Moncton for business­—it just makes sense
Moncton
INFORMATION SUPPLEMENT
Ready-made
Daniel St louis
for business
development
Moncton’s array of industrial locations, strategic position, and
skilled workforce present a compelling option to investors
and expansion-ready partners
With a quick swipe of her index finder, a McKesson Canada employee scans a product label,
double-checks it against her master list, and puts the desired order and quantities of items in the “tote” that
continues on its way through the company’s new distribution centre in Moncton. Akin to a shopping cart, the
tote will be filled with everything from prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs to shampoo, toothpaste, and
first-aid supplies. The contents will be carefully packaged, then shipped to one of 450 regular customers, usually
by 12 p.m. the day after the order was placed.
McKesson Canada’s new 176,000-square-foot facility in Moncton is a $25-million state-of-the-art distribution centre that has become the company’s base for serving its customers in the Maritimes. Smaller operations
in Moncton and Halifax were recently consolidated under one roof, with all 50 employees from the previous
Moncton facility retained and 40 new ones hired. Richard Brennan, McKesson Canada’s general manager for the
Atlantic region, says Moncton was a logical choice. “It’s very centralized from a distribution point of view,” he
www.moncton4business.com
1
Sandor Fizli
Richard Brennan
says, adding that the city’s skilled workforce
was also a major factor.
The McKesson Canada story is an apt
example for telling Moncton’s story. As
recently as a few weeks ago, Kevin Silliker, the
City of Moncton’s director of economic development, had two more successful meetings
with new investors wanting to bring business
to or expand in the Moncton area. Silliker
speaks regularly with talented individuals who
have chosen to move to Moncton, attracted
not only by the area’s quality of life but also
by its diversified economy, which enables
steady growth across all sectors year over year.
“Our value proposition is clearly our balanced
opportunities,” he says.
From customer-service centres to
manufacturing, regional distribution, retail,
and transportation, no single sector represents more than 12% of Moncton’s overall
economy. The 2011 census data reveals
that Moncton is the fifth fastest-growing
census metropolitan area (CMA) in
Canada, and the fastest east of Saskatoon.
“Companies notice it when your city grows
so fast,” says Silliker. “It helps attract even
more people and talent.”
Moncton’s central location makes
it the hub of the Maritimes and gives it
tremendous market penetration across all of
Atlantic Canada and the Eastern Seaboard
of the U.S. Add to that mix a loyal and
bilingual workforce with a low turnover rate
and you have more of the reasons behind
Moncton’s success and steady growth.
When Moncton Mayor George
LeBlanc chats about his hometown, he
uses such terms as vibrant, prosperous, and
resilient. “Moncton is known for having a
can-do attitude and punching above our
weight class,” he says, pointing to the city’s
reputation for hosting world-class events
in sports or entertainment, such as outdoor
concerts by The Rolling Stones and
U2, the 2010 IAAF World Junior Track
Championships, and two CFL games.
Both LeBlanc and Silliker insist the
downtown area will play a major role in
the city’s future growth. In the plans is a
multi-use sports centre, which will anchor
the downtown’s redevelopment. The city
is also working to attract new residential
developments to its core, another essential factor for attracting more people and
businesses. Major infrastructure improvements include the future construction
of an extended runway at the Greater
Moncton International Airport.
Other key economic sectors include
health care and life sciences, transportation and logistics, ICT, retail, manufacturing, financial, insurance, and real
estate. Enterprise Greater Moncton, the
area’s community economic development
agency, will focus on those sectors to
promote greater prosperity. “We want to
lead New Brunswick in both population
and economic growth over the next five
years,” says John Thompson, the CEO of
Enterprise Greater Moncton. “To achieve
this vision, we need more people and
businesses and to be more competitive,
innovative, and focused.”
