Hatch is a global multidisciplinary management, engineering and development
consultancy. Its group companies have more than 11,000 staff in 65 offices on six continents. In 2009 it was one of the 100 largest companies in Canada, with sales over CDN $1 billion. The company was founded in
Toronto,
Canada, by W.S. Atkins as W.S. Atkins & Associates in 1955. The company initially was involved in subway
tunneling and other
civil engineering projects, and expanded into
metallurgy when Gerry Hatch joined the company in January 1958. It became known as Hatch in 1962. Hatch counts among its metals clients the top 20 (as measured by
market capitalization) mining and metals companies in the world, including
Alcan,
Alcoa,
BHP Billiton,
Barrick Gold,
BlueScope Steel,
Xstrata (formerly
Falconbridge),
Vale (formerly Inco) and
Rio Tinto. In 1996 the company began an expansion program by purchasing several aligned engineering companies including Billiton Engineering (1996), Rescan Mining (1998), BHP Engineering (1999), Kaiser Engineers (2000), Acres International (2004), and MEK Engenharia (2012). By 2005 the combined billing of the company was around CDN $700 million. Hatch today provides consulting, operations support, technologies, process design, and project and construction management to clients in three principal sectors:
mining and
metals;
energy; and
infrastructure.