That is where Estone Technology has built its position.

Estone Technology is a rugged computing ODM/OEM engineering and manufacturing partner that helps customers turn product ideas, technical requirements, and early-stage concepts into reliable, production-ready solutions. From rugged tablets and laptops to industrial panel PCs, HMIs, embedded computing systems, medical-grade platforms, and rugged control systems for robotics and autonomous applications, Estone supports customers who need computing platforms built for demanding environments.

The company’s role is not simply to provide hardware. It helps customers bridge the gap between a product vision and a deployable solution that can survive real operating conditions, integrate with larger systems, meet project-specific requirements, and remain supported throughout its lifecycle.

As Sales Engineer Jo Yee Ong explains, “Many customers come to us with a product idea, a PRD, a set of technical requirements, or a market need. Our role is to help turn that vision into a rugged computing solution that can be engineered, manufactured, certified where required, and supported in the real world.”

From computer business to rugged computing partner
Estone’s foundation began with a small computer business known as Stone Computer. In its early years, the company competed in the broader consumer computer market, where differentiation was difficult and long-term value was often limited. Over time, the team saw a stronger opportunity in specialized computing applications, where reliability, customization, engineering support, and long-term product availability mattered more than standard product availability.

That shift became the foundation for what would later become Estone Technology. After adopting the Estone name in 2008 and establishing operations in both California and Ohio, the company moved deeper into rugged computing, embedded systems, and ODM/OEM development for industrial, medical, and mission-critical applications.

Today, Estone works with customers that need computing platforms tailored to specific technical, environmental, regulatory, and operational requirements. Some customers begin with an existing rugged tablet, panel PC, HMI, embedded system, or control platform from Estone’s product portfolio and customize it for their application. Others begin with only an idea, concept drawing, product requirement document, or market opportunity, and Estone helps guide that concept toward a manufacturable product.

This flexibility has become one of the company’s defining strengths.

Moving from concept to deployment
Developing a rugged computing product is rarely as simple as selecting components and placing them inside a durable enclosure. Customers often need to consider display performance, touch functionality, processor selection, thermal design, battery life, connectivity, wireless communication, operating system support, mechanical structure, certification requirements, software integration, firmware behavior, lifecycle management, and supply-chain continuity.

For companies that do not have all of these resources internally, the path from product idea to finished product can be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.

Estone helps reduce that complexity by supporting customers throughout the product development process. The company can help refine early requirements, identify practical design options, customize baseline platforms, support full custom development, and provide manufacturing and lifecycle support after deployment.

For many projects, Estone can also support certification planning and project-based compliance preparation. Depending on the final product, target market, and application, certification requirements may influence decisions related to enclosure design, material selection, wireless modules, power systems, electromagnetic compatibility, medical-grade requirements, environmental testing, and documentation. By considering these needs earlier in the development process, Estone helps customers reduce redesign risk and move more efficiently toward market readiness.

“Our job is to help customers make the right decisions early,” says Ong. “Small choices in hardware design, component selection, software integration, certification planning, or mechanical structure can affect cost, reliability, serviceability, and product availability years later.”

For Estone, a successful product is not measured only by whether it meets a specification sheet; it also has to perform reliably in the environment where the customer will actually use it. In medical environments, that may mean supporting specialized imaging, cleanability, antimicrobial materials, medical-grade certifications, long-term availability, and integration with clinical workflows. In industrial automation, it may involve panel PCs or HMIs that can operate in harsh conditions, support specific I/O requirements, and integrate with factory systems. In robotics and autonomous systems, the need may involve rugged control platforms, sunlight-readable displays, reliable wireless communication, open architecture support, and project-based compliance considerations.

“When our customers can deploy their systems with confidence, that is when we know the engineering work has created real value,” says Ong. “A successful product is not only about meeting the specification on paper. It also has to perform reliably in the customer’s actual operating environment.”

Flexible platforms, white label solutions, and custom development
Many of Estone’s rugged computing products are designed to serve as flexible baseline platforms. These platforms give customers a practical starting point while still allowing room for customization.

For some projects, adapting an existing rugged tablet, laptop, panel PC, HMI, embedded system, or control platform can help shorten development timelines and reduce risk. This approach can be especially valuable when a customer needs to move quickly but still requires changes to hardware, I/O, enclosure design, firmware, software, branding, operating system, certification path, or integration behavior.

For other projects, customers may need a fully customized product developed from the ground up. In those cases, Estone can help take a customer’s concept, PRD, or market requirement and turn it into a complete computing platform designed for manufacturing and deployment.

In addition to offering rugged computing reference platforms, Estone supports customers that need white label, private label, or fully customized ODM/OEM solutions. For customers building their own product lines, this means Estone can provide rugged computing platforms that are customized to match the customer’s brand, application, market position, and technical requirements.

This support may include custom branding, enclosure modifications, hardware configuration, I/O adjustments, software image customization, packaging support, documentation coordination, and lifecycle planning. For some customers, a white label or private label approach can help accelerate time to market by starting with a proven rugged computing platform and adapting it into a product that can be sold under the customer’s own brand.

For others, Estone can support a deeper ODM development path, helping transform a concept, PRD, or specialized product requirement into a purpose-built computing solution. This flexibility allows customers to choose the development model that best fits their business strategy, timeline, budget, target market, and supply-chain needs.

More than hardware
As connected devices become more advanced, many customers need support that goes beyond the physical device itself. For HMI, panel PC, embedded platform, and connected system projects, hardware is only one part of the final solution. The user interface, operating system, update method, device management tools, connectivity, software environment, certification considerations, and field maintenance strategy all influence whether the final product can be deployed and scaled successfully.

“These projects are rarely just about the device itself,” says Ong. “For many HMI and panel PC customers, the hardware, user interface, update method, and management platform all have to work together. When those pieces are planned together from the beginning, the final product is easier to deploy, maintain, and scale.”

