By Marla Tomlinson
The City of Thunder Bay has been actively marketing its proximity to the United States border in an effort to encourage trade and export involvement between northwestern Ontario businesses and the US Midwest. This effort has shown some encouraging results, says Nancy Creighton, manager of Development Thunder Bay.
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The US Midwest has been the main target for marketing and trade development, she says. Various strategies have been implemented and have been met with success. One such strategy is looking at local businesses who have an excess of product and trying to connect them to an American company that needs such a product developed for their business. An example where this has flourished is in metal fabrication.
The city has also developed an ad brochure which was mailed out to companies in the U.S. Creighton says they then follow up with the chief executive officer of the companies and see if there is some trade or exporting opportunities they can work on. Through this process, some companies have developed trade contacts. However, it is an ongoing process, she adds.
"We keep plugging away with the contacts, Creighton says. It's a long-term effort and you have to keep the contact up."
Development Thunder Bay is part of the Northwest-Midwest Alliance (NMA), which is a partnership of Northern Ontario businesses and economic development agencies dedicated to building business linkages between northwestern Ontario and the U.S. Midwest. Some of the partnering groups include Confederation College, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay Ventures, Bell Canada and the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.
Through NMA, a database of northern companies looking to export has been compiled. They then hired a firm to build awareness of northwestern Ontario business opportunities with U.S. businesses, and identify potential trade partnerships.
Creighton says one reason they are targeting the U.S. Midwest is because there is a market of 35 million people within a one-day drive from the area. And with three access border crossings, direct road links to major north-south and east-west interstate routes and daily road, rail and air service, trade with the U.S. is growing.
"It's hard to quantify the success rate of exporting and trade to the US," Creighton says. "Some companies we have been working with have expanded their trade quite a lot...We have seen things happen with export and trade (to the US). Companies have experienced individual successes and, as a whole, we have seen trade increase."
One company in Thunder Bay which thrives on exporting to the U.S. is GRK Ltd.
GRK designs and patents fasteners for the construction industry. Production facilities are located overseas in Europe and Asia.However, over 98 per cent of the products warehoused at the Thunder Bay facility are destined for export to the U.S. Small quantities are also exported to Japan, Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK.
Co-owner of GRK, Thorsten Walther, says the American market is GRK's lifeline - without the U.S. there would be no GRK. He says he feels that the U.S. market is one which companies in northwestern Ontario should look into, and calls it "lucrative."
"Any Thunder Bay business providing products or services sold beyond immediate consumer consumption should look at the U.S. market," Walther says.
GRK is currently expanding its warehouse capacity in Thunder Bay and may have need for further expansion in the near future, Walther says.
"Such expansion in fixed resources could very well be located outside of Canada to enable faster response to GRK customer demands, and circumvent high Canadian municipal and senior level taxation," Walther says. "Job creation will occur on both sides of the border with most sales positions being created in the U.S. GRK will likely continue to expand its product offering to include other construction related products and additional fastening alternatives."
Overseas markets will also be pursued with greater effort, however, the U.S. will remain the main focus for GRK, he says.
Exporting is big business in Canada, Creighton says. In 2000, the Canada/U.S. market saw $700 billion in trade, which works out to about $1.3 million sales in trade per minute. Small- and medium-sized businesses capitalize on trade with 95 per cent of the export, she says. In Ontario, exporting provides 1.6 million jobs.
The service sector is seeing growth in export, Creighton says. The service sector accounts for approximately $55 billion in trade.
"Service goods, as well as information technologies, are easier to get across the board and a lot more of these businesses are getting into exporting," Creighton says. "This type of trade is almost seamless."
For more information on Development Thunder Bay and their trade initiatives, visit the Web site at
www.developthunderbay.com
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