Small Business News
For general news about businesses in Waterloo Region that doesn't require it's own thread.
http://www.mhdylinks.com/cliparts/cl...ney/page1.html
Small Business News
For general news about businesses in Waterloo Region that doesn't require it's own thread.
http://www.mhdylinks.com/cliparts/cl...ney/page1.html
Last edited by UrbanWaterloo; 07-09-2010 at 03:14 PM.
Aerospace company investing $26.5 million in Kitchener plant
May 10, 2010
Record staff
KITCHENER – Heroux-Devtek is investing $26.5 million to upgrade and modernize its Kitchener landing gear plant.
The Montreal-based aerospace company announced the investment plan today at the Highland Road West plant. The Ontario government is supporting the investment with a contribution of almost $4 million.
“This investment program is another key milestone in the ongoing development of our Kitchener facility,” Gilles Labbe, Heroux-Devtek’s chief executive officer, said in a news release.
The Kitchener plant, which employs 160 people, makes medium to large size landing gear components for airplanes.
The company said the investment program will include the purchase of state-of-the-art, highly automated equipment and the modernization of existing equipment.
The moves will allow Heroux-Devtek to make “increasingly large and complex major landing gear components,” the company said.
The Ontario government said its contribution to the program will help to retain 20 jobs and create 20 news jobs over the next five years.
SAP buying Sybase for $5.8B in attack on OracleGerman business software maker SAP AG has agreed to buy Sybase Inc. in a $5.8 billion deal that ratchets up SAP’s rivalry with database leader Oracle Corp.
Sybase is the parent company for Waterloo-based iAnywhere Solutions, which employs about 250 people at its local operation.
The all-cash deal intensifies the battle between SAP and Oracle to run more of the programs that corporations use to manage their data. Oracle, the world’s leading database maker in a market where Sybase is a small player, has been on a buying binge in an attempt to take business in other areas from SAP.
SAP says the acquisition will also give it key technology from Sybase that lets business programs run on mobile phones.
SAP is offering $65 for each outstanding share of Sybase’s common stock. Sybase’s stock hadn’t closed above $50 per share since the mid-1990s.
Before the announcement, shares of Sybase rose 35 per cent to $56.14 on rumours of the deal. In extended trading, stocks rose an additional 15 per cent to $64.30.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, provided it is cleared by antitrust regulators. SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, said the deal will immediately add to SAP’s earnings. Sybase is headquartered in Dublin, Calif.
Salute to Woolwich Business Event
Woolwich Business Owners are invited to the first annual Salute to Woolwich Business Event.
Wednesday June 2, 2010 | 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. | Schoolhouse Theatre, 11 Albert Street, St. Jacobs
http://www.woolwich.ca/en/resourcesG...ponsorship.pdf
Networking (begins at 4pm) Network with other Woolwich business representatives, elected officials, and Senior Staff from the Township.
Local Business Tradeshow (begins at 4pm) Rent a Tradeshow table to showcase your brand, products & services. Cost per table: $25 (one table per business). All Tradeshow tables must be booked by May 22.
Keynote Speaker (5:30pm) Alan Quarry, Chairman and CEO, Quarry Integrated Communications. Alan Quarry leads the 100+ person team focused on helping Quarry Integrated Communications clients build their business. Quarry has offices in St. Jacob’s (July 5), Toronto, Raleigh‐NC, and San Jose, CA. In addition to building the Sun Life, Avis, and Canadian Solar brands, Quarry launched the BlackBerry brand across the USA and Canada in 1998 for Research In Motion. Alan teaches Marketing Communications at WLU, and Marketing Strategy at the University of Windsor. He speaks to approximately 12 groups a year, and he recently spoke in Beijing, Raleigh NC, London ON, Toronto, Prague, Stockholm, and to the Woolwich Kiwanis Club.
Innovation Insights: Innovation, Emerging Technologies and Global Markets
Accelerator Centre, University of Waterloo | June 3, 2010 9:00AM - 4:30PM
http://www.waterloomin.com/innovationinsights
Build your global markets with the University of Waterloo's emerging technologies in Information Communication Systems, Green Business and Sustainable Energy.
Speakers:Presentations and Sessions:
- David Johnston, President, UWaterloo
- George Dixon, Vice President, University Research, UWaterloo
- Jayson Myers, President & CEO, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
- KEYNOTE: Dr. Frank Tompa, David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
- UWaterloo - Canada's Most Innovative University
- R&D Capacities
- Accelerator Commercialization Excellence
- Information Communication Technologies for Business
- Green Technologies for Business
- Sustainable Energy for Business
Waterloo Region’s aerospace firms soaring above economic turmoil
June 12, 2010
By Chuck Howitt, Record staff
WATERLOO REGION — David McIntyre is doing a lot of smiling these days and with good reason.
