28/06/2011  |  0

Firm picks city over south

Plans expansion after efforts by business group

Superior Finishes is hiring more people, moving to larger digs and taking a leadership position in water-based industrial coatings.

And it's doing it all in Winnipeg.

A $3-million investment in a much bigger production centre will ensure that there is a fourth generation of Guertin family members in the coatings business in Winnipeg.

CEO Tony Guertin said Monday the investment -- aided by an $800,000 loan from the province's Manitoba Industrial Opportunities Program -- will mean the company will almost certainly be able to add about 20 new positions to its company payroll of 30 employees.

Guertin said that Yes! Winnipeg, Economic Development Winnipeg's new business promotion operation, played an important role in the decision to stay in the city and acquire a 30,000-square-foot building on Paramount Road.

"We have a mixing operation in Michigan right now, and there were financing scenarios available that made us consider moving to the U.S.," he said. "Yes! Winnipeg got us some meetings with the province and put us in touch with real estate agents to find the property in Winnipeg that we needed."

The Guertin family has been in the paint and coatings business since 1906. Tony Guertin, now in his mid-60s, ran Guertin Coatings, Sealants and Polymers Ltd. for 20 years with his father and brothers. (That company was sold to Cloverdale Paint Inc. in 2008.)

He left that family business about 19 years ago and started Superior Finishes, at least partly because family members did not share his desire to grow the business.

Tony wanted to ensure there would be room for his four children in the company. All four now hold key positions in sales and operations at Superior Finishes.

But a recent trend made him think more seriously about moving to the United States.

For one thing, the market there is about 18 times larger for industrial coatings, he said. And, in rapid succession, three Canadian customers who were part of multinational organizations -- a couple of equipment manufacturers and a furniture company -- shut their Canadian plants down and relocated to the United States.

Two years ago, the office furniture manufacturer Haworth Inc. decided to take advantage of a rich tax break offered in Michigan and shut down a Calgary plant, throwing 600 people out of work. Superior was supplying environmentally friendly wood coatings to Haworth and the Buy America mood that took over the United States made it hard for Superior to continue to sell to Haworth stateside.

Guertin started to think about moving his operations south of the border.

"We heard about his plans from a confidential source," said Bill Morrissey, head of Yes! Winnipeg. "We met with Tony last fall and started to talk."

Superior has set up a U.S. mixing operation in Michigan, which has reopened the U.S. market for the company.

But his decision to almost double the size of the company's Winnipeg head office and production site to 30,000 square feet from 16,000 square feet ensures the company will continue to grow here.

"We'll now be on a three-acre site so there will be room for even further expansion," Guertin said.

Local customers such as Laurie Davies, founder and president of Omniglass, are glad Superior is staying.

Davies' company makes fibreglass framing for door and window manufacturers. About a decade ago, he acquired a vacuum paint system for his fibreglass pieces that required a water-based paint.

"We went to all the major suppliers, but none of them had the right product for our system," Davies said.

Superior effectively developed the right mixture for Omniglass.

With annual sales approaching $7 million, Superior is small enough and knowledgable enough to do the research and development required for customers whose business might be too small for major paint companies.

The company recently spent more than two years developing a new water-based coating formulation with high durability and low VOC (volatile organic compounds), and Superior is becoming one of the leaders in the field in North America.

 

By: Martin Cash

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2011 B6