Invest in Middlesex Winter 2011

Tuesday January 11, 2011

Welcome to the Invest in Middlesex Winter 2011 Newsletter. This quarterly e-newsletter has been designed for local businesses, prospective investors and our economic development partners.

Take a minute to get caught up on all the latest news and learn more about the opportunities available to you in Middlesex County. Also, sign up for the next workshop in the “Pump Up Your Business” series we are offering in partnership with the Middlesex Business Help Centre and the Local Training Board. The next session – Strengthen Your Agri-Business with Tech Toys and Innovation - will be held on Wednesday, January 16th.

JPW Systems Growing
Armatec Celebrates Grand Opening
Opportunities on the Sidelines
Catalyst for Small Business
Tourism Priority Projects Launched
Featured Property

JPW Systems Growing

Paul Wraith, JPW Systems When it came time to move from his increasingly cramped rented location into something he would build and own, Paul Wraith knew exactly where he wanted to be. He had started his business in Komoka, and 10 years later he had no desire to go anywhere else.

“We had an opportunity to go somewhere else, but honestly it never crossed my mind,” he recalls. “We love this location. It has easy access to the 401 and 402. You can get anywhere you need to be from here.”

Wraith, 47, and his wife, JoAnne, own JPW Systems, a company they started in July 2000. Few people recognize the company name, but most people in Middlesex County have used its products. JPW is a leading supplier of door hardware in schools, hospitals, universities and plenty of other public buildings.

When he began, Wraith was the only employee and he worked from his home. When he outgrew that arrangement, he rented a storefront in Komoka, a stone’s throw from his current location. In just three months, he had outgrown that space and taken over the space next door.

By the time JPW moved last year, the company had three spaces in the rented building, totaling about 3,600 square feet. The company’s new home is 10,500 square feet and is home to 21 employees. JPW designs and builds complex door systems that integrate everything from barrier free technology to security measures that can include fingerprint scanners and other items Wraith would rather not disclose.

“Most people don’t give much thought to the door of a school or hospital, but there are a lot of issues,” Wraith says. “They’re pretty sophisticated, and we design the doors to hide all the electrical components and wiring.”

When Wraith began planning his new building, he met with Michael Barnier, Corporate Support Specialist in Middlesex Centre.

“I toured his business and then sat down to talk about parcels of land that were available in the county,” says Barnier. “Paul wanted to stay in the area, so it was pretty easy to work with him, especially because the land he ended up buying was already zoned for commercial/industrial development.”

“It was pretty straight forward,” says Marc Bancroft, senior planner in Middlesex Centre. “It was an infill development, and we think it will be a growing area.”

Consulting on his own building was easy for Wraith. His job is largely about consulting with various parties on projects, and it’s something he enjoys. “We end up being part of the team, with the architect and contractor, on a lot of these projects. We often work with the architect during the design phase to understand how the building will be used and the needs for accessibility and security.”

“Then we design and sell our product to the contractor. And after things are installed, we work hard to make sure the building owner is happy. It’s like having three customers sometimes.”

Now that his new building is up and running, Wraith is excited about the coming year. JPW has a number of projects underway and lots of room to grow as needed.

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Armatec Celebrates Grand Opening

Karl Pfister, Armatec Survivability Born in nearby Thorndale three decades ago, Armatec Survivability officially opened its brand new, $40-million facility in Dorchester late last year. At 300,000 square feet, it anchors the new DaVinci Business Park, 68 acres dedicated to economic growth and expansion.

Armatec employs 340 people and plans to hire up to 50 more following its move. As demand for its armour and related military equipment grows, it has the capacity to add another 120,000 square feet to its new home. The building can hold as many as 800 employees.

“This has long been a dream of mine, a vision, and I am very happy it is happening,” Armatec chief executive Karl Pfister said when plans for the building were announced.

At the grand opening, he was joined by hundreds of dignitaries including Middlesex County Warden Joanne Vanderheyden and Thames Centre Mayor Jim Maudsley, both of whom praised the company for its vision and for the jobs it has created to date.

“Armatec can serve as a real catalyst for further high-tech investment in our region,” Vanderheyden said. “It is a world-class company that will attract related businesses in the months and years to come.”

“Thames Centre is open for business, and Armatec’s decision to build here is very encouraging,” said Maudsley. “As a community, we’ve pursued an aggressive strategy to attract this kind of investment.”

Indeed, Armatec is one of several military manufacturers in the area, creating a cluster that will encourage further growth, investment and job creation throughout Middlesex County.