McIntyre is president of Centra Industries Inc., a Cambridge-based company that makes structural components for the underbellies, engine struts and tails of some of the best-known names in the aircraft business, including Boeing, Bombardier, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Cessna and Gulfstream.
Since 1992, the world has staggered through two recessions, the dot-com meltdown, 9-11, SARS and other smaller catastrophes. During that same time frame, Centra has grown every year and expects to double its annual revenues, currently standing at $59 million, in the next four years.
Employment has grown from 38 employees in the early 1990s to 265 today and Centra expects to hire 41 more people in the next year to staff its plant on Cherry Blossom Drive.
Centra isn’t the only local aerospace company that has soared above the economic turmoil. Waterloo Region is home to a number of significant players in the aerospace sector, making everything from radar systems and microsatellites to landing gear and airline scheduling software.
Led by space hardware manufacturer Com Dev International in Cambridge, the aerospace sector in Waterloo Region employs almost 2,400 people and includes other prominent companies such as Heroux-Devtek, Raytheon Canada, Chicopee Manufacturing, Strite Industries, Virtek Vision International, Navtech and Centra.
A gaggle of smaller firms, mostly housed at Waterloo Region International Airport, have carved out space servicing and supporting the aerospace sector.
“It’s a smaller pocket” compared to the aerospace sector in the Greater Toronto Area, says Rod Jones, executive director of the Ontario Aerospace Council, which represents 200 aerospace firms in the province. But that pocket includes some “superb” companies, Jones says.
And some of those companies are clearly on a roll.
Over its 35 years in business, Com Dev has traditionally been a supplier of components for satellites made by other companies. Its switches, filters and multiplexers reroute signals sent up from earth back down to other locations on the globe. Lately, this business has been very good to Com Dev. Revenues have doubled in the last five years to $240 million in 2009.
Now the company appears poised to move into the big leagues and become an original equipment maker in its own right.
Com Dev is designing and building its own microsatellites that will provide data services to customers back on earth. The microsatellites incorporate its breakthrough technology to monitor maritime ship traffic from space. Everybody in the industry is holding their breath to see how this venture fares over the long haul. Early results have been promising.
Another local firm on the leading edge of aerospace technology is Virtek Vision in Waterloo. Aircraft manufacturers are gradually switching to carbon fibre, a stronger and lighter material used in the construction of fuselages, wings and other parts. Virtek’s laser templating devices make it easier to cut and place these parts.
Customers for its laser devices include major manufacturers such as Bombardier, Boeing, Embraer and Northrop Grumman.
“The ceiling of Boeing’s Winnipeg plant is lined with dozens and dozens of our lasers,” says Peter Richter, Virtek’s vice-president of imaging and templating products.
Meanwhile, Heroux-Devtek is investing $26 million over five years to upgrade manufacturing equipment and automation systems at its landing gear plant on Highland Road in Kitchener. The plant is making pistons and cylinders for shock absorbers on the Boeing 777 and 787 and the Airbus 820 passenger jets.
Part of the Quebec-based company’s landing gear division, the Kitchener plant has been designated a centre of excellence for medium to large aircraft. “We have had a very good experience with the Kitchener facility,” says chief executive officer Gilles Labbe. “The workforce is very committed, very talented.”
Also weathering the recession in robust fashion is Raytheon Canada in Waterloo. For years, the plant has developed radar systems for air traffic control, but new ventures into high frequency surface wave radar to track ships at sea and long-range radar for the U.S. government have boosted employment at the plant to 390 from 300 in 2007.
These new ventures have triggered “a bit of a boom to growth in the company,” says general manager Brian Smith, and have helped stabilize the company’s primary surveillance radar product line.
While Com Dev, Heroux-Devtek and Raytheon are well-established names in aerospace, Centra Industries is a relative newcomer led by a man who originally pursued a career as a chartered accountant.
David McIntyre was home for Thanksgiving dinner in 1992 when he mentioned he was looking to make a change. His father, Bob, had purchased a Waterloo machine ship called Centra Industries six years earlier and was gradually shifting it into making aerospace parts for companies in the Toronto area.
