By ANDREW WAREING
In a quest to expand his business beyond industrial repair services, Mike Rudnicki is gearing up to attend an upcoming trade mission to Chicago, adding new-product manufacturing to his slate of services.
Rudnicki, owner of Rudnicki Industrial Inc. in Thunder Bay envisions market opportunity by exporting his manufacturing capabilities. He is one of several northern business leaders attending the business-to-business matchmaking component of this year’s Team Northern Ontario/FedNor trade mission to Chicago during National Manufacturing Week Feb. 22 to 26.
“What we’re trying to do is get away from repair work and go into new product manufacturing,” says Rudnicki. “I’m interested in working to the point, for instance, where someone calls us and says ‘I’ve got an excavator and I’m looking for a new boom and new bucket’ then we build it and ship it to them.”
The Manufacturing Week annual tradeshow is considered the largest of its kind in North America. Helen Gillespie, project manager for the trade mission with RAPIDSuccess Business Growth Association, organizers of the event for Team Northern Ontario and FedNor, says there are 22 companies
attending from the North, with various levels of exporting expertise.
