Opus turns 25. And 40.
The history of an entrepreneurial company that has become one of the biggest in the world in automotive and exhaust emission inspections.
In 1990, two young entrepreneurs – Magnus Greko and Jörgen Hentschel – founded Opus in Sweden. Opus was an old environmentally related product name from Jörgen’s father’s company. The business idea was to sell a new type of exhaust emission test equipment to automotive workshops and testing stations for the inspection and repair of the new catalyser-equipped cars.
Fifteen years earlier on the other side of the Atlantic, Hamilton Test Systems in Windsor, Connecticut had produced the first digital diagnostics system for gasoline engines. The system not only told mechanics what was wrong, but also gave them instructions on how to fix it. This was the beginning of what would become ESP and Envirotest.
The company was also the first to use computerized equipment for measuring and analysing exhaust emissions. As early as 1976, they had started the USA’s first procured automobile testing programme. In 1990, ESP was split off from Hamilton, as was Envirotest two years later.
Common denominator
Thus exhaust emissions were the common denominator right from the beginning for the young companies in Sweden and the USA. American requirements for catalytic conversion during the 1980s were followed by equivalent requirements in Europe. Start-up company Opus took the technology from the USA to Scandinavia, continued to develop it and began its own production in Sweden in 1994. Customers were primarily automotive workshops and the Swedish state-owned motor vehicle inspection company, but soon after they began exporting to the rest of the Nordic region and other countries in Europe. The product range was extended with more test equipment that focused on motor vehicle inspections, but over time other products for automotive workshops such as lifts and tyre equipment etc. were added.
One of the largest in North America
In 1998, Envirotest was acquired by ESP and the company became one of the biggest operators within centralized automotive testing in North America. In the year 2000, another important part of the puzzle was added to what was to become today’s Opus. Lothar Geilen was one of the founders of SysTech in the USA, a company that focused on IT solutions for automotive testing and exhaust emission inspection programmes.
A few years later, the companies’ paths crossed and in 2008 Opus purchased SysTech. In 2012, the ESP business component was acquired from Envirotest, and in 2014 all of Envirotest. In November 2012, Opus acquired one third of the state-owned Swedish motor vehicle inspection company, Svensk Bilprovning. In the beginning of 2015, Drew Technologies – a leading manufacturer of diagnostics and data communications equipment – was also acquired and Opus became a total supplier of services and specialist technology for both vehicle safety and environmental inspections. With operations in a total of four continents, it is the market leader in the USA and number two in Sweden. In July 2015, Opus Equipment’s operations in Sweden were sold to Meca/Mekonomen, as this company was more focused on workshops as customers.
Next in line for 2016 will be the start-up of a motor vehicle testing company in Pakistan and a number of installations in Chile. The entrepreneurial spirit is very much alive and developments continue The Opus Way.
*) Opus is Latin for work, handiwork or art. It is often used in a musical context together with a number to designate a composer’s works – opus numbering.