March 15, 2011
By: Ron Grech
Resourcefulness becomes second nature when you grow up on a farm, says Normand Lacroix from the Hearst area of Northern Ontario.
“You develop a sense of débrouillardise,” Lacroix explained, using a French term for ingenuity. “We fabricated what we needed and always had to find our own solution” to any challenges that arose.
The qualities Lacroix learned growing up on his parents’ dairy farm in Hearst have resurfaced time and time again as he continues to tap into new business opportunities and build upon them.
He co-owns a logging operation with his brother Sylvain which indirectly feeds a value-added wood products plant – Industries LacWood – of which Lacroix is sole owner.
Industries LacWood employs about 60 people and produces shelving and bed slats for IKEA Furniture, as well as the EZ’nOrganized product line, kindling wood and core boxes for the mining industry.
Last year, the business added another product line – producing pellets from wood shavings.
“It’s the shavings produced from the value-added products that we’re selling,” Lacroix explained.
Those pellets are sold mainly as fuel for wood pellet boilers or pellet stoves, and lately, bedding for horse stables.
The recent provincial wood supply competition saw an influx of wood pellet-making plants being proposed.
Lacroix believes the only way these operations can be profitable is if they are developed in conjunction with another product line.
“I don’t see where cutting a tree to make pellets would be a feasible business unless you have a special contract with a corporation that is willing to pay for that activity.”
Growing up, Lacroix said he has always industrious with his time but also mindful of managing his own business. When he was not toiling on the farm, he was working in the bush as a cutter.
In 1980, he started a grain transport business called West-East, delivering grain from Thunder Bay to supply feed mills in communities throughout northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec.
He did that for seven years before buying a logging operation in 1988.
“I always liked working in the bush and had the opportunity to buy a business that was already established.”
That was Kenogami Lake Lumber which he and his brother Sylvain co-own.
They sell the bulk of their logs to the Olav Haavaldsrud Timber Company sawmill in Hornepayne which in turn produces the two-by-fours required by Industries LacWood for its value-added products.
Industries LacWood was started with Lacroix being spurred on by the Hearst Economic Development Corporation.
“A few people from the economic development office in Hearst heard about the fact IKEA wanted to establish a factory in Eastern Canada. They met with IKEA and asked about the product they wanted to be produced in this new factory, got some samples. And then they came to me because they knew I had in mind to develop a factory that involved the manufacturing of value-added wood products.
“Finally, we started the business in a temporary location in April 2005. We built a new facility at the end of that year and we’re now located in that new factory.”
His wife Denise is also a long-standing partner in the Lacroix’s business ventures.
“We always work together since we started the grain business.”
They have three grown-up children, a daughter Isabelle, and two sons Conrad and Steve. Conrad is as an accountant but is also involved in the wood pellet side of the family-run business. Steve is a mechanical engineer who also serves as general manager for Industries LacWood.
Emerging from a challenging period for Canada’s forest industry – a period in which his business expanded – Lacroix foresees positive developments ahead.
“As it looks now, we are hoping to increase volume,” he said. “When we started in business, our main customer was the U.S. and that put a lot of pressure when we had slower activity in the U.S.” with the crash of the housing market. “But today, we see an increase because we’re selling to the whole North American market and we’re also shipping to the U.K., Germany and even Asia through IKEA furniture.” <>
No comments:
Post a Comment