Estone can help customers shape the user experience, support administrative management tools, enable over-the-air update capabilities, and develop companion mobile applications when required. This is especially important for customers deploying connected devices at scale, where remote support and software update capabilities can reduce the need to retrieve products from the field.

By combining rugged computing hardware with practical software ecosystem support, certification planning, and lifecycle support, Estone helps customers move from product concept to deployable solution with greater efficiency and confidence.

Global support and manufacturing flexibility
In many of Estone’s target industries, standard consumer devices cannot meet the requirements for long-term availability, customization, ruggedness, or lifecycle support unless purchased in very large volumes. Instead, customers need a platform that can remain stable, consistent, and supported for years.

This is especially important in healthcare, industrial automation, robotics, autonomous systems, and mission-critical applications, where frequent component changes, supply-chain instability, or limited technical support can create serious operational risk.

To meet those needs, Estone has built its business around four key strengths: cost efficiency, engineering responsiveness, end-to-end solution capability, and long-term partnership.

The company’s global footprint allows it to support sourcing, production, logistics, certification-related coordination, and customer collaboration across multiple regions. With office and support presence across the United States, Europe, Japan, and China, along with manufacturing flexibility in the United States, Vietnam, and China depending on customer requirements, Estone can help customers align production strategy with cost targets, compliance needs, supply-chain resilience, and regional market expectations.

“We support customers from the earliest design discussions through deployment and lifecycle management,” says Ong. “That continuity is important because the product does not end when it leaves the factory. Customers need confidence that their platform can be supported, maintained, and improved over time.”

Supporting growth markets
As customer needs continue to evolve, Estone has expanded its regional support capabilities to better serve key growth markets.

In 2025, the company launched its Japanese subsidiary to support increasing demand from medical and healthcare customers. In these markets, localized collaboration, engineering communication, technical support, and long-term reliability are especially important.

Estone also expanded its U.S. warehouse operations as part of its growing focus on the drone, robotics, and autonomous systems markets. Customers in these sectors are placing greater emphasis on trusted supply chains, localized support, shorter deployment timelines, and project-based compliance considerations, including NDAA- and TAA-related requirements.

Because Estone supports customers across industrial, medical, robotics, autonomous systems, and commercial technology markets, the company also participates in leading industry events around the world. In 2026, Estone exhibited at Japan IT Week, XPONENTIAL, and the National Restaurant Association Show, strengthening relationships across medical, embedded computing, robotics, autonomous systems, and connected commercial technology markets.

These investments reflect where Estone sees strong opportunity in the years ahead. As robotics, autonomous systems, medical technology, industrial edge computing, and connected device applications become more intelligent and more demanding, the need for customizable rugged computing platforms is expected to continue growing.

Turning product vision into real-world solutions
For companies developing specialized computing products, the challenge is not only creating a device that works. It is creating a product that can be engineered, certified where required, manufactured, deployed, maintained, and supported over time.

That is where Estone’s role becomes valuable.

Whether a customer needs to customize an existing rugged platform, develop a white label product under its own brand, or build a purpose-built device from the ground up, Estone helps reduce development risk, shorten the path from concept to deployment, and support the product throughout its lifecycle.

Ultimately, Estone’s goal remains consistent: to serve as a long-term rugged computing ODM/OEM partner that helps customers turn ideas, requirements, and product visions into reliable real-world solutions.

The post Turning Ideas Into Real-World Rugged Computing Solutions<p class="company">Estone Technology</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Beetschen’s background is in engineering, specifically in 3D computer vision, and he has previously worked on mixed reality headsets like Microsoft’s Hololens, a mixed reality device from one of the industry’s biggest players. In his experience, many such headsets and tools often have the same problem in that they try to do everything but end up excelling at nothing in particular. While impressive, they do not provide the help for customers that RealWear can.

RealWear’s suite of devices consists of smart glasses that are designed for particular environments and uses. These are further complemented by associated software and services, which include proprietary applications, custom training, and more. Beetschen explains that the company’s devices, such as the RealWear Arc 3 and the Navigator Z1, are “the first devices in human history that see the world as we do,” able to see through the customer’s eyes and provide help on the level of a personal assistant.

The company focuses on making its devices helpful and easy to use, as its long-term vision is to have a higher throughput between humans and machines than can be achieved via typing on keys or using screens. Devices like its smart glasses can help bridge the gap in user-system interfacing industry-wide. The goal is to have the best hands-free personal assistant technology possible for every person on the planet, something only possible through the technology with which RealWear works. “If the larger companies aren’t doing it, then we will,” says Beetschen.

According to him, so many previous generations of humanity’s ancestors were generally living worse lives than we are, and the company takes a certain amount of inspiration in how hard generations before us have worked to make our lives simpler. He believes it is therefore the responsibility of RealWear to make the future brighter and greater, while leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for good, making it accessible in an intuitive and effortless way.

Being active in a more nascent field of the technology sector, the path to success has not always been neatly laid out and has often required trial and error. Previously, the company had tried providing step-by-step instructions for frontline workers using the device when performing maintenance and inspection tasks. The process of doing so was very rigid, whereas reality is often more fluid and messy, and what worked in theory to get clients up to speed did not always end up working in practice, Beetschen says. With newer technology, supported by AI, RealWear can see what a person is doing in real time and act as a helpful colleague that helps a customer better understand a task while letting them do everything in their own order and style.

When it comes to technology, RealWear is putting a great deal of effort into upgrading and refining its operating systems as many figures within the industry are talking about how human language could be the next key interface with AI devices. Using buttons with a machine, says Beetschen, is very inefficient and time-consuming, so more and more people are using voice as an interface, an approach that the company has been already using for years. As the first truly voice-first operating system, the AI technology within a RealWear device can understand what a consumer wants, map to their settings, and act on their behalf, making it much more natural and faster to use.

The competition often makes their business by working in the consumer space, which Beetschen says is a tempting idea; however, RealWear is ultimately among the few successful players for smart glasses in the enterprise space, making its devices for businesses. The company focuses on the whole experience of its technology as opposed to just individual parts like hardware. This experience starts with the packaging, feel, and visuals of the product as well as with the software experience, operating system, and cloud management solutions.

