You can learn a lot about a young corporation by the company it keeps.

Edmonton’s seven-year-old Lacent Technologies Inc., a private outfit recently cited as one of the country’s top 10 exporters, is a case in point.

Lacent has deep-pocketed friends in high places, including its No. 1 financial backer: Manvest Inc., the investment arm of the canny Mannix clan.

Manvest doesn’t make many wrong guesses. And its faith in Lacent has been justified during the three-plus years since the company celebrated its first-ever sale.

Jack Dagley, for Business Edge
It’s been just over three years since Lacent Technologies made its first sale, and today the Edmonton firm is the largest producer of laser-cutting systems in North America and Europe. Backed by the investment arm of the famous Mannix clan, Lacent is carving a niche in the automobile textile industry – and CEO Ron Gilbertson (pictured above with a new cutting machine) says the best years are yet to come.

Just last week, CEO Ron Gilbertson closed Lacent’s latest deal, shipping one of its high-speed, continuous process laser-cutting systems to Poland. Price: about $1 million.

“We had no product four years ago,” said Gilbertson, former president of the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority. “Now we’re the largest producer of these systems in Europe and North America.”

Lacent’s laser systems cut textiles on a moving bed at a speed of up to 80 inches a second, to a tolerance of a hundredth of an inch.

Such precision equipment is wasted on T-shirts and tablecloths. But it’s ideal for shaping the nylon-based compounds used to manufacture 150 million automobile airbags worldwide every year.

In addition to airbags, Lacent’s lasers cut textiles used for automobile seats and interior trim. The company has sold these expensive systems to both of Honda’s U.S. suppliers, allowing Gilbertson to boast: “Right now, every Honda Accord and Honda Civic manufactured in the U.S. is equipped with seating and trim made with one of our machines.”

Jack Dagley, for Business Edge
Ron Gilbertson of Lacent Technologies foresees a huge market for his laser-cutting systems, particularly in the auto industry.

Talk about niche marketing. Lacent’s precision systems combine ultra-high performance with maximum reliability, which helps when some auto manufacturers spit out a vehicle every 45 seconds.

“At high production volumes, a breakdown for even a few minutes can be catastrophic,” Gilbertson said.

From where Gilbertson sits, the long-range marketing potential for Lacent products seems boundless. One customer told him that 40 per cent of the world’s automotive seat-cover material will be cut via laser within a decade.

“Put that in perspective,” he urged a visitor. “That’s 3,000 to 4,000 laser-cutting systems at $1 million a machine. If the market does mature to that extent, it’d be worth going after.”

Meanwhile, analysts say the global market for safety airbags is poised to expand like . . . well, like an inflated airbag. Most new cars are now equipped with two. That number is expected to double within five years.

Sometimes Lacent’s sprint to success makes Gilbertson’s head spin.

He tried to put it into words in Vancouver last month, while accepting an award from the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. “I said that, hopefully, our success will encourage other companies,” said Gilbertson, an economist who jokes that he’s the only one of Lacent’s 44 staffers who’s not allowed to touch the machines.

“Here you have a bunch of guys from Edmonton, taking an Alberta-based technology and finding out they’re able to compete in international markets.”

Call it chutzpah.

Gilbertson’s team started trolling for venture capital before they had a product to sell. (He admits they were lucky to be seeking backers when the market was still comparatively bullish on tech startups.)

Then, with initial financing in place, the company’s first prototype turned out to be a lemon, sending Lacent’s R&D experts scurrying back to the drawing board.

Next challenge: shopping the product.

“We had to convince big companies to buy systems like these from a junior company they couldn’t be sure would still be around in six months,” said Gilbertson.

It took a leap of faith by a gutsy decision-maker for the world’s largest airbag manufacturer – Autoliv-ASP Inc. of Poland – to make it happen. This nameless visionary saw something in Lacent’s technology he liked and proposed a deal.

In retrospect, Gilbertson is staggered by the irony: a conglomerate with 80 manufacturing plants in 29 countries was purchasing a $500,000 laser from an Edmonton startup with a half-dozen employees.

But a satisfied customer usually returns. Autoliv continues to come back for more. So do other clients, giving Lacent a 2-1 sales edge over its top competitor since January.

To maintain the cutting edge, Lacent’s R&D team, headed by an ex-chief engineer for Spar Aerospace Ltd., is continually working to fine-tune the technology.

Meanwhile, Gilbertson and Co. remain on the prowl for fresh markets, new applications and new sales opportunities.

So Lacent’s backers – Manvest, Royal Bank Capital Corp. and Foundation Equity Corp. among them – can pat themselves on the back. They’re keeping good company, too.