The agency’s strategic plan focuses
on ensuring that the area has the labour
capacity to support economic growth. It
wants Greater Moncton to remain one of the
Caledonia Industrial Estates
Advanced manufacturing
From a modest start-up in a local garage more than 20 years ago, Spielo International is now an important
supplier to the global gaming industry, serving nearly 1,500 customers on five continents. Initially created
to manufacture video lottery terminals (VLTs), the company now designs, manufactures, and distributes
cabinets, games, central systems, and associated software not only for VLTs but also for slot machines,
online gaming, and sport betting.
“SPIELO International was founded in Moncton, and the city continues to be our global manufacturing
headquarters for a number of reasons,” says Robin Drummond, the international vice-president and general
manager of public gaming. “The cost of doing business here is low. We benefit from an educated workforce,
the gaming-technology business cluster is growing exponentially and attracting knowledge workers to the
region, and it’s only a short flight to major international airport hubs. We’ve been supported by all levels of
government and government agencies, and we’ve mutually benefitted from government support in activities
such as R&D.”
Spielo International has worked with one of its local customers, Atlantic Lottery Corp., and the provincial
government and community colleges to create a post-secondary training program tailored to industry to
address the company’s human resource needs. “We’re also proud to be among the largest advanced IT-sector
employers in the province, providing well-paying careers to more than 450 employees at our Moncton
location,” says Drummond. “In our 20-plus years of operation, we have continued to indirectly spur growth
by supporting local suppliers and partners, which has created a gaming-technology business cluster in our
region.” — M.L.
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Moncton Industrial Park
Location, location
With a history of hauling hay and gravel going back
to the 1930s, Armour Transportation Systems has
grown from a small one-man operation to servicing
all of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and beyond
through strategic alliances with other major carriers.
Still family owned and operated from its headquarters
in Moncton Industrial Park, Armour is one of Canada’s
leading transportation specialists with more than 1,700
employees and 3,800 pieces of equipment.
Since Moncton is an important hub in Atlantic
Canada, it’s ideally situated close to both U.S. and
Canadian markets. “The location is perfect for
Armour Transportation Systems,” says CEO Wesley Armour. “Our company uses
CN intermodal services, and we continue to grow with this service.”
From trucking to intermodal and port-related services, Armour’s broad range
of services also includes ocean containers, warehousing, courier, and logistics
planning. Many of its customers are located in the Moncton Industrial Park,
and the region’s transportation system provides easy access to their markets.
“Moncton is an excellent city to be located in because our municipal government
understands and supports transportation and warehousing,” says Armour. — M.L.
best places to do business in North America
and will work at increasing the region’s
competitiveness by stimulating productivity,
process improvement, and innovation.
Thompson sees Moncton’s three industrial parks as an essential piece of the puzzle
that complements his agency’s efforts. When
working to attract new businesses and investors, he always takes them to see the parks.
The expansion of Caledonia Industrial
Estate and the new Moncton Industrial Park
West provides a host of new opportunities,
while Moncton Industrial Park continues to
service its existing clientele.
McKesson Canada’s new facility will
provide more flexibility and efficiency as its
customers, primarily pharmacies, hospitals,
and clinics, can be reached within a few
hours. The distribution centre also has space
to expand. Leading a tour of the building,
Richard Brennan opens the door to a large
empty space that will eventually be used as a
repackaging operation.
Today McKesson Canada fills out
customers’ orders in bulk or large packages,
but it will one day be able to fill them out
in single-unit-dose format. “That’s where
the future of our industry is going,” says
Brennan. — Mireille LeBlanc
A Walk in the Park.
655 Main St. Moncton NB E1C 1E8
Moncton’s industrial parks that is.
The new iParks Moncton app for your iPad is a quick, handy
guide to our industrial parks. It includes information on available
sites such as size, price and services, along with information
on development requirements. Simply go to the App Store and
search for iParks Moncton, and then take a walk in our parks.
Caledonia Industrial Estates
Sandor Fizli
Distribution hub
F
When Molson Coors considered building its first new brewery in 52 years, the beer
giant chose Moncton to break ground in 2005. The city’s central location and its distribution services, as well as the region’s under-represented market, played a role in the
decision to build a new facility in Moncton’s Caledonia Industrial Estates. And last but
not least, the superior quality of the city’s water supply became an essential ingredient
in the 37 million pints of Coors Light and Canadian brands of beer produced annually
in Moncton.