“We’re the easiest to use and deploy,” says Beetschen, and RealWear is the only company of its kind able to create large-scale, reliable deployments.

As a result, its workforce solutions can be found across many different sectors. One of the company’s notable vertical markets is in warehousing and logistics for companies like Coca-Cola, Beetschen says. In these scenarios, frontline workers use RealWear to connect with an order from a client to obtain precise information quickly and to access other crucial data like visuals and map directions. This has helped employers like Coca-Cola increase their speed by about six to eight percent, a considerable difference.

Elsewhere, Ford has equipped around 1,000 of its American dealerships with RealWear devices and has now built a center where mechanics can use the technology to diagnose problems in its fleet of electric cars and fix them more easily.

While results like these are encouraging, the use of AI is still being perfected. Beetschen says that one current limitation is that a user still needs to provide much of the input to explain the context of what is desired from a prompt, a process that must be repeated every time; however, augmented reality devices like RealWear’s products innately gather the context of what the user is doing.

As the AI powering RealWear is a newer computing platform, there will always be challenges for early adopters. Many of the technology platforms and enterprise software systems of RealWear’s clients are still incompatible, which is why the company provides a whole solution that simply works without the need for legacy setups, just one way in which RealWear has its eyes set on the future and always keeps its customer base in mind.

Beetschen says that it is now time to liberate end users from technology that relies on buttons and screens, but the industry, broadly, is still waiting for a tipping point to help that along and clear up lingering confusion. This tipping point may very well come as a result of a landmark deal that the company is in the middle of making as of press time, which Beetschen says will be the biggest augmented reality deal in human history.

This deal will likely create industry buzz somewhere in the range of summer 2026 to the fourth quarter of the year. “We are living in an exciting time with AI,” Beetschen says, and it is also a good time for RealWear to interface with and leverage AI to help humans do even better. Whether it is outfitting a workforce with hands-free technology or being at the vanguard of an ongoing digital revolution, this team will not be satisfied until its technology can be used to help as many people as possible.

The post Bringing Hands-Free Technology to the World<p class="company">RealWear </p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

2025 was a great year, says Lean Program Manager Josh Johnston, because MMTC was able to make an impact on myriad companies across the industry. Recently, MMTC, along with its leadership team, has been spending more time embedded in the manufacturing sector so that it can focus on building lasting capabilities for its clients rather than simply providing one-time training.

In fact, he notes that as part of MMTC’s overall strategy, the organization is enhancing its consultative and advisory services alongside its training programs to deliver deeper, more meaningful support to the manufacturers it serves. “Education still remains an important part of what we do,” he says, as its foundation of continuous improvement is built on understanding both the tools and goals of any initiative.

Another focus of MMTC’s has always been to evolve to match its clients’ needs. Specifically, MMTC helps companies diagnose the challenges they face such that they can prioritize projects and initiatives that lead to changes and sustainable results.

While this priority shift has been in the works for years, 2025 was the big push forward into its implementation. To support this approach, MMTC is expanding opportunities for deeper client consultation. Dedicated MMTC Business Solutions Managers work directly with manufacturers to better understand their challenges and connect them with the right expertise and resources to achieve their goals. This approach allows MMTC to serve as a more strategic partner in helping clients strengthen and grow their businesses.

MMTC will not be abandoning its training aspects wholesale, and in line with its commitment to evolving to meet client needs, it is always assessing its offering catalogue to identify both the most in-demand courses as well as those that are no longer serving the industry. Since the team works specifically with small- to mid-sized manufacturers, many of the problems faced by these outfits are those that manufacturing organizations of all sizes are also seeing today.

Johnston says that what differentiates MMTC’s clientele is that many shop leaders tend to take on a number of roles: from general management and operations to hiring, logistics, and more. Often, these leaders don’t have the capacity to step back and think about the long-term future of the business, which is where MMTC often comes in to offer assistance.

MMTC’s business success planning—one of its primary offerings—will help these overworked and busy clients, Johnston believes. This is a process wherein an MMTC industry expert interviews the leadership team of a manufacturing organization to create a comprehensive analysis of where the company is now and compares it to where they want to be. This assessment then evolves into a practical three- to five-year road map that aligns with improvement projects, technology adoption, workforce development, and training. This way, leadership received clarity and relief for future planning while also figuring out how to keep the lights on tomorrow.

Johnston says that manufacturers today are facing greater complexity and uncertainty than ever before, and ongoing challenges, while nothing new, are varied. These include continuing volatility in raw material pricing due to fluctuating tariff policies; the industry facing an aging workforce as well as a limited talent pipeline entering the skilled trades to fill the spots; and all the hype around emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). As one of the biggest global industry buzzwords today, AI is seeing a lot of excitement, yet companies often struggle with implementation and developing strategies to capture return on investment data.

Many manufacturers are hesitant to adopt the technology because they have been burned in the past by technology startups that have sold them unrealistic solutions or poorly-scoped pilot projects, or even pressured staff to adopt misunderstood tools to gain an intended early market advantage. Johnston notes that while there can be gains in efficiency and productivity, it must be implemented thoughtfully and strategically—otherwise, throwing technology onto a bad process only makes the bad process faster, not better.

With this in mind, another major focus for MMTC is to become the trusted advisor for Michigan’s manufacturers in adopting and implementing various AI technologies. As such, MMTC will be expanding its offerings to help manufacturers move out of skepticism and into practical, value-driven applications.

The team spent much of last year creating ways for manufacturers to leverage this new technology, especially since companies that are late to the table risk getting left behind. One such method has been launching a series of courses on AI in manufacturing. In the first few months of 2026, MMTC has launched six new AI-centered courses including AI for Quality Control and Inspection (using AI-enabled visions and camera systems); AI for Manufacturing Leaders (how to introduce these technologies into your organization in a strategic, responsible manner and roll out solutions from the top down); AI for Supply Chain Optimization (leveraging deep research capabilities for in-depth supplier analysis and more); AI101 & AI102 Workshops (focused on generative AI basics and advanced ChatGPT use cases); and Lean Problem Solving With Generative AI (how large language models can be used to expedite effective problem solving).