A key manager had left, so dad asked son to come aboard as operations manager. McIntyre accepted and began moving up in the company.
In the late 1990s, the company made a strategic decision that set the stage for the success it enjoys today. Aluminum machining in the aerospace market was changing from the production of many small parts to the creation of larger, more complete components forged on high-speed machines with precise cutting tools.
A major innovation was “five-axis technology,” says McIntyre. Cutting tools could move on five different axes to create complex structures without causing distortion or stress to the parts. Components that required the assembling of 150 different parts could now be reduced to a single part.
At the same time, aircraft manufacturers were transferring more of the assembly work on structures to smaller subcontractors.
Centra felt that if it made the right investments in the latest machining technology and focused on the right customers, “we could become a very significant player in that marketplace,” says the 45-year-old McIntyre, who became the company’s majority shareholder in 2001 when his dad retired.
A second challenge was getting on the procurement list of major companies such as Boeing. That was no easy task and required “some persistent marketing,” he says. Working in Centra’s favour was a fairly stable list of regional clients, which it was able to leverage into access to the larger manufacturers.
McIntyre describes Centra as primarily a “structures company.” For example, it makes structural pieces for the strut that holds the engine to the wing. On the underbelly of the new Boeing 787, it is making the skeletal framework linking the wings to the fuselage. On the Boeing 777, it makes the structural ribs on the leading edges of the vertical and horizontal tails of the plane.
Eighty-five per cent of its work is done on commercial transport planes and the remainder on military aircraft.
Since moving to Cherry Blossom Road in 1998, Centra has expanded its plant twice to the current 131,000 square feet. With no more room to grow, it will likely open a second plant in the next few years.
The company’s performance has not gone unnoticed. In 2007, a Boston private equity firm, Heritage Capital Partners, bought a 49-per-cent stake in Centra for $24.9 million.
“The company’s management team is the strongest we’ve seen in the entire aerostructures market,” Mark Jrolf of Heritage said when the investment was announced.
Most large players in the local aerospace sector are in the business of making components. Yet some smaller firms have carved out niches servicing and modifying aircraft. One example is Kitchener Aero, housed since the late 1970s in a hangar at Waterloo Region International Airport and a second facility called Mid-Canada Mod Center at Pearson Airport.
Doing one thing and doing it really well is the secret to Kitchener Aero’s longevity, according to president Barry Aylward. “We don’t try to be all things to all people,” he notes. The firm’s only business is avionics, or the electronic systems of airplanes.
The company installs, modifies and repairs systems made by avionics manufacturers in everything from small recreational planes to heavy corporate aircraft. A major part of the business is “special missions” modifications, such as installing a flying TV studio in helicopters for CTV and avionics systems for police, air medical and aerial survey aircraft. The company has even worked on government flight-inspection aircraft for the Civil Aviation Authority of China.
Employment totals about 50, with 20 at Waterloo and 30 in Toronto. Though government rules have grown “exponentially” and business is down slightly because of the recession, Kitchener Aero has been growing a little bit every year, Aylward says.
The company is fairly unique in Canadian avionics, he says. Most shops are either much smaller or much larger. “There are not many mid-sized players like ourselves that are capable of handling a very large complex job and still handling the bread and butter jobs at the same time.”
Major aerospace employers in Waterloo Region:
• Com Dev International (satellite components and microsatellites): 1,000
• Raytheon Canada (surveillance radar): 390
• Strite Industries (landing gear, actuator, guidance system components): 300
• Centra Industries (structural components): 265
• Heroux-Devtek (landing gear components): 160
• Chicopee Manufacturing (wing, landing gear components): 100
• Navtech (flight operations software): 100
• Virtek Vision (laser templating): 60
Cineplex to buy Waterloo digital display company for $3.5 million
June 17, 2010
TORONTO – DDC Group International Inc., a digital sign business based in Waterloo, is being acquired by Cineplex Entertainment Limited.
The pricetag of the deal, announced today, is $3.5 million.
DDC designs, installs, maintains and operates digital signs in retail, financial, hospitality and entertainment markets.
“DDC is a recognized leader in designing, implementing and maintaining service-based digital signage networks across North America,” Ellis Jacob, president and chief executive officer of Cineplex Entertainment, said in a news release.
“Acquiring DDC enables us to further expand our existing Cineplex Digital Media business.”
Stuart Kirkpatrick, president of DDC, said the deal with Canada’s largest movie theatre company will provide growth opportunities for his signage firm.
