we decided in June 2010 to become independent. We established a new company, BMT USA, LLC, owned solely by us and Scott Noteboom, focused exclusively on our products and services.
Thanks to this partnership and the company's new focus primarily on the pharmaceutical industry, we brought back all former key Kuhlmann employees who had been working at Prometco, as well as several others who had moved to other companies in the meantime. This enabled us to quickly build a strong position of our own in the US and Canadian markets.
Our new independent presence in the US market, combined with an experienced and dedicated team at BMT USA, LLC, allowed us to secure our first major references in a relatively short time with world-renowned pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly, Alcami, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Lonza, and others. This opened doors to many more customers in the laboratory and pharmaceutical sectors.
Our US colleagues independently developed new lines of modern cGMP steam sterilizers: Steripro for steam sterilization, Ventipro for Air-Mix programs with proprietary advanced built-in high-performance fan solutions in the chamber, and Aquapro for liquid sterilization using hot water at temperatures of 121°C in fully sealed bottles, ampoules, or vials.
In addition to these products, they independently designed new lines of successful cGMP clean steam generators with electric and steam heating to supply pure and depyrogenated steam, primarily for use in pharmaceutical production.
Since then, these generators have successfully expanded into other industries as well. For example, around 30 of our steam generators are currently operating in American breweries, where they sterilize stainless steel beer kegs prior to refilling.
Along with its own production, BMT USA, LLC handles sales for our entire product portfolio. To the STERIVAP and UNISTERI steam sterilizers—nearly 400 units of which have been sold—we added our complete range of heating ovens and incubators for laboratory and industrial applications in 2012, including the first units of Venticell IL.
From 2010 to the present, we have achieved total sales of USD 138 million (approx. CZK 2,910,000,000, almost 3 billion CZK) in the USA and Canada!!! Last year, the turnover of BMT USA, LLC reached USD 14.1 million (approx. CZK 297 million)!! I believe we, together with our colleagues in the USA, can be rightfully proud of our manufacturing, sales, and financial achievements.
The current turbulent economic environment in global markets—which leads to delays in ongoing projects, market uncertainty, associated cutbacks in innovation activities, relocation of production capacities, etc.—has naturally affected the USA and Canada as well. However, our current volume of new orders gives us a realistic chance to continue our successful operations in the US market not only this year, but also in 2027.
In the attached photos, you can see how our pressure chambers in Monroe are transformed into top-tier equipment for the American pharmaceutical industry.
On Sunday, August 2, 2026, a brief gathering was held in Redmond, near our facility in Monroe (both near Seattle, WA), with BMT USA, LLC employees to celebrate our corporate anniversary. Scott and I gave short speeches recalling our successful 20-year history and thanking employees for their loyalty, dedication, creativity, and excellent daily performance.
On this celebratory occasion, I would also like to pass along greetings and deep gratitude from our colleagues at BMT USA, LLC to all of you for your active and pleasant cooperation, as well as the high quality of pressure vessels supplied for steam sterilizers and steam generators, and for the reliable and popular complete STERIVAP and UNISTERI steam sterilizers, heating ovens, and incubators, without which achieving these results would not have been possible.
Our 20th anniversary clearly proves that our active, informal, and highly professional collaboration has been a success. We have ranked among the top three manufacturers in our industry in the USA, and we are among the best worldwide.
Milan Krajcar, Managing Director of BMT
September 21, 2026