The new push into artificial intelligence systems for manufacturing is also allowing MMTC to expand physically. A new AI lab in its home of Plymouth will serve as a space for manufacturers to experience new AI technology and simulate an on-premises solution without putting a business at risk. MMTC has also been hosting workshops across Michigan to give industry people a chance to gain hands-on experience with new technology and tools.

This has been a very exciting venture, according to Johnston. “The ‘a-ha!’ moment is one of my favorite parts of the job,” he says. By demystifying these technologies and making artificial intelligence feel less intimidating for new users, MMTC provides a launching point for clients to take back their companies. Its long-term focus will be on helping manufacturers cut through the AI hype, make informed decisions, and realize a measurable return on their outcomes instead of just chasing technology for the sake of it.

Amid today’s market challenges, the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center is energized by its renewed direction. Last year, MMTC launched the inaugural Manufacturing Insights Survey to capture manufacturer feedback on trends, strengths, challenges, and opportunities. From these responses, MMTC produced the Manufacturing Insights Report, which highlights the concerns and priorities of small and midsize manufacturers across the state while offering actionable solutions and outlining how MMTC can help them. The full report is available at www.the-center.org.

Ultimately, Johnston says, MMTC’s “goal is to not be the best-kept secret in Michigan,” but rather to be a trusted and established aid for Michigan’s manufacturers to call on for anything they need.

The post A Best-Kept Secret No Longer<p class="company">Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Envision Saint John’s mission is to drive strategic, robust, and sustainable economic growth, attracting visitors, people, business, and investment to the Saint John Region while enhancing an enviable quality of life. The agency employs four strategic pillars to achieve this: Growth Readiness, Talent Attraction and Retention, Business Attraction, Retention, and Expansion, as well as Visitor Attraction.

First let’s look at Growth Readiness—looking to the future that the agency wants to see in the Saint John Region and working backwards to find out how to accomplish it. “Growth readiness includes future-back strategies to address key regional considerations such as our labour force, housing, healthcare recruitment and retention, business and investment attraction, and strategic real estate development, among others.” For example, Envision Saint John plays a key role in supporting developers, non-profits, and everyone involved in housing to ensure projects can move forward. This includes land sourcing, navigating municipal approvals, looking for funding opportunities to get projects get across the line.

Growth readiness can also mean working on infrastructure challenges like improved highway access for increased volumes at Port Saint John or supporting the Saint John Airport in its quest for improved air access.

Related in many ways to the first, the second pillar is Talent Attraction and Retention. Envision Saint John leads initiatives to attract a working population as identified by the needs of local employers. For this to be successful, Beckett says that enticing living environments, housing solutions, economic opportunities, and a high quality of life are needed in the region.

Based on data and the region’s workforce requirements, the agency has been running marketing campaigns in Ontario to encourage people to move east for career opportunities and an amazing quality of life. A new talent attraction initiative espouses the region’s many attributes to post-secondary graduates in the Maritime provinces. Strategies for workforce recruitment in key sectors like healthcare, energy, and logistics and transportation are also important to meet the region’s goals.

The agency’s Talent and Attraction efforts simply would not stand without recognizing and investing in people moving to the city. This includes the region’s immigration strategy, called Pathways to Belonging. This strategy was built in partnership with the Saint John Local Immigration Partnership (SJLIP), which urges “governments, businesses, non-profits, and citizens to work together to build a welcoming, inclusive, and economically resilient community,” says Envision Saint John’s website. The SJLIP brings together local settlement agencies for ongoing discussion and support. The agency provides administrative support for the SJLIP, giving the agency insights into the challenges and opportunities related to immigration in the region.

The third pillar of the plan is Attraction, Retention, and Expansion of local business. Beckett says, “Envision Saint John wants to promote an interconnected business environment,” that supports local businesses and helps them prosper, which can be achieved through support mechanisms in the startup or expansion phases. For instance, the Impact Loan program, which is funded through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), provides startup loans of up to $50,000 for new entrepreneurs to the area at low interest or even interest-free. The agency manages the Impact Loan Program on behalf of ACOA in the Saint John Region. Envision Saint John also publishes growth stories promoting local industry success stories, many of which got their start in the Impact Loan Program.

Beckett emphasizes the role the agency plays in investment attraction, so it has collaborated with important players like Invest In Canada and business development agency Opportunities NB to do so. And, among the global uncertainty and shifting trade relationships created by tariffs imposed by the United States, new sectors like defense and modular construction have come to light as potential growth areas. Envision has even engaged a company in Montreal that will be connecting with as many as 500 companies in emerging areas like these to uncover investment opportunities and introduce Saint John as a place with great business potential.

The final of the four pillars, Visitor Attraction, includes ongoing awareness campaigns in high-affinity markets like Quebec, Ontario, the northeastern United States, the Maritime provinces, and New England to promote the Saint John Region as a premier tourism destination. “We’re looking for whatever we can do to showcase the region,” Beckett says. To achieve this, Envision Saint John is collaborating with Tourism New Brunswick to create a campaign to appeal to people in the Eastern United States to visit or even live in the province.

Envision Saint John also sponsors local events creating vibrant community for both residents and visitors. And in 2025, Envision Saint John launched an online Local Welcome Ambassadors training program for the general public on how to best promote the region, raising awareness of the awesome local experiences and operators.

An area of particular interest for the coming few years is sports tourism, from both visitor attraction and community engagement lenses. In the past 18 months, Saint John has worked with the city of Moncton on a successful joint bid for the 2029 Canada Games, leading to an estimated economic impact of $200 to 300 million. And mostly recently, Envision Saint John rallied a local organizing committee on a successful bid for the 2027 Men’s World Curling Championship, which will bring 18 teams to the city, filling hotels, restaurants and retailers.

