SIS Manufacturing in Sault Ste. Marie is undergoing an expansion that is poised to introduce the steel fabrication business into new global markets.
This spring, the company constructed a brand-new 36,000-square-foot facility to fabricate locomotive underframes and work on large welding projects to service the medium industrial sector.
The shop will run around the clock, seven days a week, alongside the original 37,000-square-foot facility.
“We essentially have become a prime vendor to Caterpillar,” said Tony Coccimiglio, who joined SIS as general manager last September.
“The volume has increased substantially and it justified the need to expand.”
The expansion, the monetary value of which Coccimiglio said is “in the millions of dollars,” was facilitated with the help of the Business Retention and Expansion program through Business Sault Ste. Marie, a division of the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
With the help of $1 million in funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp.— half in the form of a loan, the other half a grant—the company was able to complete the shop and purchase equipment which allows SIS to handle steel plate up to 30 tons and weld beams up to 80 feet long.
“We found that there was a need and a demand for those types of products and customers looking for suppliers that can handle that,” Coccimiglio said.
New equipment includes an AKS dura-kut plasma cutting system with two servo-drive carriages with twin burning beds; a Lincoln electric power gantry system, supporting two independent submerged arc welding heads; four 20-ton-capacity, top-running, doublegirder cranes; and a new test laboratory with automated inspection equipment.
This kind of growth will require additional staff, but Coccimiglio said it’s still early to predict what the company’s needs will be.
“Currently we employ approximately 40 people, and in the next few months—it’s hard to put a number on it, but I can tell you the plan is to grow significantly,” he said. Growth has been exponential since the company was formed as part of SIS Group in 1992 by president Tony Porco.
It comprises Superior Industrial Services, which offers millwright, pipefitting and ironwork services, among others; Hydraulic Solutions, which offers hydraulic sales, service and repair; and SIS Manufacturing, which focuses on welding, plasma cutting and shot blasting. SIS Manufacturing’s growth is welltimed.
Even before the expansion took place, Coccimiglio said the company saw a need for more space based on the growth in demand of its existing customer base alone.
Then the phone started ringing with new offers. During a whirlwind two weeks in June, SIS had been contacted by four different companies in North America, along with companies in Europe and Brazil, all seeking its services.
It all points to SIS evolving as a global entity, something Coccimiglio said is definitely on the company’s radar, but it's looking at slow growth to get there.
“It’s a long-term vision for us that we do want to achieve that, and that’s something that we’re striving for,” he said. “But we’re really focused on making sure that we’re good at what we do; we continue to grow and get better every day, and we take a lot of pride in what we do.”
Coccimiglio accredits that success to a solid staff and, in particular, his boss, Porco, whom he said has led the team to where it is today.
“Our company president’s had this vision and we have now structured a team to help it grow; and we’re reaching those rewards already within a real short time,” he said. “So we have a great team here, I’m proud to be a part of it, and we look forward to a long, successful future.”
