Winter 2012 Newsletter

Thursday January 19, 2012

Welcome to the Invest in Middlesex Winter 2012 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.

Dow Growing in Nairn
Business Directory Launched
Walridge Home Business Success
Exploring Local Wine Opportunities
Featured Property

Dow Growing in Nairn

Henry Olechowski, DOW For years, researchers with Hyland Seeds have worked in virtual anonymity, developing strains of wheat for farmers around the world. The work they did, in a converted Nairn gas station, improved wheat yields, helping farmers feed millions of people annually.

This spring, those researchers will move into a new, high-tech facility, two kilometers outside Nairn, where they will have the space and equipment to expand their work significantly.

The new facility is the first obvious change since Dow AgroSciences purchased Hyland more than a year ago. The Nairn facility is one of three research facilities Dow operates worldwide. The other two are in Washington State and Australia, says Henry Olechowski, who manages the Nairn lab and is overseeing the final stages of construction of the new 10,000-square foot facility.

“We could have put this new facility anywhere in the world, but we stayed in Middlesex County because of the expertise of the people working here,” he says. “You just can’t replace that knowledge of the people who have been doing this here for more than 20 years.”

Developing a new strain of wheat requires patience. Typically, it can take 7-12 years from inception to market. New strains continually increase the yield and are more resistant to pests and disease. Because diseases mutate and climate conditions are always in flux, the work of developing new resistant strains is never done.

Dow researchers use a double haploid technique that reduces the time it takes to develop new strains to 3-4 years.

“Everything we do with double haploid is natural,” Olechowski says. “This isn’t genetic engineering or anything like that. We use corn plants to pollinate the wheat plants, giving us two chromosomes. That speeds up the process and allows us to deliver better yields to farmers.”

In the new facility, wheat and corn plants will grow from germination in large rooms with tightly controlled environmental conditions. LED lighting will simulate midday summer sun. The humidity will be controlled, and all the conditions will be monitored remotely to ensure the plants are always in optimum conditions.

The staff of six full-time workers is supplemented during the year by one or two part-time workers and as many as 10 summer students annually. “We have three people in our lab, each with at least 22 years of experience,” Olechowski says. “You can’t find that in other places.”

The facility is strictly for research. Dow leases space at five farms in and around Middlesex. The yield testing sites show how the plants react to real conditions. It’s a benefit for local farmers to be able to buy plants tested in identical conditions – Dow will continue to sell using the Hyland retail name.

The plants developed in Middlesex are tested in many other locations, however, and sold around the world.

“That’s a separate operation from what we do here in the lab,” Olechowski says. “The lab work we do here shows up on countless farms in many countries.”

Middlesex County Business Directory Launched

Business Directory It’s now possible to find any business organization in Middlesex County with a few taps on a keyboard, smart phone or tablet device. Middlesex has just launched a comprehensive and fully searchable directory of businesses, available on its investinmiddlesex.ca website.

The directory includes more than 2,400 organizations, including manufacturers, agri-businesses, retailers and non-profits. Searchable by name, sector or other key words, it is a user-friendly listing that promotes every business operating within the County.

“The directory demonstrates the diversity of businesses that call Middlesex County home,” said Aileen Murray, Manager of Economic Development for Middlesex County. “We will use it as a tool to promote and support Middlesex County businesses and also to encourage Middlesex businesses to look locally first for suppliers. It’s very easy to find a business nearby that can supply something you need, and we hope local businesses will do that and help each other.”

“We’ll also use the directory as an investment attraction tool to demonstrate the wide variety of businesses that benefit from everything Middlesex County has to offer. The directory will also identify potential suppliers for prospective investors.”

In addition to being available online with a range of search options, the directory is also available for download in printed form.

Users can search by company name, key words, community, NAICS code (the North American Industrial Classification System) or distance. The database has already prepared searches by Middlesex County’s target sectors of Agri-Business, Manufacturing, Green or Renewable Businesses and Tourism. But searches of any other sector are also possible and very easy to do.

Each business listing includes a company description, contact information including email and phone. The listing also includes a Google map identifying the location within the County and will provide directions from any other location. Listings can also include web addresses.

Murray encourages Middlesex businesses to check their listings at www.investinmiddlesex.ca. Businesses not listed or needing a correction can join for free, make changes and add a sales description, photos, hours of operation, etc to their listing.

“We see this as another tool in our tool box to support our existing businesses in Middlesex County and attract more investment to the region,” said Murray.

Walridge Motors - Home Business Success

When Mike Partridge was 16, he bought his first motorcycle – a Matchless 500cc bike, a popular ride in his homeland of Great Britain. He had no way of knowing at the time that more than 40 years later that interest in British motorcycles would be the basis of a successful business, operating now for more than 20 years.

Partridge and his partner Kath Hooson live and work together just outside Lucan, shipping motorcycle parts to enthusiasts all over the world. Along with their three employees, they ship regularly to more than 14,000 customers, 60 per cent of whom live in the U.S. with the rest scattered across the globe.

“The heyday of British motorcycles was 1940-1983,” says Partridge, sitting in his cramped warehouse and office that sits on a 30-acre property he bought in 2001. “There are people everywhere looking for parts for these bikes. We get more than 100 inquiries every day.”

His company, Walridge Motors, deals with more than 100 suppliers but in recent years has started designing parts to meet customer requests and working with parts makers to manufacture them in large enough quantities to make it cost effective.