The new strategic plan is an all-encompassing effort; it is simply not possible to do the work that Envision Saint John wants to do without the collaborative effort to match. In terms of growing the economy and improving business investment, “There’s no way to do it in isolation,” Beckett says. Over the last two years, the agency has built a planning framework while engaging with the local community. As such, it has developed both a regional economic development strategy and a tourism master plan, both of which were guided by separate community-based steering groups.

Beckett notes that it is important to have good data to support this level of decision-making, and Envision Saint John does its part with a comprehensive, regularly-updated economic dashboard available on its website; this tool has become another important piece in focusing the agency’s efforts and improving decision-making. To be sure, this agency has equipped itself with the tools, the know-how, and the people to make its goals for the next five years a reality. The Envision Saint John team continues to work hard to support the growth of its home region into a place recognized nationally and internationally as a go-to destination.

The post The Four Pillars to Grow a Region<p class="company">Envision Saint John: The Regional Growth Agency</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

General Manager and President, Andrew Cameron, tells us that in 2024, the company finished construction on the last of over 230 finished units, work that began in 2022. At this point, it was decided by upper management to set a five-year goal for Northumberland Properties to further motivate its upward momentum. This goal comes down to expanding its current unit count by more than double to a nice, even, 500 units. This is where the process of unit acquisition has become an important aspect of the work, leading to the company’s first acquisition of eight existing buildings (totalling 32 units) in Amherst.

The timing of this acquisition was auspicious because the original owners were ready to retire and came to the company with a potential deal, which was sealed in May 2025. The purchase was seen as a positive learning experience as staffing and capacity needed to be figured out along with the on-boarding of new units and tenants, and Cameron and the Northumberland crew are never ones to back down from a challenge.

Indeed, the past three years have been busy ones on multiple fronts for the company. In 2024, after completing its most recent subdivision, the company purchased a half-acre piece of land across the street from this subdivision for its first multi-family building. Northumberland has worked with architectural design agency Spitfire Design out of Moncton, as well as with the town of Amherst and local contractors, to bring the building to new life and get it ready for tenants. While the development is still in the middle of construction, it held its groundbreaking ceremony in August 2025, and Cameron says it has been an enjoyable process to oversee and participate in so far.

He explains that a lot of four-to-six-unit garden homes and townhouses have been developed in the last few years as well, further expanding the company’s portfolio. With federal and provincial money coming in for developers and businesses like Northumberland, both Amherst and Yarmouth are pushing for greater density of buildings to increase housing supply in their communities. To aid both this and its own goals, Northumberland took a step into developing multi-family buildings, a move that Cameron says was also driven by his desire to learn more about these types of developments. These buildings are of a larger scale than the company’s typical properties and involve more logistics (elevators, fire alarms, intercoms, et cetera), but are also a clear-cut way to expand company operations.

The growth being pursued by Northumberland is taking place during an interesting time for its business sector. Looking back on 2025, Cameron says that the rental industry was beginning to feel closer to the volume and feel of operations from before the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2021 to 2023, he says that it was generally easier to advertise new units and create interest for renters, whereas today, promoting new units takes considerably more effort. This means that Northumberland has to tighten up its approach to running day-to-day operations, especially in regard to marketing, repairs, and maintenance cost controls, because things in the rental and housing and development sectors are ever-shifting and still feel unknown.

The industry may have a somewhat fluid nature, but Cameron says that ultimately, housing and development is an industry still going strong, especially when it comes to construction and property management/leasing. While aspects of the industry remain uncertain thanks to extenuating circumstances like the ongoing American tariffs, Cameron says it is a reminder for both him and everyone in the business at large to focus on aspects that can be controlled, like the maintenance and utility usage of its existing units.

“It is still an exciting time for real estate despite any challenges,” he says, and Northumberland Properties is excited to provide quality apartments and services for its tenants while helping them tenants feel at home and secure where they are. “Everything in real estate is communication,” Cameron says, whether it be from developer to subcontractor or from tenant to staff member.

A new year brings more opportunities for the business to reach its full potential, and the first major goal for Northumberland Properties in 2026 will be to finish its first building of 18 units by the summer, ideally June or July. The company also has another small parcel of land that it can build an additional four-unit building on, so decisions will be made as to how best to execute that idea.

The team is also on the lookout for acquisition opportunities that align with this mission, with a potential eight-acre development in Yarmouth. Northumberland hasn’t built in the town in five years, so there is interest in bringing more units there as plans continue to take shape. Further land purchases are also being investigated in Amherst, such as acreages and infill lots, to complement the apartments currently on offer.

In 2025, Northumberland Properties celebrated 15 years in business, with Andrew Cameron having started the business in 2010 alongside his mother and father. “Our success has been reliant on so many more people besides me,” he says, and he has learned so much in 15 years from tradespeople, employees, and accountants alike on how to best run the business. To be successful in this sector takes a team effort and everyone’s contribution within the company has made a difference to its ongoing success, says Cameron.

When it comes to running a successful property management business, it’s simply made easier and less stressful when you can find and work with exceptional team members, including staff, subcontractors, and tradespeople. In fact, Cameron says, a key lesson learned in the past 15 years has been to find great people, support them, and let them do what they do best while listening and learning from them. Of course, paying one’s bills on time also helps, he says with a laugh.

As well as the value of being surrounded by capable and intelligent people, Cameron says a key to his company’s success has been to always remember that the tenants living in the many different properties are people first and not just numbers in spreadsheets. A lot of senior tenants in Northumberland developments live on their own, so allowing for the time and space for staff to build relationships with these people, as well as maintaining respect and connection to them through the staff and properties, helps them feel that they are known and looked after.

“Don’t forget who the ultimate customer is,” Cameron says, meaning the tenants and their families who will remember when a property and its owners have done right by them. He and his crew have kept this, and the firm’s other values, close to heart during the lifespan of Northumberland Properties, and it continues to pay off grandly for all involved.