“Moncton and the Maritime provinces represented one of the only developing
markets that existed in the country,” says brewery manager Tim Farley. “Location-wise,
we needed to have many services, such as distribution. Moncton is one of the leading
distribution hubs. The local municipality was also eager to do business with us.”
Another factor at play was the talented workforce Molson Coors found in
Moncton; the company hired its 51 employees locally. “It wasn’t just the Maritime
hospitality that was attractive,” says Farley. “The level of skill also drew us here.”
Farley’s pride in his team and their accomplishments is evident as he walks around the
brewery, halting often to highlight one of the many boards peppering the office walls
and showcasing various successes and initiatives. A tour wouldn’t be complete without
stopping near the large stainless-steel tanks holding the precious fermenting liquid.
The sweet smell of mash (malted barley after the milling process) permeates the air—a
promise of what’s to come at the end of the three-week brewing process. — M.L.
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5
Clint Dockree
Open for
business
Moncton’s three industrial parks are open for business.
With prime locations along highways and main
thoroughfares, each offers something unique to
existing customers and new prospects
Five-thousand-pound rolls of corrugated paper are piled three high,
waiting to be transformed into boxes. As the machinery unwinds the giant rolls, they are successively glued, shaped, and cut to emerge as thousands of flat individual pieces that are easily folded
into custom cardboard boxes of all sizes.
In 1960, Norampac-Moncton (formerly Domtar Packaging) was the first company to be
established in the then newly built Moncton Industrial Park. A half-century and two expansions later, the manufacturer of corrugated packaging containers still operates out of the same
location and services clients throughout Atlantic Canada and northeastern Maine. From beer
boxes to live-seafood shipping boxes, Norampac-Moncton’s 115 employees manufacture all
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Sandor Fizli
types of corrugated boxes. General manager
Clint Dockree sees lots opportunity for
growth with the company’s line of sustainable products; namely, boxes made with
Norshield (an environmentally friendly
water-repellent treatment, an alternative to
traditional waxed boxes) and “chilltainer”
(a sterile replacement for Styrofoam). Boxes
covered with Norshield can be recycled, as
opposed to waxed boxes that often end up
in landfills. “People are more environmentally conscious than they used to be,” says
Dockree. “A lot of our clients ship their
products to Europe, where some countries
don’t accept wax boxes and Styrofoam.”
Norampac-Moncton is an enduring client
among many located in one of Moncton’s
three industrial parks. Among them are large
distribution centres with familiar names such
as Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaw Atlantic,
Kent Building Supplies, Kraft Canada,
NAPA, Uniselect, and Chep Canada, as well
as such manufacturing companies as Molson
Coors, Irving Personal Care, and Royal
Doors. The list is long, but all have one thing
in common: They have found a thriving
business environment in Moncton.
Go west for expansion
“Our lifeblood is business,” says Peter Belliveau, the general manager of Moncton
Industrial Development (MID), a non-profit
corporation that has owned and operated
Moncton’s industrial parks since 1959. With
low business costs and the region’s central
location advantage, Moncton industrial parks
have fostered a favourable business environment, accentuated by the area’s skilled bilingual workforce and low turnover rates.
Moncton’s newest industrial location,
Moncton Industrial Park West, recently
opened its door to future developments as
Phase 1 spans 120 acres along the busy Berry
Mills Road. It offers an ideal location, close
to the TransCanada Highway and Wheeler
Boulevard, for easy access to and from
residential areas. It’s located west of the
original Moncton Industrial Park.
