Sudbury transportation firm expands

As a fourth-generation family business based out of Sudbury, haulage and carting firm the Jutras Group is expanding throughout Northern Ontario with new facilities in Sault Ste. Marie and recently inked contracts with Canada Post in Timmins.

March was a busy month for the company, with a new 1,000-square-foot warehouse established in Sault Ste. Marie in early March to handle a series of new regional delivery contracts with companies such as Avon. This will facilitate the work being done from its existing offices in Sudbury, Timmins and North Bay.

March also marked its first Combined Urban Service contract for Timmins, meaning it will handle sorting, collection and delivery of mail for Canada Post.

“Even after all this time, we still have to bid on every Canada Post contract so that we’re still winning speaks to the value we can deliver,” says Denise Jutras, CEO of the Jutras Group.

Jutras has handled mail collection and related mailbox maintenance and installation services for Canada Post throughout the North for nearly 80 years.

This long-standing partnership once made up 100 per cent of the company’s business, reaching back to the 1930s when Alcide Jutras first used horse and buggy to transport mail from the train station at the heart of Sudbury to the downtown post office.

Since then, the company has been handed down between the generations, with each bringing its own innovations and growth to the company.

When a big contract fell through in the early 1990s, Denise’s father Normand saw the need to diversify and promptly began reaching out with a number of new divisions, such as a full-service garage, a wheelchair bus service, and a moving company. While some of those have been sold or closed over the years, transportation has always remained at the forefront.

Though Canada Post still remains the company’s primary client, related business only makes up 60 per cent of the whole, alongside courier and delivery services for a broad range of clients, from school boards to airlines. These include logistics as well as regular material transportation to “smart courier” work involving the storage and basic installation of dialysis systems and PIN pads for banking clients.

These days, Denise works alongside her brother Andre, who serves as a manager and has been with the company for 20 years. Still, she emphasizes that titles have little meaning when it comes to decision-making, something which is done as a group.

Indeed, Andre’s many years in the company have made him an invaluable asset, she says.

“I worked in every division, I’ve worked as a driver and later as a broker, so I really got to know the streets of Sudbury,” says Andre.

Together, the two have also brought in their own changes, including the use of tractor-trailers, something their father had always resisted. Now, the company has a handful of such vehicles dedicated exclusively to carrying mail from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury five nights a week, as well as northwards from Timmins and Kirkland Lake.

These complement the more than 50 vehicles seen across the company, ranging from cargo vans and cube vans to five-ton trucks and cars. These are manned by Jutras’ 50 full-time employees, alongside the 50 contractors which work in both full- and part-time capacity.

Despite its recent accomplishments, Denise says the company’s focus and infrastructure will continue to be on Northern Ontario, given its long-standing regional strengths and heritage. However, some consideration is being given to opening up southern Ontario delivery opportunities to its northern clients.

Regardless, Denise says the company is still, at its heart, a small business.

“We still get excited about every contract we sign,” she says. “Each client, each job is important to us.”