“By joining forces with Cineplex Digital Media, we unite with a company that shares our passion for digital signage whose strength, national reach and immense expertise positions us to deliver even greater growth and success to our clients and their networks.”
The acquisition is expected to close July 2.
The Canadian Press
Luggage maker expands production at Cambridge plant
June 19, 2010
By Rose Simone, Record staff
CAMBRIDGE — Just 18 months after opening a factory here, luggage maker Rimowa has expanded both the number and type of products coming off its local production lines.
The Maple Grove Road plant has expanded from making 60 luggage cases a day a year ago to about 300 luggage cases a day now, said Carsten Kulcke, executive vice-president of Rimowa North America.
The workforce has doubled to 50 employees.
Growing brand recognition, aided by having a plant closer to the North American retailers and customers, has caused demand to be “much stronger than anticipated,” Kulcke said.
He said sales in North America grew 25 per cent last year despite the recession and he is expecting sales will more than double this year.
The German-owned company, which started out making polycarbonate suitcases in Cambridge near the end of 2008, now has four production lines at the plant.
Kulcke said he expects sales will be further boosted by the Topas aluminum luggage line, a higher end type of luggage that is being added to the local production lineup.
The Topas collection is “a distinct product line” previously only made at the plant in Cologne, Germany, he said. It has been “the heart and soul of the company ... worldwide, people know Rimowa for its aluminum cases,” he said.
Kulcke said retailers also like being able to offer products that have a higher retail value. “So from that perspective, it is a win-win situation for all involved parties.”
Kulcke said tariff duties make it less costly and more efficient to produce the cases for this market here. Rimowa also wanted to expand sales in North America, and to do that, it needed to be closer to the markets here.
By having a plant in Cambridge, the company can respond and adapt more quickly to shifting demand, he said.
“That gives us a huge edge over the competition that ships everything in from the outside.”
Kulcke said that when a number of North American retailers were given a tour of the Cambridge plant this week, they were “amazed” at the amount of labour that goes into each piece of luggage.
“It was the first time they had a firsthand view of how a Rimowa case is built, and they were raving about it afterwards,” he said.
“They were expecting to see a lot of machinery but the process is actually more manual than they realized and the employees are really involved in paying attention to the details. There is a very personal, craftsmanship approach to the production.”
rsimone@therecord.com
Anybody know who carries their product locally?Originally Posted by RangersFan
Soil delivery business grows beyond expectations
June 23, 2010
By Frances Barrick, Record staff
KITCHENER – Five years ago, Jon Weiler’s business consisted of a shovel, a pile of dirt and a van.
Today, his soil delivery business has grown to include up to 10 employees, three delivery trucks and a depot on Manitou Drive in Kitchener where customers can pick up their own mini bags of soil and mulch.
“It has been crazy,” says the 29-year-old owner of Dirt Cheap. “It has been tough. It has just been growing so quickly.”
The idea for Dirt Cheap started when Weiler saw home gardeners who were overwhelmed when their orders of top soil and mulch were dumped in large yellow bags on their driveways.
The University of Guelph kinesiology student thought there must be an easier way to deliver soil so the New Hamburg native polled his town’s residents to gauge their interest in receiving smaller bags that are delivered directly into their yards or gardens.
His first year in business, in 2006, he had about 100 customers. By day, Weiler worked on a New Hamburg area farm; at night, he shoveled dirt into recycled feed bags and delivered the 50-pound (22.7-kilogram) bags to customers in his 10-year-old van.
The second year his business grew to about 200 customers. He bought an old potato cleaning machine and converted it into a soil-bagging machine. “It beat doing it by hand,” he says.
A local farmer he once worked for rented him space in a barn for his business. Friends and family members helped him with the bagging and taking of orders.
Weiler quickly grew into the Kitchener and Waterloo market. This year, he expanded into Cambridge and Guelph. Dirt Cheap now has more than 2,000 customers, many of them repeat clients.
This year has been especially hectic for Weiler. He bought land on Manitou Drive in Kitchener and built an office and depot where people can drop by and purchase bags of soil, mulch, aggregates and grass seed. The pickup business is in addition to his delivery service.
“The core of the business is having small bags of soil placed around the perimeter of your yard,” he says. “All you have to do is open the bags and dump the soil into your garden” with no need of a shovel or wheelbarrow.
The depot on Manitou Drive was barely completed when spring came early in April and so did the demand for soil. So far this year, he has sold more than 3,000 cubic yards of his soil and mulch.
Weiler’s future plans include expansion into Milton and Hamilton.
