By NICK STEWART
Fourteen years after leaving Timmins to pursue a sales career in Quebec, J.P. Fortier is looking to return home, and this time, he’s bringing his new mining exploration supply business with him.
In fact, with local mining activity sparking all manner of opportunities for potential suppliers, Fortier is eagerly planning to expand his successful firm, J’explore Inc Equipement, in his hometown.
“Being in Timmins will help us to be more competitive out in that particular area,” Fortier says.
“We’ve not really knocked on those doors, and there are definitely a lot of opportunities in the region.”
Fortier is looking at purchasing a facility in the city, and while a specific site has not been selected yet, he expects a decision will be made within the coming months.
He says an initial site measuring several thousand square feet -- “not too small, not too big” -- will be necessary to accommodate the amount of equipment and material the business needs on hand to rapidly fulfill client orders.
Working alongside co-owner Normand Giroux and six employees, Fortier currently operates the 18-month-old business out of Val D’Or, Quebec where they serve clients around the globe, from Canada to Africa.
Drill hole survey tools started out as the company’s bread and butter, but client requests have expanded the product offerings to include all manner of exploration tools including specialized cleaning supplies, pumps, hoses, safety products and core racks.
J’explore Inc now offers a range of exploration camp necessities, and many drilling firms have responded to this switch, Fortier says. Although the business kicked off in April 2006, it has far surpassed Fortier’s expectations, and is set to generate nearly $6 million between April 2007 and April 2008.
Hopes are equally high for the Timmins branch, which Fortier sees as having the potential to be as successful as the Quebec branch. If that is the case, staff may expand beyond the initial three local hires sooner rather than later: during the company’s early days, the two co-founders first tried running the company as its sole employees, but were overwhelmed with orders within three months.
This type of work is a natural extension of the co-owners’ previous experience in the mining and exploration sector, Fortier says. He served as a national sales director for a Canadian equipment firm while Giroux had worked within the mining industry as a technical consultant. Difficulties with their respective employers and a love of the industry led them to cast out on their own, and it’s a decision they’ve yet to regret. With both men having seen more than 25 years of experience in their prior roles, their history serves them well in their current position.
Fortier has been drawing upon that history to help prepare his 26-year-old son, Roger, to head up the new Timmins branch once everything has been established.
Roger has spent much of the last twelve months learning the ropes, being groomed by his father to take on this new role; he recently returned from Africa, where he trained a client on how to use some of their specialized rental equipment.
Though Fortier and Giroux have long been considering making a move to Ontario, the decision became final following a recent mid-October visit to Timmins in order to attend an industry trade show. After seeing the wealth of mining and drilling firms working in and around the Timmins region, they became convinced that there was indeed room for the company in the local market.
In fact, the new site would include all of northeastern Ontario as its coverage area, though Fortier says he’s already considering Sudbury as a potential area for growth.
The move isn’t without its challenges, as the establishment of an entirely new site is full of risk in that any return on its initial investments, if any are to be had, can take up to a year.
What’s more, he says that Northern Ontario represents more of a risk to than Quebec, especially with the development of Osisko Exploration Ltd.’s proposed open-pit gold mine in the town of Malartic, said to be the biggest of its kind in Canada.
Still, having grown up, lived and worked in Timmins most of his life, Fortier says many in the community already know of him, making his impending return a promising homecoming.
“What a surprise it’ll be to them to see me come back into town with my own business,” he says, laughing.