The post Expansion Focused on the Ultimate Customer<p class="company">Northumberland Properties</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

This renovation project began in late 2018 when officials learned that the provincial library and archives planned to move out of the centre and its Charlottetown location, which kicked off a year-and-a-half consultation process on what to do with the new area afforded to the space. Feedback from stakeholders, patrons, Indigenous voices, and other sources communicated a desire for the centre to house more learning programs, more Canadian content creation, and more programs talking about its role as Canada’s national memorial to its founders.

The ensuing renovation, still ongoing, seeks to incorporate these suggestions as well as provide massive, much-needed structural improvements to the building. Physical work began in the fall of 2024 and construction began in the spring of 2025, with Chief Executive Officer, Steve Bellamy, saying that it should be largely complete by summer 2026 with a rough move-in date of October or November.

Bellamy explains that the impact of the renovation will be substantial across multiple fronts. Beyond the addition of more learning programs and a more nationalized focus to the centre’s output, the impact on the local economy will be significant. The centre currently operates on a $12.5 million annual operating budget with a $27 million annual contribution to the gross domestic product. 400 jobs have been created by the centre, producing over $16 million in labour income and over $6 million in tax revenue. Operations post-renovation will expand, providing an additional $2.5 million annually with an increase in economic impact of around $5 to $6 million. In short, the expansion will create more jobs, more programs for the public, and more capacity for the centre to be a corporate partner for meetings and conventions in the Charlottetown area.

Artistic Director of Performing Arts, Adam Brazier, says that the renovation will allow the centre to become the largest and most consequential arts hub east of Montreal. It “will become a bucket list location for performers, creators, and leaders,” he says, and will come with greater physical accessibility to the space thanks to a clearer entrance from the ever-busy Victoria Row, as well as a warmer visual welcome to anyone entering its doors. The growth and positive experiences to be enjoyed by all who interact with the centre post-upgrade promise to be significant.

Although it is front-of-mind for everyone working there, the ongoing renovation is not the only thing the centre has been up to in the last few years. First, an arts academy will be founded, from which its expanded learning programs will blossom. The academy will be able to expand the presently-offered artist training programs and provide new opportunities for short-term professional development for people in arts administration, cultural management, and in other arts and culture professions. Next, a new Arts Innovation Hub will provide facilities and resources for the creation of new Canadian content, in musical theatre, visual art, music, writing, dance, new media, and all forms of art.

Finally, the new Canadian Leadership Institute will house more programming for discussions about Canada including programs like the Symons Medal Presentation and Lecture and the Charlottetown Forum, along with other conferences and lectures on a variety of topics. According to Bellamy, the new institute will bring together experts, leaders, and the public to discuss issues important to Canada, with the impact of strengthening Canadian identity and culture.

Amidst these improvements and plans for the future, this is something of a fraught time for theatre, especially in Canada. Bellamy notes that both the pace of inflation and an increase in annual operation costs are outpacing the centre’s ability for its revenue streams to keep up. While it does receive government funding support of roughly one-third of its operating budget, the majority of its revenue is generated through sources including tickets sales, education programs, food and beverage, and donations and sponsorships, none of which have been able to match the pace of inflation. But the Centre is innovating and growing its revenue-generating programs in an effort to be more sustainable.

Brazier points out that the centre has had to reconsider its approach to programming due to ongoing tariffs imposed by the United States, and sadly, in times of financial uncertainty, disposable income purchases by the public toward entertainment like theatre are often the first things to go when it comes to tightening the belt.

These challenges will not be solved easily; however, everyone at the centre believes in the experiences it produces and the power of art, storytelling, and conversation to impact audiences. “There’s a spirituality to what we do,” Brazier says, in getting people together to watch others perform. Theatre is feeling the crunch in competing with at-home entertainment like streaming services, yet the performing arts have the ability to create community through the shared experience of live theatre—so it is all about making sure younger generations understand that power and take advantage of it. The Confederation Centre of the Arts often must take risks on the shows it stages and the decisions it makes during hard times, but Brazier says that the talent in Prince Edward Island is abundant. That level of talent is ultimately what has seen the centre through hard times again and again.

There is plenty to be excited about as the centre takes on these challenges and looks to enter a new era. In 2026, popular live shows like Come From Away and Anne of Green Gables: The Musical will be staged, along with an exhibit featuring the works of the late Prince Edward Island artist Erica Rutherford, curated by new Art Gallery Director, Pan Wendt, who was hired in December 2025. And later this year, the Symons Medal, one of the nation’s greatest annual honors, will be presented to Justice Rosalie Abella, who served on the Supreme Court of Canada for nearly 20 years.

The centre also looks forward to hiring the first director of its new leadership institute and establishing a new line of programming within it that will bring experts, leaders, and the public together for convening on important national issues ranging from economics, health care, national defense, and housing to reconciliation, immigration, Canadian identity, and culture.

It is an exciting time for the centre as it expands its partnerships within the local business community. The centre has been a keen partner with businesses across the corporate spectrum in terms of packaging, experiences, and event planning, and Bellamy believes that the centre stands as a reflection of the country, an important piece of the Canadian cultural identity. “Now more than ever, it’s important that Canadians understand one another,” he says, and this can be achieved through embracing activities that strengthen national bonds and allowing stories and issues from different communities to be better understood.

The post Becoming a Bucket List Location<p class="company">Confederation Centre of the Arts</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The third generation, family-owned company was put up for sale in 2004 after, Wes Austin, the owner’s son who would have eventually taken over, passed away suddenly. Current Chief Executive Officer Daniel Cramer’s father, a paper salesman at the time, got a group of buyers together in Amarillo and purchased the company outright from Wes’ father, Fred Austin, Jr.

Daniel Cramer has been with the company for 20 years now, starting as an hourly worker when the business only had four locations: Amarillo, San Antonio, Odessa, and Wichita. After graduating college, he transferred into sales out of the San Antonio office, then moved to a branch manager role, and eventually became CEO. In that time, Austin Hose has grown into a business that sports 13 locations as well as a considerable national presence in states like Louisiana, California, Kansas, and more.