Recently, auto parts distributor Action
Car and Truck Accessories built a new facility
in this park, and Belliveau says at least three
more projects will be under construction this
year. Belliveau knows this added location will
add a new layer of opportunities to Moncton’s
offerings. “It’s like a car dealer who can sell
a model in two or three colors,” he says, “but
he can sell more if there are more models in
a variety of colors.” The long-term vision for
the park is to attract small to medium-size
manufacturers, as well as commercial operations with a retail component, such as Action
Car and Truck Accessories. With 640 acres in
total, this new park offers plenty of opportuni-
Moncton Industrial Park West
Warehouse
and retail
On a prime location at the corner of Berry Mills Road and the brandnew Horsman Road sits Action Car and Truck Accessories, the first
tenant in Moncton’s newest industrial park. Company president John
Chamberlaine says he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to combine
his three facilities under one roof in Moncton Industrial Park West.
“The location was one factor, as it’s close to both Wheeler Boulevard
and the TransCanada Highway and located in a fast-growing area,”
says Chamberlaine. He adds that the layout of the new park was also
attractive, with its fully serviced roads awaiting future tenants.
Moncton’s central location in Atlantic Canada was a factor in the
growth of this local company, which Chamberlaine founded in 1980
to import and assemble truck shells from the U.S. Today Action Car
and Truck Accessories has 200 employees and 31 locations, from
Newfoundland to Winnipeg, and it brands itself as Canada’s leading
truck cap and accessory distributor. An after-market accessories
distributor and retailer, it offers pretty much anything that can adorn
a vehicle, from vent visors to tires, toolboxes, trailer hitches, and even
snowplows. It also carries trailers, offers custom commercial caps for
trucks, and outfits vans with shelves and partitions.
Action’s new 75,000-square-foot building consolidates under one
roof its corporate office, a 55,000-square-foot warehouse, and a retail
store that is a prime example of the company’s rebranding efforts
over the last year. Spacious windows let natural light flow into the
retail space, where consumers can easily find products under category
banners such as commercial, cargo management, and vehicle protection.
Marketing manager Jason Wells explains that the rebranding was
necessary because some of the company’s Ontario locations were
operating under the name Action Van and Truck World, while Atlantic
Canada operations were known as Action Truck Caps and Accessories. “It was challenging to operate with two different names, and
our company had since evolved so we found ourselves catering to car
owners as well as truck and van owners,” he says. “Our name now
better represents who we are today.” —M.L.
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The “original” is thriving: Nearby Moncton Industrial Park—
the original, as it’s known at MID—has been in operation
since the early 1960s on the west side of the city
ties for a long-term future.
From LED lights to careful storm-water
management, Moncton Industrial Park
West also strives to reduce its environmental impact. Its new guidelines include
environmental requirements, and companies will be encouraged to incorporate
additional environmental benefits, whether
in their landscaping, building materials, or
building operations and practices, in order
to receive a performance rebate on the
purchase price of the property.
The “original” is thriving
Nearby Moncton Industrial Park—the
“original,” as it’s known at MID—has also
been in operation since the early 1960s
on the west side of the city. It offers a
total area of 600 acres of prime industrial
land with more than 260 well-established
companies. Adjacent to CN’s railyard
and intermodal system, it also has direct
controlled access to the TransCanada
Highway and is next to the four-lane
Wheeler Boulevard, which provides quick
access to the Greater Moncton International Airport. A mature park, it still offers
leasing or buying opportunities. It’s home
to many long-time residents, including
Norampac and ALLSCO Windows and
Doors. From its manufacturing operations,
ALLSCO supplies Atlantic Canada’s
building contractors with locally manufactured windows and doors known for their
high standards of quality. Founded by Don
Lahanky in 1976, it was acquired in 2010
by the Atis Group, one of Canada’s largest
manufacturers of doors and windows.
Atlantic Commercial Properties is
the single largest property owner in the
park with 10 properties offering leasing
opportunities that range from 2,000 to
100,000 square feet. “And everything in
between,” says property manager, Natalie
Geneau, who adds it has a wide range of
tenants—from small local entrepreneurs
to large national corporations. “Moncton
is a great location from a logistic point of
view. A lot of tenants are in warehousing
and choose Moncton as their home base
because they can ship everywhere.”
