Wajax and Kaman form strategic alliance

Wajax Industrial Components and Kaman Industrial Technologies – two North American industrial distributors – have formed a strategic alliance, strengthening the services offered to customers having business assets in the US, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. While Wajax Industrial Components and Kaman will remain as separate and independent entities, they will join forces to compete for business-to-business and supply agreements with customers in multiple jurisdictions, providing an alternative to country-based supply agreements. The alliance will be known as Sourcepoint Industrial.

“North American and global consolidation of an important segment of our customer base and the resulting impact on their purchasing decisions led us to seek new ways to better serve these customers,” said Adrian Trotman, president, Wajax Industrial Components of Montreal, referring to the business trends which led to the alliance. “While both Wajax Industrial Components and Kaman have a proven track record of satisfying customer needs in Canada and the US respectively, neither one could individually cover a customer’s needs spanning both countries. This alliance gives customers a viable option to satisfy their North American-wide supply requirements that has unique strengths.”

Kaman Industrial Technologies operates more than 200 customer service centres and five distribution centres across the US, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Wajax Industrial Components has 65 branches and 13 certified service and repair centres in Canada.

• Bill Searle, a 17-year employee of Garlock of Canada Ltd., based in Sherbrooke, QC, recently left the company to join Canada Rubber Group Inc. (CRG), based in Bowmanville, ON. He heads its automotive elastomer parts sales for the Detroit Three auto manufacturers as CRG’s territory manager for southwestern Ontario. Searle has more than 23 years of fluid sealing experience. CRG was established in 1987 and specializes in providing die cut gaskets and moulded rubber products to end-use consumers and large OEMs, especially Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive customers. The company is capable of producing ‘one only’ custom fabrications or supporting production runs in the millions.

• Gray Tools Canada Inc., the only industrial-quality manufacturer of hand tools in Canada, has donated a range of hand tools, valued at $20,000, to five vocational schools within the Peel District School Board in Ontario. The tools were presented to representatives from the five schools at an event at West Credit Secondary School in Mississauga earlier this year. “Students in vocational programs often become the skilled tradespeople of tomorrow and we saw an opportunity to help ensure that students have the right tools while learning a trade in school,” said Gary Nuttall, president and owner of Gray Tools. “There seems to be a shortage of tradespeople at the moment, something we’ve seen ourselves, and this is one small way that we can give back to the community and contribute to build the next generation of skilled workers.”

• The Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) recentely welcomed a new Canadian member, Gorman-Rupp of Canada Ltd. of St. Thomas, ON, a manufacturer of pump products. General manager Robert Furneaux said, “Our membership in PTDA is an ideal avenue to communicate with our manufacturing peers, participate with our distribution and strengthen our global brand presence.”

• Pump service – scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and major overhauls – is a growing business for KSB Canada, Mississauga, ON. In order to handle the increasing volume of maintenance and repair work, KSB has hired a second service sales expert, James Jette, with responsibility for southwestern Ontario. Jette has over 25 years of mechanical experience (including more than 18 in the pump industry) and holds degrees from the New England Technical Institute and Humber College.

• In another step to expand the establishment of its organization in Canada, Jon DeSouza has been named president and chief executive officer of Harting Canada Inc., Montreal. DeSouza, who retains his existing responsibilities as executive vice-president of sales for Harting Inc. of North America, says the company’s intention is to build a local sales and support structure to support the Canadian market. Harting supplies industrial and communications connectivity solutions for the automation, machinery and transportation markets and is a provider of RFID (radio frequency identification devices) and MID (moulded interconnect devices) solutions.

• Guelph, ON-based Skyjack, a manufacturer of aerial work platforms, will build its 250,000th unit this year. To celebrate the achievement, the company has launched a quest to find the oldest working Skyjack scissor lift. The company wants customers to search their fleets and upload details and images of their oldest models to dedicated pages on Facebook and Twitter. Skyjack’s history dates back to 1969 when a small Canadian machine shop, operating under the name Haessler-DeWay Ltd., began business. Work evolved into manufacturing special-purpose machinery before the first Skyjack access platform was built in 1984. Today Skyjack is a division within the multi-billion dollar Linamar Group. Users of Skyjack scissor lifts are invited to upload images, together with details of their machine (including serial number, year of manufacture and place of purchase) to either: www.facebook.com/skyjackinc, on Twitter at @skyjackinc/#skyjackquest2013, or at www.skyjackquest2013.com. Quest 2013 applicants will be accepted until December 31, 2013, or when verification of the oldest serial number has been identified, whichever is the soonest. The company judged to be using the ‘world’s longest-running Skyjack’ will be presented with a brand new scissor platform.