Ironically, Partridge, 63, has very little time to ride these days because he spends about 80 hours a week answering emails, designing and ordering parts, and shipping orders to customers by mail.

"A few people come in to see us, but we’re not set up for that,” he says. “We ship 99 per cent of what we sell.”

Partridge came to Canada in 1978 when he was offered a job by the Bank of Montreal. He managed several BMO locations but in 1988, at the age of 39, he was ready to try something different.

The change was prompted by a request by the bank that he move to Ottawa. Instead of doing that, he stayed in the region and became a self-employed mortgage broker. He started a motorcycle parts business on the side.

“When I was in Britain, racing and restoring motorcycles, I noticed parts makers there were shipping a huge number of parts to North America. My idea was to serve that market on the side while working as a mortgage broker.”

He published a catalogue of parts and began taking mail orders. There was no Internet or email, and it started out very small.

Before too long, however, it was requiring more time than he could spare from his official full-time job. Unable to hire anyone with enough expertise, he dedicated himself full-time and watched as demand kept growing and growing.

In addition to 14,000 motorcycle enthusiasts, about 20 per cent of the business today is selling parts to wholesalers. The business carries about 32,000 part numbers, virtually anything an owner could need for a British bike built from 1940-1983.

The business operated for 13 years in London. Partridge bought the 30 acres near Lucan in 2001 and moved the business there 2004.

“The Township of Lucan Biddulph has been very cooperative with us,” he says. “We don’t need to get too many licenses or worry about all sorts of regulations. We do what we do here and they support us. We’re very happy here.”

So too are the hundreds of customers who find him every week, in search of an obscure part they can’t find anywhere else.

Exploring Local Wine Opportunities

Bonnie Preece When most people hear the phrase ‘Ontario wine’, they usually think of the Niagara region, home to dozens of vineyards and wineries, and a popular tourist attraction every summer.

If Ontario South Coast Wines achieves its goals, there will come a day when vineyards and wineries along the Lake Erie shoreline are thought of in the same way as their Niagara counterparts.

Formed in the summer of 2010, Ontario South Coast Wines (OSCW) has brought together more than a dozen wineries and vineyards in five counties along the north shore of Lake Erie, including Middlesex County.

Its mandate is to “cultivate a distinct and vibrant wine region” in the area. More concretely, it hopes to achieve the official status of Designated Viticulture Area (DVA), known more widely as VQA.

That designation is made by the provincial government. To qualify, an area must have geographical features that distinguish the grapes from that area, and the area must produce an average of at least 250 tonnes of wine grapes from a minimum of 125 acres of vineyards.

“We’re getting close to 100 acres,” says Judy Buck, general administrator of OSCW. “We are working hard to organize existing wineries and vineyards to join the organization so we can get the VQA designation. We’re where Niagara was 30 years ago, and where Prince Edward County was five years ago.”

Bonnie Preece bought Carolinian Winery & Eatery in Middlesex last May, and one of the first things she did was join OSCW. “I like the idea of working with other people doing something similar. I met several people at the London Food and Wine Show, and I really enjoyed talking to others who are running wineries too.”

Located just north of Dorchester, Carolinian is home to several popular varieties of fruit wine. Preece sells traditional grape wine, and makes wines from blueberries, strawberries, black currents, and other berries on site.

“We’re planning to start using blackberries this year,” she says. “We also make a lot of blended wine, things like black current and Merlot. That’s very popular.”

Everything on the vineyard is organic, so customers come to buy organic fruit and wine year round – and also to eat at the popular restaurant.

Preece and chef Dave McMurray have been working hard this winter to renovate both the restaurant and its menu. The plan is to reopen the restaurant at the end of February. “Everything old is new again,” Preece says.

It was the restaurant that originally attracted her to the property. “Some friends took me for lunch there a couple of years ago, and I loved it,” she recalls. “I got to thinking it would be a great business to buy and run, so I started making inquiries that day and before long it was mine.”

In addition to Preece, there are several other vineyards and winemakers across Middlesex County. Several grow grapes and make traditional wines that regularly win awards at wine shows.

Ross Wilson has been growing grapes just outside Glencoe since 1992. It has always been a hobby, but in 1995, he quit his day job and devoted most of his time to his burgeoning vineyard.

“I started in ’92 with 10 vines, but in ‘96 I got serious and ordered 200 vines. I just keeping adding to it every year.”

He does more than just add to what he grows each year. He has spent the last 15 years collecting varieties of grapes that thrive in the Middlesex County climate. Those are not the same varieties that do well further south in Niagara, as he discovered early on.

“At first, I bought vines from Niagara, but they just won’t grow here. So I started talking to people who were growing grapes in this area, and I slowly found varieties that do really well here. Now I’m up to 25 varieties. I like (that) a lot of them were brought here by Europeans decades ago.”

Wilson House Vineyard has won many awards at wine shows over the years. Among the varieties in his three-acre vineyard are: Vidal, Marchal Foch, Zoller White, Castel and Cairo Blue.

As Ontario South Coast Wines grows and continues to attract more vineyards and wineries, more and more people will discover the wines of Middlesex County and neighbouring jurisdictions. After years of experimenting, grape growers have discovered varieties that thrive in this area, adapting to the unique climate to create unique varieties of wine.

Judy Buck and the members of OSCW have a great story to tell, and they’re working hard to tell it across the province and beyond.