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Manufacturing Update
In Oakville (GTA West), the GE Lighting plant just won a North American-wide tube-lighting competition and will undergo a $44 million revitalization, complete with new production line. The BF Goodrich plant, which no longer makes tires but aerospace manufacturing, has 600 operators and highly skilled engineers building landing-gear and flight-control systems. The plant is adding 80,000 sq. ft. (7,400 sq. m.) to its 285,000-sq.-ft. (26,500-sq.-m.) of space, says Brian Malloch, manager, Maintenence Facilities, from his Oakville office. "We're expanding due to increased volume of our manufacturing and assembly," he says, adding that in aviation circles BF Goodrich is "generally associated" with Boeing. About 100 new jobs, in manufacturing and engineering, will be created with the expansion, which is slated for completion January 2001.
The Oakville plant was ideal for a number of reasons, says Malloch. "One is the quality of the product we're noted for making. And the other is that we practice a lot of 'lean-manufacturing'. . .a lot of on-going improvements to reduce the lead-times and cost of our product." The Oakville plant, he adds, is known for high-quality with good efficiency.
In nearby Burlington, the old idiom "all roads lead here" is literally true. Located 30 minutes from Pearson International Airport and 40 minutes from the U.S. border, the city converges at the Queen Elizabeth Way expressway from Toronto, Highway 403 from Hamilton, and by the spring of 2001 an extended Highway 407.
The city is gearing for growth. Among recent expansions are Gennum, a manufacturer of semiconductor technology. The company was named "Business of the Year -- 1999," due in part to its C$21 million expansion, which doubled its space to 175,000 sq. ft. (16,250 sq. m.) and its employee-base by 15 percent.
At Comtek Advanced Structures, which does repairs, engineering and manufacturing of aircraft structural parts, President Patrick Whyte says "sales last year were 75 percent higher than the year before, and this year we're looking to double again." Comtek, which primarily serves the regional airline industry, has seen tremendous growth since its birth in 1994, when just five people were employees. It now employs 100. The company has just completed a C$900,000 expansion that Whyte says "doubled our facility, from 15,500 sq. ft. to about 35,000 sq. ft. (1,440 sq. m. to 3,250 sq. m.)."
A 20-year aviation engineer who founded the company with partner Alistair Davie, Whyte says Comtek grew from strictly repair to manufacturing, when "opportunities were presented." The building doesn't belong to Comtek. "We choose not to tie up our own capital in real estate. We have design-build lease-backs for both the original building and the expansion with Monarch Construction in Toronto," who Whyte says were very "responsive to our requirements."
By next year however, Whyte is expecting to outgrow the expansion, "so we already have plans to look at building another facility in Burlington." It's interesting to note that Comtek actually began in another municipality but moved to Burlington, in part because the "Economic Development people were more proactive in lining us up with builders like Monarch. They really impressed us." A number of aerospace suppliers are also located in the region; the town is near airports and major highways. "When the 407 opens up, it'll be even better."
A sure sign that Pickering, north of Toronto, is growing is its new status as a city (formerly a town), which was announced on New Year's Eve 1999. Pickering now is knows as "Canada's Only Millennium City." Though officials report it will not change the legal status of the municipality in any way, the new title will help promote the city's attractiveness as "a fast growing, business-ready" place, particularly if its manufacturing sector continues to grow.
St. Laurent Graphics Packaging recently built a 125,000-sq.-ft. (11,600-sq.-m.) manufacturing plant. And CDA Industries is now fully operational at a new state-of-the-art, 239,000-sq.-ft. (22,200-sq.-m.) facility, which relocates a former headquarters and production plant. Construction is also almost complete on the city's largest office development, an additional tower by Picore Holdings, who purchased the first-phase of the Pickering Corporate Center in 1995. The new eight-story, 80,000-sq.-ft. (7,400-sq.-m.) second-phase will offer tenants ample parking and proximity to amenities. Officials report that speculative construction has spurred a 40 percent increase in activity this year, with industrial and commercial sectors reaching their highest levels ever.
Brampton is citing a record-high level of building activity this year. With C$249 million worth of permits issued in just the first quarter of 2000, the city is expecting to reach the $1 billion mark by year's end. In May 2000, Silcom Technologies broke ground on a new 56,000 sq.-ft. (5,200-sq.-m.) manufacturing and office facility; Electronics Boutique Canada is constructing a 120,000-sq.-ft. (11,150-sq.-m.) facility, which will be a headquarters and distribution center; and Coca-Cola Bottling is investing C$150 million in a new 630,000-sq.-ft. (58,500-sq.-m.) market and service center, which will employ 550 people.
©2000 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and is not warranted to be accurate or current.
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