By JOSEPH QUESNEL
Northern Ontario Business
A Timiskaming area manufacturer may be expanding within the coming year, requiring it to build a new, larger facility and create up to 35 new jobs in the region.
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Ovrx has captured overseas markets with its new flooring product. |
Ovrx, an Englehart-based maker of insulated sub-floor tiles, has been experiencing tremendous growth over the course of its one-year existence and has expanded its operations into Europe.
"We've tripled our sales from last year," says Clinton Johanson, one of four managing partners with the infant company.
The company produces floor tiles that combine board and Styrofoam, preventing moisture and dampness from entering in through the basement
floor, therefore eliminating the need to constantly replace damaged flooring.
"We developed a product where no wood actually touches concrete," Johanson says.
Johanson, a long-time resident of Englehart and industrial designer by trade, developed the idea after he graduated with a diploma in industrial design from London-based Fanshawe College in the early 1990s. Not able to immediately capitalize on his invention, Johanson received backing from three other partners in the Englehart area. With one partner being a millwright and another a cabinetmaker, the group set out to find a market. After
designing the product for marketing, the partners designed a pilot plant in Englehart to distribute it. Currently, the partners are employing 15 people
from the Timiskaming district in their Englehart-based plant.
The men are also happy with the fact that they were able to capitalize on homegrown talent for their facility. The manufacturing of the flooring tiles requires skilled, mechanically inclined labourers, something the group says is plentiful in an area where mechanized companies like Grant Forest Products and others have operations.
Since their founding, the company has expanded its operations such that it now has an overseas distributor building a warehouse in London, England.
In the meantime, the managing partners are focusing on expanding their market into the United States.
"We're just starting to close a very significant contract in the (U.S.) Midwest, for two million square feet, to a retail chain," Johanson says, declining
to identify the States or the retail chain involved in the lucrative deal.
Company officials credit the success of the company to persistence and the willingness to network.
"We've been to a lot of trade shows. We've made a lot of contacts through that," Johanson adds.
The group has also been working hard to build an impressive list of chain distributors of their product throughout Canada, mainly at hardware outlets such as Home Hardware, Rona, Castle Building Centres and Pro Hardware.
According to Johanson, the number of merchandise sales groups at the various outlets knowledgeable about the product has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year.
"We're getting to the tail end of all these merchandising and retail chain agreements," he says.
After finalizing its contracting, the company is looking into developing a new product for distribution and is looking into plans to construct its new facility in Englehart. In the meantime, Johanson says, the managing partners plan to work on building more networks into the future.