Originally, Weiler planned to be a physiotherapist, but he changed his mind after doing a school-related work stints at a physiotherapist’s office. Having spent most of his working life outside on a farm, he felt office life was too confining.
While the days are long, and Weiler says he hasn’t yet seen a paycheque as he has poured all his profits back into the business, he enjoys being his own boss. His wife’s salary supports the pair, and he has worked in the home-renovation business during the winter months.
“It’s not about the money. It’s more about the challenge of building this business,” he says.
“It hasn’t been all positives. There have been trips and falls, but you have to pick yourself up and continue on with it.
Weiler’s advice to other young entrepreneurs is simple. “You have to jump in with both feet. You have to take risks.”
Dirt Cheap
43 Manitou Dr. in Kitchener
Phone: 519-804-4300
Web: www.dirtcheap.ca
Email: info@dirtcheap.ca
Employees: 10 during the peak season
Number of Tech Companies in Waterloo Region Tech Sector Jumps by 21% in Two Years, says 2010 Tech Directory Study
Full Report to be Made Available at Communitech Tech Leadership Conference July 14
Waterloo Region | June 30, 2010 | http://cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/Ju.../30/c9452.html
Tech company growth in Waterloo Region has burgeoned over the past two years, with a 21 percent increase reported in the recently published 2010 edition of the Waterloo Region Tech Directory and State of the Industry report. Full release of the 2010 Tech Directory will coincide with the Communitech 2010 Tech Leadership Conference slated for Wednesday, July 14 in Waterloo Region.
"We're pleased to see this proof point of growth in the technology sector in Waterloo Region, especially in a time when many other opportunities contracted due to economic challenges," said Iain Klugman, president and CEO of Communitech, the organization that commissions the annual State of the Industry report. "One of the key drivers for this is digital media, which for the first time is mentioned in the report and which, along with Information, Communication and Technology, and software companies, now comprises 50 percent of the high-tech companies."
The study, based on a survey and an inventory of technology firms in Waterloo Region and area in January and February this year, says that the number of tech companies in the region has now hit 700 compared to 550 in 2008. Total invested venture capital in Waterloo Region tech companies exceeds $300 million, and tech firms account for $18 billion in annual revenues. It's the first time that digital media has been mentioned in the report.
"The rise of interest and investment in the digital media sector reflects the emphasis being placed on this sector by the Canadian Digital Media Network along with increased focus from government and business," said Klugman. "It's great timing for this groundswell of support since we are currently attracting tenants to the Communitech Hub hosting digital media start-up companies."
Other key findings in the study include:The Waterloo Region continues to have 2,000 tech job openings and currently has 30,000 people employed in tech companies.
- Majority of regional tech firms are small to medium enterprises with 51 percent having between 1 and 5 employees;
- Waterloo Region boasts 25 publicly-traded tech companies,10 of which have headquarters elsewhere;
- Four of the five top 50 Canadian merger and acquisition deals were with Waterloo Region-based companies.
Advance copies of he Waterloo Region 2010 Tech Directory are available at the Communitech offices in the Accelerator Centre, and will be available in full at the Tech Leadership Conference. For further details on the Tech Leadership Conference go to: www.techleadership.ca.
Tech sector keeps multiplying in tough times
Last edited by UrbanWaterloo; 06-30-2010 at 11:43 PM.
ServiceOntario Centre Opening
July 9, 2010 | John Milloy's Newsletter "In this Edition"
Thursday morning, I helped to officially open a newly integrated ServiceOntario centres at 1151 Victoria Street North. At this new centre, you will be able to access health card and driver and vehicle services under one roof. Routine health card services and driver and vehicle renewal services are also now available in Kitchener at the ServiceOntario centres at 1151 Victoria Street North; 30 Manitou Drive and 105 Lexington Road in Waterloo.
An addition centre at 30 Duke Street West in Kitchener will also be offering these services as of July 12, 2010 and a 1400 Weber Street location will be added in the fall.
These changes will give people access to more routine government services and better meet customer needs.
I was wondering about why it was such a hassle to convert Quebec to Ontario license and health cards. This sounds like an improvement to me.
Want to boost your net worth? Live in a mid-sized city
Household debt highest in Calgary, survey of Canadian households’ financial statistics finds
Andrew Binet, Globe and Mail | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle1640442/
Published on Wednesday, Jul. 14, 2010 8:02PM EDT | Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 15, 2010 11:08AM EDT
Which Canadian cities posted the biggest jump in household net worth last year? Toronto? Vancouver? Montreal?