Moncton Industrial Park: “The Original”
Room to grow
The smell of freshly baked bread greets you when the doors separating Fancy Pokket Corporation’s office space from its production floor open. A gleaming stainless-steel production line
draws the eye to hundreds of Greek pita breads emerging from the oven like soldiers on parade.
Company president Mike Timani gingerly grabs one, the bread still swollen from the heat before
it makes it way up the conveyor belt to cool.
While touring the plant, Timani explains the manufacturing process for pitas, bagels, tortillas,
panini, and other baked goods. He stops for a second to admire golf-size balls of dough that
are being dropped onto a conveyor belt before being pressed down into nine-inch tortillas. One
line produces 12,000 bagels an hour while another makes 14,000 pitas an hour; the tortilla line
makes 21,000 loaves an hour.
This highly automated process is a far cry from Fancy Pokket’s debut in 1989, when Timani
and three employees were producing pitas one at a time in a 1,000-square-foot facility. Twentythree years and five expansions later (the latest one this spring added 7,000 square feet for a
sanitation room and freezer space), Fancy Pokket is well established in the Atlantic Canadian and
Quebec markets and also sells its products in Ontario. Its central location in Moncton made it
ideal to service those markets from a transportation point of view.
Currently, the 43,000-square-foot plant only works at 30% capacity with 53 employees.
Timani would like to increase capacity, eventually add another shift, and double his employees in
the next three to four years. He’s looking into expanding to the U.S. market by the end of next
year and, to overcome the “buy American” movement, plans to open a plant in the southern
U.S. in a few years. That facility would specialize in different products, such as gluten-free baked
goods, and its presence in the American market would pave the way for Fancy Pokket’s other
products made in Moncton. “I’m a really high risk taker, but they’re always calculated risks,”
says Timani. “If you don’t take risks and if you aren’t big enough, you won’t survive.” —M.L.
10
www.moncton4business.com
Engineering
Municipal Growth
Civil. Mechanical. Electrical.
Caledonia is still expanding
Known as the hub of Atlantic Canada
for its central location, Moncton has a
rich past as a railroad city. Today it has
a strong transportation industry with
the presence of leading companies such
as Armour Transportation Systems and
Keltic Logistics & Transportation. From a
modest beginning with only five employees
in 1997, Keltic is now a full-service, assetbased, transportation solutions provider
with almost 200 employees.
Four years ago, Keltic moved to its
current location in Caledonia Industrial
Estates, a stone’s throw away from the
TransCanada Highway. From the carefully
manicured landscape to comfortable amenities for the drivers, this 40,000-square-foot
building was carefully designed to meet
all of Keltic’s needs. The company also
acquired an additional six acres of land on
the other side of the road to accommodate
future growth.
Thousands of vehicles drive by the
Keltic facility every day, while the company’s drivers can quickly access the highway
to haul merchandise all over North
America. “Moncton is a great spot,” says
Mike Clements, Keltic’s vice-president
of corporate operations. “With a bilingual workforce, we have access to good
employees with a high retention rate.”
With five acres of land for current use,
plus the additional six for future growth,
Keltic personifies one of the main advantages of choosing Caledonia Industrial
Estates. “Because of the scale of land available, we could allow large lots, and that’s
why Caledonia is such a strong park for
large distribution centres,” says Belliveau.
“At the same time, even though it’s on
the north side of the city and next to the
highway, it’s still easily accessible to the
community. We built Harrisville Boulevard
in 1998 to give quick alternative access to
the airport and downtown.”
Currently, Caledonia has a sizable
inventory of available sites with 260 acres
of serviced land ready for sale. From the
well-established Moncton Industrial Park
to the new opportunities in Moncton
Industrial Park West and Caledonia Industrial Estates, Moncton has plenty to offer
resident and expanding businesses. — M.L.
A well developed Industrial park can help drive economic
growth in a region. Crandall Engineering is proud to have
designed and managed the Moncton, Moncton West and
Caledonia Industrial Parks. Look to Crandall as your one-stop
shop for engineering solutions.
