This year marks a significant milestone in the history of Valiant TMS — our company celebrates its 65th anniversary! In celebration of this achievement, we are delighted to publish a special blog series reflecting on our journey from a small tool shop in Windsor, Ontario, to a global industry leader with teams spanning three continents.
In this first blog post, we invite you to join us as we travel back in time to explore the formative years of both Valiant and TMS between 1959 and 1994 — before we were one company. Stay tuned as we unveil subsequent chapters of the series in the coming weeks, each offering a deeper insight into the evolution of our company.
Early years of Valiant
The Valiant TMS legacy stretches back to 1959 when Michael G. Solcz (referred to as Mike Sr. by family and colleagues) purchased a 600-square-foot machine shop in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with money he borrowed from his parents and in-laws. And just like that, Avco Tool and Die was born. It was a modest beginning at best: one room with five primitive machines, no sophisticated robots or computer-aided design systems. Little did Mike Sr. know that decades later, this same shop would evolve into an enterprise employing over 1,500 people worldwide.
Soon after the company’s foundation, Stanley Stepp, a former colleague and good friend of Mike Sr., joined as a 50% partner. As Mike Sr. recalled, the tough economic conditions at the time meant they had to stop at nothing to seek new business, including knocking on doors. Despite their old equipment, they were able to produce very accurate, high-calibre work, enabling their client roster to expand.
In 1963, the pair brought in another partner, Santo Piccinato, turning the business into a three-way partnership. As the name Avco was already registered to another company, Mike Sr. and his partners decided to incorporate the company as Valiant Machine & Tool Inc., inspired by the Plymouth Valiant, an innovative car Chrysler was building at the time. With strong management and a talented workforce, the team experienced rapid growth in the following years, growing to over 70,000 square feet in plant floor capacity in a short period.
Diversification and establishment of subsidiaries
In 1965, a Valiant subsidiary, Valco Manufacturing, was established in a 40,000-square-foot facility in response to an increased demand for in-house steel fabrication, material handling, and machining capabilities. The Valco subsidiary allowed us to bid on large-scale conveying systems, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, and industrial parts washers.
TMS formation and Valiant’s efforts to go global
In 1984, Transport -und Montagesysteme GmbH (TMS) was founded in Linz, Austria, by ÖIAG (Österreichische Staatsindustrie) from Voest Alpine Maschinenbau’s Integrated Systems division. Five years later, in 1989, TMS was restructured as a division of Voest Alpine Steinel, focusing on manufacturing machine tools for automotive and heavy industry companies.
By 1991, TMS became part of VA Technology AG, a public company, providing the resources needed for significant growth. To support its strategy of serving customers globally, the company expanded its capabilities by acquiring an engineering center in Gersthofen, Germany. Additionally, new facilities were established in Wolfsburg, Kassel, and Sindelfingen, enabling TMS to offer more effective on-site support to German original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
One of Mike Sr.’s goals was for Valiant to become an international company. As a result, we expanded our Welding and Assembly group into Troy, Michigan, in 1987 under the name of Valiant International Inc. The close proximity to North American automotive OEMs enabled us to strengthen our engineering capabilities.
In 1988, Valiant moved to a facility at 6161 Tecumseh Road East in Windsor. Over the next two years, we focused on strengthening our expertise in vehicle framing systems through the integration of the Preciflex system, an innovative framing process integrated within a vehicle manufacturer’s body shop that ensures the vehicle’s dimensional integrity. This critical step is important to the quality of the vehicle because it ensures minimal gap tolerance when closures such as doors, hoods, decklids and other major components are assembled onto the vehicle prior to painting. This process appeared to be a natural fit for Valiant, as the company had produced numerous door assembly line projects for the Ford Motor Company, achieving preferred vendor status. The increase in business led to the eventual expansion of our 6161 Tecumseh Road East facility to approximately 190,000 square feet.
1989 was a pivotal year for Valiant, as the Chrysler Corporation approached us to bid on an extensive framing line for its LH vehicle line. In 1990, Chrysler awarded us our first significant body-in-white assembly project, putting our company on the map among leading full-service automotive system integrators.
After successfully launching the LH Series in 1992, we became a key supplier to Chrysler and continued to supply vehicle framing equipment for all large car platforms. Our team developed 69 variations of this system, including the entire GMT 600 and GMT 800 platforms for General Motors’ truck and bus divisions for the launch of several new generation trucks and SUVs.
The mid-nineties proved to be a critical period for us as we secured more significant projects and positioned ourselves as a global company. At the same time, the Valiant Powertrain division was growing with the award of a fully automated high-volume sand core assembly line at Ford’s Windsor Aluminum Plant to manufacture cylinder blocks and cylinder heads. Industrial washers, automation, storage buffers and tooling were also supplied to complement the installation. Valiant earned a reputation as a leading designer of these types of systems and garnered much experience from this project.
In the coming weeks, the second chapter of the Valiant TMS 65th anniversary blog series will dive into our company’s accelerated growth and the establishment of international partnerships in the 1990s. Don’t miss out!