Try Quebec City, Winnipeg, Halifax and Saskatoon. Each of these cities saw household net worth jump by nearly 10 per cent in 2009, according to WealthScapes 2010, a national survey of household financial statistics. Residents in these cities are doing the best job at managing their debt loads while continuing to invest, said Catherine Pearson, vice-president of Environics Analytics, the company behind WealthScapes.
Canada’s commercial hubs, on the other hand, posted net worth growth that hovered around or below the national average of 6.7 per cent. Vancouver, with its pricey real estate, managed to hold on to the title of the city with the highest net worth, but this doesn’t seem likely to last long. Its net worth growth rate was among the lowest of the large cities, at 3.1 per cent.
Calgary’s average household income, at $119,681, was $23,000 higher than any other city, but don’t be misled: The average household in Calgary had $184,850 dollars of debt. That’s nearly $25,000 more than Vancouver, and more than double Montreal.
“Last year we saw that [people in Calgary] were continuing to behave as if there was a boom,” Ms. Pearson said.
Yet it seems Calgary is an exception. “They were behaving differently than the rest of the country,” and “continued to carry heavy debt,” with risk-free household savings amounting to a little less than one-third of the amount of assets held in riskier vehicles like stocks and bonds, she said.
In 2009, Canadians for the most part were “definitely more diversified” when it came to managing their financial assets. Coming out of the recession, there was a widespread “change in investment style,” according to Ms. Pearson, as Canadians transferred their riskier assets into “more cautious vehicles.”
Cities where household net worth grew the most maintained the lowest levels of household savings. The level in Saskatoon grew 9.6 per cent in 2009, while each household has managed to save about $35,696 total. Torontonians have saved the most over all, with an average of $118,388 per household.
Greentec expanding electronics recycling operations
July 16, 2010
By Chuck Howitt, Record staff
CAMBRIDGE — Tony Perrotta is living proof that there’s plenty of green — as in cash — in going green.
Perrotta’s company, Greentec International, is building a $2-million addition at its Cambridge plant to handle its growing business in the recycling of print cartridges, cellphones, computers and other electronic waste.
Expected to be ready by the end of September, the addition will add 26,000 square feet to its 55,000-square-foot plant on Struck Court.
The company is also investing $1.5 million in new processing equipment and plans to hire 12 to 15 people in the near term to handle the growing need for the disposal and recycling of electronic trash, Perrotta said.
Since being founded in the garage of Perrotta’s Cambridge home in 1995, Greentec has grown into a major player in the market for recycled print cartridges.
Greentec says it was one of the first empty-cartridge brokers to serve the print cartridge aftermarket and bills itself as a world leader in this field. Every year, it collects millions of empty cartridges, which it sorts, inspects and prepares for re-furbishment, and then sells to re-manufacturers in North America and overseas.
In 2005, the company added cellphones to its recycling list. After being approved by the province several years ago as a certified processor of electronic waste, it started handling all kinds of computer and consumer-electronic waste, such as monitors, processors, printers, TVs and audio-visual equipment.
Products that can’t be refurbished are dismantled and separated. Metals are sold to refiners while plastics are ground down and sold to customers for use in other plastic products. “Nothing goes to landfill,” said Perrotta.
“We’re experiencing more demand. We’re taking back all kinds of electronics,” said Perrotta, a Montreal native who came to this area to study political science at the University of Waterloo and then embarked on a career selling cars until a relative steered him into recycling.
The company’s business is broadly defined as “reverse logistics” or the collection of used products for repair, re-manufacture or recycling back into the marketplace.
With a current workforce of 75 people, the company handles up to one million pounds of electronic waste a month at the plant on Struck Court, where it moved in 2004.
Perrotta attributes Greentec’s success in a tough economy to several factors, including a lean operating model and its technology for ensuring that all electronic data is properly destroyed.
“Information security is behind a lot of this,” he said of the company’s service.
chowitt@therecord.com
Meat packer creates jobs through provincial grant
570 News Jul 27, 2010 11:51:58 AM
Up to forty new industrial jobs are coming to Waterloo Region this year thanks to a provincial grant.
Local MPP Leeanna Pendergast and Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, Carol Mitchell, announced a $350,000 grant for improvements at Conestoga Meat Packers in Breslau today.
The money will help pay for new machinery and a better packaging system, both of which will increase the plant's output and create new jobs.
The grant also provides for specialized training.
