Our company produces 2…

Our company produces 2 products: Ready Pine and Provincial Plank. Both products are decorative interior wall coverings for ceilings and walls. We employ 10 people and have revenue of $3 million. Because our company is small, we lack resources to stay competitive - such as expertise in modern manufacturing methods like Lean and Industry 4.0, health and safety, social media marketing and export sales. We are not large enough to employ subject experts in each of these fields.

To support us in our competitiveness, we rely on our industry cluster - the Bluewater Wood Alliance. We use this networking to talk to our cohorts in our industry on best practices. We also partake in educational sessions from the BWA. The BWA allows us access to subject matter experts in all areas. We also participate in BWA export projects such as trade missions to the Europe and Japan, as well as partnering with other provincial jurisdictions like BC Wood and Quebec Wood Export Bureau.

Currently, we have a customer the UK interested in our Provincial Plank. This customer will allow us to grow our sales to over $6 million. This opportunity came from an 2 export projects initiated by the BWA.

I strongly urge the MNRF to support business clustering organizations like the BWA. Funding an ecosystem, rather than directly to companies, allows the Province to make the most effective use of tax dollars.