The past two decades have brought significant upheaval and development for Austin Hose. “We are a totally different company from where we started,” Cramer says, evolving by marketing its services to other industries that use hoses while continuing to work in agriculture. From offering hundreds of purchase and rental opportunities to suit any need to its plug-and-play hose shop that allows clients to make their own hydraulic hosing, Austin Hose acts as the go-to name for its industry.

This decade so far has also seen the company acquire other hose businesses such as Powertrack International and GT Southwest, and both the Odessa and Amarillo locations moved into new facilities, both over 175,000 square feet in size, last year. And the company is in no way finished with its plans for growth.

Austin Hose has set a standard for itself in dominating the more difficult parts of the industry and overcoming barriers that other businesses in its space often have to deal with. Over time, the company expanded into further industries and attracted more and more top-line people, says Cramer, and this has been the biggest marker of growth so far. Along with its home industry of hoses and hydraulics, Austin Hose is also heavily involved in the oil & gas market and regularly supplies rotary hoses for drilling rigs; Cramer says this is the most challenging specific hose product line in which to be successful. The company has come to excel in that space.

It is not just about financial success, though. Cramer says that culture is everything at Austin Hose. The business has always been focused on the team and on family. When Cramer started at Austin Hose in 2005 (known as Austin Distributing at the time), the average employee age was around 65; over time, the team has become considerably younger, with most of the leadership team under 40. “We transformed into a modern company that has an incredible runway ahead of us,” thanks to this savvy combination of both youth and experience on one united team, he says.

The business has also become recognized across the state of Texas and in its local communities, even becoming an official partner and proud supporter of the Dallas Stars National Hockey League team and other state hockey teams. Austin Hose has become well-known for its spokesman and for the quality of service that lies beyond that friendly face.

The hydraulic hose industry has become somewhat stagnant for various reasons that can be difficult to effectively track, Cramer explains, and Austin Hose finds itself in a great place with plenty of room to grow even further. The business is going extremely well, with strong growth on track for 2026, and the young and motivated business has a strong foundation to build upon. With plans to continue expanding, Cramer tells us that Austin Hose will come to be seen all over the country, one year at a time.

The team has also found itself mixed up in some unusual challenges. Cramer says that an ongoing problem in the hose industry has to do with lawsuits surrounding non-compete clauses, provisos in work contracts that can prevent an exiting employee from working for competing organizations for a set amount of time. At the end of 2025, the company found itself part of a movement on social media called ‘Free Dick,’ concerning an employee who was sued after going to work with Austin Hose. Although these non-compete clauses rarely hold up in court, it often costs the employee a lot of money—potentially around six figures—to defend themselves, and the average person cannot afford that.

Companies engaging in this practice are largely unconcerned about winning these lawsuits and are only seeking to financially ruin people as a message to other employees, which Cramer views as plain wrong; in his opinion, employees should be able to go after whatever opportunity is best for them, including anyone who works for him. He, and Austin Hose as a whole, are standing up and making waves with this social media movement, a way for him to use his voice to help lawmakers realize the serious nature of the issue and protect at-risk employees.

Cramer believes that, ultimately, everyone at Austin Hose is in the hose industry for the right reason: providing genuine care and support to customers and each other, with success flowing from this approach. The company refuses to compromise on this people-first paradigm and wears it as a badge of honor.

With very little turnover and a consistent people focus, it is not all about the dollars at Austin Hose. This is simply everyone following through on the golden rule of treating others how you want to be treated, says Cramer, and the satisfaction he receives from his people reporting how the company has changed their lives for the better is very meaningful and motivating to him and the management team. Simply put, at Austin Hose, “We take care of each other,” he says with pride.

The post Making Waves in Hydraulics<p class="company">Austin Hose</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“We’ve created a single, stronger brand that simplifies the customer experience,” Senior Marketing Manager Brianna Henderson says, and this will allow Bailey International to provide comprehensive product portfolios more easily. The union has created the opportunity to combine the subsidiary websites into a single site, and Henderson’s team has developed a robust content strategy with handy resources such as a new catalogue.

Part of the company’s trade show schedule includes CONEXPO-CON/AGG and Work Truck Week in early March 2026. These events always give the team a chance to connect with customers and highlight how Bailey International is evolving as a company and brand to meet their needs.

Chief Executive Officer Ken Baker says that the company has also been hard at work on various initiatives to facilitate additional growth. First, Bailey has been expanding its work truck products, a keen area of focus in 2025 and 2026. The company has also solidified its sales structure with more technical support capabilities. While it has always had strong teams for engineering and technical support, it now has a formidable applications team in place for the customer-facing sales teams.

Finally, the company has undertaken a number of in-house green initiatives, such as moving to lower-VOC paints and testing paperless operations in its Knoxville location. Since the release of the company’s first-ever sustainability report, research supports the claim that Bailey has succeeded in reducing its emissions beyond industry standard benchmarks. This will serve as a strong foundation for future company projects in the sustainability realm, Baker tells us.

Indeed, thanks to the foundation laid over the past year by the business, “We have a lot of momentum to build on,” Henderson says.

When it comes to operations within the current industry landscape, the company remains cautiously optimistic. After a strong showing by Bailey in January, tariffs on North American businesses have caused a considerable market slow-down. The overall market is working to adjust, with sectors like agriculture, construction, and forestry struggling in their own ways.

Amidst such disruptions, Bailey International is continuing to find success by diversifying—concentrating on opportunity capture and better technology additions for customers, which has helped it stay ahead. “We want the world to know that Bailey offers everything from hydraulic cylinders and pumps to joysticks, arm rests, and electronic controls,” says Henderson. As a result, Bailey is projecting modest growth for 2026. Ever greater numbers of clients are becoming believers in a business that provides for them at every step of their projects. The company refers to this as being a ‘fingertip-to-tooltip’ company, and this approach has had a significant impact.