President of the company, Arnold Drung, tells 570 News most of the jobs will be created through improved exporting capacity.
Drung says they've already started hiring for the new positions, and should have all them filled by the end of the year.
The plant already employs 350 people.
Workers turn closed furniture factory into a handbag company
July 28, 2010
By Rose Simone, Record staff
WATERLOO — When Steelcase Inc., a maker of furniture for hospitals and the health care sector, decided to close its Nurture division plant in Waterloo last year, it was a huge blow for Michele Way and Connie McDonald who had devoted so much of themselves to the business.
But instead of just walking out of the empty plant on Davenport Road, the two women stayed, and used the talent and the materials available to them to start a new business, Care-e-On Bags, which makes and sells a variety of handbags, totes, fabric covers and cases.
For Way, running an independent business marks a return to entrepreneurial roots. Her husband, Rob, was one of the original owners of the plant that used to be known as Softcare Innovations Inc. It was sold in 2006 to Michigan-based Steelcase amid high hopes for significant growth. But in 2009, Steelcase decided to consolidate production at a plant in Tijuana, Mexico, laying off about 80 people in Waterloo.
Way, who was working in the human resources department at the time, and McDonald, who was working as a sewing team leader and supervisor, lost their jobs. But they knew the sewers would be the hardest hit, many of them being recent immigrants to Canada with limited knowledge of English.
“I had hired most of those people, so it was heartbreaking,” Way says. They were great employees, McDonald adds. “They always showed up and they worked really hard.”
The idea for handbags actually came from the fact that “our sewers were very enterprising,” Way says. They would often create beautiful bags, to be used as gifts or at trade shows, in their spare time out of scraps of leftover fabric in the plant.
So as the plant was shutting down, Way and McDonald started to joke that maybe they should start a handbag company. After talking to a number of people, it developed into a serious idea.
When Steelcase left, Way and MacDonald managed to lease the plant floor space on Davenport Road.
“The owner of this building was very nice to us and gave us a break, because we had been long-time tenants,” Way says.
Way and McDonald were also able to obtain, for a token price, about 15,000 yards of leftover furniture-making fabrics, including vinyl and high-quality thick fabrics lined with moisture and anti-microbial barriers.
The company was happy to let them take it, and other furniture makers have also been willing to donate leftover materials, because scrap furniture fabric is notoriously difficult to even give away. Only people with industrial sewing machines can work with the thick fabric, which would damage a regular home sewing machine. If you tried to use it on a machine that wasn’t heavy-duty, “the quality just won’t be there,” McDonald says.
Getting the donated fabrics was critical to starting the handbag business, because the material costs would otherwise have been much too high, Way says.
The amount of material they were able to obtain could stretch Waterloo to Elmira. “That’s just what we had here,” Way adds. Other furniture makers that they have contacted also have thousands of yards of scrap fabric. So diverting all that from landfill sties “has a significant impact on the environment,” she says.
Meanwhile, several of the sewers from Steelcase were interested in buying used industrial sewing machines and setting themselves up as independent contract sewers. In starting the handbag business, Way and McDonald were able to provide work to about six of those sewers. As the business grows, they hope to be able to provide more employment.
The wide range of totes and bags in different colours, patterns and styles are now being sold at independent boutiques, bookstores, gourmet shops and gift stores in Waterloo, New Hamburg, Ayr, Guelph, Stratford and Orillia. The retailers selling the bags are listed on the Care-e-on website. Specialty shops at places such as golf courses and fitness centres also sell the bags.
Meanwhile, charitable organizations also buy bags that are sold for fundraisers. “We can make the bags with the labels and sell them at cost, and then they can sell the bags at the price they want, to raise money,” Way says.
The name of the business, Care-e-On Bags, stems from the concept of caring, Way says. “We care about people, the environment and our community,” Way says. So the business makes a point of donating a portion of the revenue from each bag sold by a retailer to the charity of the retailer’s choice, under the retailer’s name.
McDonald and Way say starting a handbag business involved a huge learning curve. After all, this was a product that they didn’t have any experience in selling. They had to learn, for example, about retail pricing. They held an open house to get feedback on what customers were looking for and the price they would be willing to pay.
“We didn’t know, in the beginning, whether it would work,” Way says. “But we thought, ‘what do we have to lose?’ We have the fabric, which is really high end fabric. We were known in the industry for the best quality. So we decided to give it a shot.”
rsimone@therecord.com
The ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of people in the Region has always been one of its greatest strengths, I have alway thought.