“The word campus is a good one,” said Serge Lavoie, president of the Southwest Economic Alliance. “Other businesses of the same mind will be attracted here. That is exactly what will happen over time.”

As if to reinforce the potential of the new plant, Armatec announced a deal with Mercedes Benz to bid on a $1.1-billion Canadian military contract. The deal calls for German-built cabs and frames to be shipped to Armatec where workers would add armour to enhance security, creating a fleet of more than 2,500 trucks and support vehicles for the Canadian military.

If accepted, the bid would double business at the Armatec plant, prompting more hires and pushing the company into the big leagues of military suppliers, which in turn would allow it to bid on increasingly larger projects.

The new Armatec plant is bright, clean and energy efficient. It is heated and cooled using geothermal energy and employs the largest in-floor radiant heating system in Canada. Lights dim as rooms brighten, an important feature given the amount of natural light that bathes every part of the plant.

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Opportunities on the Sidelines

Harold Marek, South Huron Turf Most parents of children who play soccer in the summer are happy to sit on the sideline and cheer on the team. However, Harold Marek of Ailsa Craig turned his soccer watching time into something more – a business.

Marek is owner of South Huron Turf, retailer and installer of a product called Permaline, manufactured in Quebec. It is a narrow strip of green artificial turf with a bright white line painted down the middle. It is used to create permanent lines on soccer and other sports fields, so groundskeepers don’t have to keep painting the lines on the grass throughout the season.

Three years ago Marek, whose daughters Denise and Nicole play soccer in South Huron, was trying to improve the field on which the girls play. He was treasurer of the soccer association and started investigating ways of making the boundary lines permanent.

“I found Permaline on the Internet, making this product in Quebec,” he recalls. “I got a quote to do the lines on the whole field for $11,000.”

The association didn’t have $11,000 sitting around for such a project, but the Egg Board of Canada decided to sponsor the project, and voila: In April 2009, the South Huron soccer field was the first in Ontario to have Permalines installed.

“It worked great. People really liked it,” Marek says. The enthusiastic response got him thinking about starting a business to install the lines on fields across Ontario. He signed an agreement with the company for exclusive rights in Ontario and began installing them.

But it was difficult given his full-time job and lack of capital to invest in a proper vehicle and some employees.

That’s when he went to the Business Help Centre in Kilworth and found out about the Sand Plains Community Development Fund, a $15-million fund available to residents of Middlesex County and four neighbouring counties provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

“Brian Chalmers at the Business Help Centre helped me write a business plan and a loan application,” Marek says. “That was really helpful, and I got a loan of $90,000 to push the business forward.”

With the funds, he bought a 1999 Ford F150 pickup truck and had it decaled by a friend for no charge. He also was able to hire summer students to help with the installation of his product. “I look like a professional now when I show up to quote a job or do the installation. It makes a real difference.”

At $11,000 per field, it’s not a minor expense for sports organizations, but the product lasts at least 15 years, during which time there is no cost to redo lines. So Marek believes the product pays for itself in about five years.

To date, he’s installed about 10 fields across Ontario. As soon as the weather allows, he has three fields lined up to do in Orillia, and he has high hopes for this coming summer, thanks largely to the Sand Plains funding he received.

By the end of last year, the Sand Plains fund had loaned $4.8-million to 26 businesses in the five counties in which it operates. It has also provided grants of $1.7-million to 10 not-for-profit organizations. Private companies are eligible only for loans; grants are for not-for-profit organizations that will have a regional impact with the funds they receive. The program wraps up March 31, 2012.

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Catalyst for Small Business

Brian Chalmers, Business Help Centre It’s hard to imagine a more aptly named place than the Business Help Centre. Located in Kilworth, its mandate, quite simply, is to help people start, expand or maintain their businesses.

Operating within the Community Futures Development Corporation of Middlesex County, the Centre provides assistance to businesses located within the County.

The Centre provides help ranging from consulting and planning, to community economic development, to making and arranging loans to qualifying businesses. In 2008/2009, Centre staff assisted with 41 business start-ups, helped 28 other businesses expand and helped another 35 maintain their operations. The Centre arranged financing, directly or indirectly of more than $4.6-million dollars and assisted in the creation or maintenance of 225 jobs throughout the County.

“In a typical year, we would have contact with 3,000 or 4,000 people,” says Brian Chalmers, Business and Loans Advisor, at the Centre. “Of those, 300 or 400 will get assistance with a detailed business plan. Roughly half of those may go to a loan application process, and of those who apply, about half would be approved.”

