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// Our First Decade

// Our First Decade
Photo: Eswar Prasad & Shashi Prasad

First Decade: 1983-1993 

In 1953 Dennis Tupy and Jozo Wieder, two Czechoslovakian immigrants, embarked their first pottery production run as Blue Mountain Pottery in Collingwood, Ontario Canada. The company used locally sourced clay from the surrounding Niagara Escarpment, with their proprietary blue green glaze. This rarity in the industry quickly made the company known for its signature pottery in Canada and eventually worldwide. 

Thirty years later, the company diversified and introduced a hi-tech division with a focus on the unique properties of the ceramics. In contrast to their traditional pottery, the ceramic would be used in underwater acoustics and sonar instead.  The new divisions focus would exploit the unique piezoelectric properties. The work to create a new customer base began to shift from consumer product to industry.  

Dr. Eswar Prasad’s PhD in Piezoelectric Ceramics, and alongside his wife Shashi Prasad’s MBA, helped them make the decision to lead this new division known as BM- Hi Tech. Newly immigrated to Canada in the 1970’s, the Prasad’s had an entrepreneurial spirit, a young daughter and long-term goals. They understood the potential opportunities using these materials. The first decade of the business was focused on development of proprietary powder formulations in compliance with Navy standards. Exhaustive R&D fine-tuned these formulas to respect the piezo function as part of a hydrophone and subsequently a larger system. A consistent and repeatable production process was then developed to provide bespoke ceramics to our customers. 

The formulas developed in those early years would become both the secret sauce and the heart of the company in the coming years, allowing exponential growth. 

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