Canada's Economic Action Plan Attracts Top Research Talent to Southern Ontario
Minister Goodyear launches initiative to connect Canadian businesses with the next generation of skilled workers
July 28, 2010 | http://news.gc.ca/web/article-eng.do...b=reg&nwsb=reg
Kitchener, ON — Highly-skilled workers, top students and researchers will have the chance to apply their ideas and knowledge to southern Ontario businesses and industry sectors, as a result of a new Government of Canada investment in MITACS Inc. The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), made the announcement today in Kitchener at Unitron Hearing Ltd., joined by Harold Albrecht, MP for Kitchener-Conestoga.
"In order to keep the economy growing and create new jobs in southern Ontario, we need to develop, attract and retain the next generation of leading researchers," said Minister Goodyear. "This investment will help increase business innovation, bring new ideas to market and strengthen the local economy."
The government will invest $11 million in MITACS Inc., a national research network that connects Canadian businesses and organizations with the next generation of skilled workers. This investment will allow MITACS Inc. to expand two of its internship and professional skills training programs in southern Ontario.
With this funding, MITACS' Elevate program will support approximately 160 internships and individual training programs for PhD graduates and post-doctoral fellows in southern Ontario. The program will help skilled workers gain applied business and scientific management knowledge in the private sector.
The Globalink internship program will bring 50 of the top third-year undergraduate students from Indian Institutes of Technology to southern Ontario for research internships, professional skills training and exposure to the region's top industrial innovators.
"Our government is committed to building Canada's knowledge economy," said MP Albrecht. "Canada's Economic Action Plan is strengthening the Waterloo region's economy through major investments in science, innovation and skills training."
These programs provide business opportunities for highly-trained workers, increase research-based innovation in the private-sector and demonstrate to international students that southern Ontario is a great place to research, work and live.
"MITACS is pleased to be partnering with the Government of Canada on the Elevate and Globalink programs, both of which focus on ensuring that Ontario recruits and retains highly-skilled research talent in the province," said Dr. Arvind Gupta, CEO & Scientific Director of MITACS. "As Canada works to strengthen its knowledge economy, we will need a substantial cohort of researchers who can turn the ideas of today into the products of tomorrow."
Funding for this project is being provided by FedDev Ontario, through the Southern Ontario Development Program. FedDev Ontario was created as part of Canada's Economic Action Plan to support economic and community development, innovation, and economic diversification, with contributions to communities, businesses and non-profit organizations in southern Ontario. Financial support is conditional on the signing of a contribution agreement.
For additional details on FedDev Ontario and the Southern Ontario Development Program, please visit the FedDev Ontario web site at www.feddevontario.gc.ca, or call 1-866-593-5505. For additional information on Canada's Economic Action Plan, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca.
Three technology companies share $1.5 million in provincial funding
August 16, 2010
By Rose Simone, Record staff
KITCHENER — Three Waterloo Region technology startups received a total $1.5 million from the Ontario government today.
Client Outlook Inc., Dejero Labs and DossierView will each get $500,000 from the government’s investment accelerator fund to further commercialize their technologies and hire more staff.
Between them, the three companies plan to create about 95 jobs over the next two years, said John Milloy, Ontario minister of research and innovation and Kitchener Centre MPP.
The announcement was made at the Tannery District building in Kitchener.
Client Outlook, currently located in the Accelerator Centre in the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park, has created web-based technology that allows a doctor sitting in his or her office to view diagnostic images coming from a specialist in a hospital, and confer with that specialist at the same time without needing to have special software on his or her computer.
DossierView, which recently moved into one of the Tannery building, has created software that can intelligently search information from the local archive or the web, without having to plug words into a search engine.
Dejero, located on King Street in Waterloo, has technology which eliminates the need for broadcasters to have satellite trucks loaded with expensive equipment and cables in order transmit broadcast-quality live video over the cellular networks.
The Dejero technology is in a portable box about the size of a small suitcase. The television camera plugs into it, and with the push of a button, broadcast-quality images are transmitted over cellular networks.
Ron Neumann, Dejero’s chief executive, said television networks are testing the technology. The live coverage of the Olympic torch run was done using the Dejero technology, he added.
The $500,000 from the Ontario investment accelerator fund will “help us further develop the product, commercialize it and get it in the hands of real customers,” Neumann said.
The company currently employs 28 people, but is doing more hiring. The money will be helpful in growing the staff, Neumann said.
rsimone@therecord.com
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