The Centre has various sources of revenue, but primarily it lends its own money and reinvests the interest back into the community with further loans. Its mandate is to help businesses that cannot secure loans from a bank. Within the last 18 months, Industry Canada has topped up the Centre’s funding base with two separate grants totaling $1.65-million.

In addition, the Centre has access to funding from the Sand Plains Community Development Fund, a $15-million fund provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The funds come from a fund used to assist tobacco communities with the transition of their economy and now are available to businesses in the Counties of Middlesex, Brant, Elgin, Norfolk and Oxford. The Sand Plains Program will end March 31, 2012.

“The Sand Plains loans can be very helpful to businesses,” Chalmers says. “We can loan up to $250,000, and the rate is prime plus two per cent.

In addition to Sand Plains, there are several government programs that provide loans to small businesses. Each has its own criteria, some targeting young entrepreneurs for example, and Chalmers is more than happy to direct applicants to the most promising program or programs to match his or her situation.

Loans of less than $25,000 are approved by the Centre itself. Loans above that figure must be approved by a loan committee comprised of CFDC board members. The rate for those loans is prime plus three per cent. If the prime rate rises to 5% or more, Chalmers says, the board can adjust its markup to ease the burden to its clients. The Centre can also work with businesses to defer principal payments if that is needed to get through a challenging time.

Chalmers is an entrepreneur at heart. He has an MBA from the Ivey School of Business and owned three businesses during his career. “Now I enjoy working with people and their businesses. I think of this as a small way to give something back to the community, and I really enjoy it.”

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Tourism Priority Projects Launched

After months of proposals, meetings and careful consideration, the new Regional Tourism Organization 1 (RTO 1) that includes Middlesex County has chosen seven priority projects to mark the start of the organization.

RTO 1 comprises Middlesex County, along with London, Sarnia-Lambton, Windsor-Essex-Pelee, and the Counties of Chatham-Kent, Elgin, Haldimand, Norfolk and Oxford. It is one of 13 regions established by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture covering the entire province. Members of each region work together to promote and expand tourism destinations and businesses across the larger area they share.

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture has earmarked $1.6-million for transition costs and priority projects in Southwest Ontario this year. With the priority projects selected, RTO 1 has begun the process of issuing Requests for Proposals from businesses with ideas that fit within those priorities.

“This is very exciting,” says Sheila Devost, Tourism Development Officer with Middlesex Tourism. “There is a lot of money available to develop our tourism industry, focusing on the seven priority projects we’ve established.”

RTO 1 members met extensively to develop priority projects that will have the most impact to growing the number of visitors and length of stays in the region. The request for proposals are being posted for the projects on the RTO 1 website, which can be found at: www.tourismregion1.com.

The seven priority projects are:

1) Agri-Tourism Strategy

This project will include a detailed inventory of current agri-tourism operations, potential new opportunities, business case studies, product development recommendations and a marketing and promotion plan.

2) Motorcycle Tourism Market Strategy

The plan calls for the development of a map and website for motorcycle enthusiasts to encompass the entire region. The project will also include developing partnerships with motorcycle groups, retailers and motorcycle-friendly accommodation. It also calls for the identification of events that will interest motorcyclists and related strategies to extend their stay within the region.

3) Port, Coastal and Riverfront Development Strategy

This plan invites businesses to make greater use of one of the region’s greatest natural assets – its waterfronts. Stretching some 900 km, along Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair and portions of Lake Huron, together with numerous inland waterways, the region’s proximity to water is almost unlimited. This project will identify strategic investments which will create memorable tourism experiences for visitors.

4) Regional Birding Initiative & Assessment

Birding is a growing recreational pursuit, partially because the aging boomer demographic is so interested in the hobby. This project will focus on creating a birding tourism experience in the spring and fall, when hundreds of varieties of birds come and go from the area.

5) Regional Culinary Guide

RTO 1 will create a magazine highlighting the unique culinary people and businesses of the area. Serving as an introduction to many high quality culinary experiences, it will lead readers to listings and websites, giving information of all kinds for anyone planning a trip to or within the region.

6) Market Development Strategy

This project will establish an inventory of the existing tourism market in the region, looking at existing attractions and markets but also identifying key trip motivators, core attractors, tourism packages and product synergies for the entire region.

The project will also begin work on a regional branding/renaming strategy for Region 1, performing market focus group meetings and research and short-listing suggested names. It will then recommend ways to enhance the region’s brand and tourism offerings, under a unified name and approach.

7) Regional Recreational Experience and Assessment

Focusing on golfing, fishing and camping, this project will assess the region’s recreational and outdoor experiences, creating a strategic marketing plan to highlight what the region has to offer.

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