Toll Free: 1-866-857-2777
1077 St. George Blvd. Suite 400
Moncton, NB E1E 4C9 • (506) 857-2777
For more on Crandall Engineering,
contact us today or visit us online at:
133 Prince William St. Suite 703
Saint John, NB E2L 2B5 • (506) 693-5893
www.crandallengineering.ca
SHAPING
LIVES
GENIVAR prides itself on the fact that its Land
Development Services are managed by people
living in the communities that benefit from their
work. Our locally managed approach gives our
clients peace of mind that they will be taken care
of from project start to finish, while enjoying the
convenience of access to additional expertise within
the network of GENIVAR offices across Canada.
We offer a full range of related services including:
• Engineering
• Surveying
• Planning
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NS Halifax | Dartmouth
NB Moncton | Saint John | Fredericton
PE Summerside | Charlottetown
NL St. John’s
WWW.GENIVAR.COM
Shown here is Steve, one of our valued employees of our Surveying department in our
Moncton, NB office.
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11
Growth
strategies
Proximity and space makes Caledonia Industrial
Estates an easy investment decision
While approaching Moncton on the TransCanada Highway,
the road curves ever so slightly, as if to better showcase Al-Pack Enterprises’s
manufacturing-supplies facility in Caledonia Industrial Estates. Al-Pack president Louis LeBlanc admits that highway frontage and visibility were factors
in the company’s decision to build its plant there five years ago. Not only did
highway proximity facilitate quicker shipping of products to clients but the
six-acre piece of land also gave them space for future expansions.
The 43,000-square-foot plant is a far cry from Al-Pack’s modest debut in
Vernon Allen’s living room, from which Allen incorporated the company
with LeBlanc in 1995. Before that, they were both working in sales in the
transportation industry when they saw an opportunity for manufacturing
packaging supplies. What started as a two-man operation now employs 75
people full-time. From shipping boxes of all sizes to foam inserts for those
boxes, Al-Pack produces or distributes everything needed for shipping goods,
including pallets, bubble wrap, and strapping supplies.
In 1999 another opportunity arose when the City of Moncton introduced
the household-waste separation program, and Al-Pack started producing green
and blue plastic bags. “We grew and diversified the company by listening to our
customers’ needs,” says Allen, the president of Al-Pack Holdings. “We now
distribute mainly in Atlantic Canada, but we also do private labels for clients
across Canada and our compostable bags are shipped to the U.S.” In addition to
the plant in Moncton, Al-Pack has an office and a warehouse in St. John’s, as
well as an office and a warehouse in Guelph, Ont.
In Moncton, the 24/7 production line of plastic bags which uses a 50-foottall extruder is a sight to behold. Oil-based resin pellets resembling small white
hailstones are mixed with concentrated colour pellets and heated until the
combination liquefies. Air is injected to create a bubble in the centre of the
plastic sheet that then goes through a series of rollers to iron out the wrinkles
as it cools. Logos are printed, then the sheet is cut and folded according to the
type of bags being produced. Allen looks at the extruder with proprietary pride
as he explains the process, adding that there are future plans in the works.
“The building has been designed so we can open this back wall when needed,”
he says. “We already have plans for expansion starting in 2014.” —M.L
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25
professional
locations to
fit your needs
warehouse or office space. we’ve got your location.
Contact us for competitive, flexible (and friendly) leasing opportunities.
HEAD OFFICE 270 Baig Blvd., Suite A16 Moncton, NB | P 506.853.8000 | E [email protected]
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There’s
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En voici la preuve...
happening here...
but don’t just take our word for it!
Most cost competitive city for business
in Canada (KPMG)
Most polite and honest city
in Canada (Reader’s Digest)
Fastest growing CMA east of Saskatoon
and 5th in Canada overall
(2011 Census)
Ville la plus concurrentielle en affaires
au Canada (KPMG)
Ville la plus polie et honnête
au Canada (Reader’s Digest)
RMR ayant la croissance la plus rapide à l’est
de Saskatoon, et au 5e rang à l’échelle du pays
(Recensement 2011)
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Développement économique et Événements
Tel./Tél. : 506 877-7700
moncton.ca
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