Going into the remainder of 2025 and beyond, Bailey International will be working hard to continue unifying its brand on the execution, sales-as-a-service, and engineering sides, while emphasizing cross-selling as much as possible, providing hydraulics and electro-hydraulics customers with the other items they need, like joysticks, controls, and sensors, for example.

Product expansion means an ongoing expansion of training and sales in the work truck market as well. Historically, much of the business has been related to off-road operations like forestry, construction, or agricultural equipment, so Bailey has a good chance of making an impact on that market, offering customers the technical solutions and products needed.

Along with general training for the sales and support teams on the technological side, the company is also investing heavily in strategies to increase its visibility and traffic through AI overviews and generative engine optimization initiatives. Henderson says that Bailey aims to be at the forefront of this burgeoning field, making the company easier to interact with and more accessible.

Baker is proud of the company’s efforts in AI, both customer-facing and internal, which is something he is passionate about and directly involved in. There have been setbacks, which is to be expected in a field as new as this; however, further exploration into generative AI has met with success in areas like lead and content generation, customer-facing activities, and even in testing and proofing for operational elements.

Another major milestone that the company will be hitting very soon is breaking ground on a new electronics facility in Victoria, British Columbia. This will allow the company’s electronics teams to come together under one roof and will further accelerate innovation in its custom control solutions. Henderson is excited because the move will give the engineers, designers, and production teams more space and the tools they need to propel new ideas forward in the electronics division. After a groundbreaking ceremony earlier this year, the facility is expected to open within the next 15 months.

Bailey International is also celebrating another historic occasion: 50 years in business. While Brianna Henderson has been with the company for about two years, one of the biggest lessons learned from her perspective as a marketer is the importance of sales, marketing, and customer experience unification and harmonization. This is something that the company is very excited about, and it has recently brought on a new Vice President of Sales, Scott Andrews, to align key performance indicators and to push toward the seamless hand-off process that every marketing and sales team dreams about.

Having been at Bailey International for 17 years and counting, Ken Baker believes that the leading hallmark of this company is its emphasis on excellence in customer service. The team is always honest about what it can and cannot do for a client and offers tremendous flexibility in terms of stocking and supply as well as engineering services, technical support, and marketing support. “A lot of companies in today’s market focus on enhancing their internal operations,” Baker says; Bailey International, on the other hand, aims to optimize its customers’ operations first, a belief that has supported 50 years of operations for this dynamic company.

The post 50 Years of Customer-First Operations<p class="company">Bailey International</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Two sides to the business
Alltrista’s Director of Sales, Andrew Piersall, says that the business caters to two distinct market segments.

The first market segment is the medical sector, where Alltrista focuses on medical devices and packaging products, with a product assortment relating to drug delivery, wound closure, diagnostics, oral dose packaging (including certified child-resistant caps), and vision care. Unlike its consumer packaging side, all the products on the medical side are custom-specific and thus unique to each customer.

The other market segment served by Alltrista is the consumer packaging side, to which the company offers both packaging and closure solutions for markets including food & beverage and health & beauty. This side of the business has a relatively broad product portfolio, including a multitude of stock offerings such as bottles, bottle caps, lip balm, dosage cups, and other associated products. Within consumer packaging, Alltrista’s custom capabilities make up a large part of the business, providing unique solutions to each customer’s request.

Piersall says that commercially, Alltrista’s customers (especially medical customers) tend to focus on risk management and speed-to-market in their dealings, mainly via effective project execution. Therefore, suppliers like Alltrista that can provide this value to customers help them be successful.

Sustainability initiatives are also a large focus of the company. Alltrista partners with customers aiming to meet the environmental commitments of highly regulated fields to provide sustainable solutions. Generally speaking in this regard—and across all segments—the company is home to high cavitation molds with short cycle times, lightweighted plastic bottles and caps, and a small manufacturing cell footprint.

It’s not easy for any business to make a mark on the plastics industry, but Piersall says that a distinguishing aspect of Alltrista is its ability to be both customer-focused and agile. These qualities allow the company to provide end-to-end solutions to customers quickly, meeting customers wherever they may be in the lifecycle of a product. “We have demonstrated willingness to invest in our customers,” he says. Alltrista’s mindset is that its customers’ successes are its own successes.

Going for gold
The company continues to make an impression, and in 2024, Alltrista was highlighted in the PMMI report, Innovation in Can/Bottle Beverage Packaging, which explores the latest developments in beverage packaging as exhibited at 2024’s PackExpo. Alltrista was proud to be featured in the report’s materials section, spotlighting the AllCap™ 1881 beverage closure, a lightweight water bottle cap that enhances productivity, is customizable, and delivers cost savings without compromising on quality. The company utilizes the latest energy-saving infrastructure support systems with variable frequency drives on all its electric motors, resulting in a significant reduction in energy consumption per cap produced.

Christopher Weikart, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Jadex, says that one of the things that brings him the most company satisfaction is Alltrista’s approach to sustainability. In fact, the company recently earned a gold medal from EcoVadis, an independent ESG global platform that evaluates businesses based on sustainability objectives, covering areas like environmental stewardship, labor and human rights, and sustainability in the procurement of materials. Weikart says that the gold medal is evidence of Alltrista’s category-leading commitment to ecological responsibility and is a point of pride internally, placing the company in the top five percent of companies surveyed in the 12 months leading up to the award.

For Alltrista, crafting and refining sustainable practices happen daily. A tangible example of sustainability in its business practices is the light-weighting of several of its manufactured products, meaning a reduction in the amount of material in a product without compromising quality (as seen in the company’s award-winning beverage cap). This is typically the result of unique product design attributes, something the company has become adept at achieving.

Spearheading these practices internally has led to many benefits, including reducing the company’s Scope 1 & 2 emissions, product weight savings, and the identification of new materials, such as post-consumer recycled resins (PCR), for use in future projects.

The year ahead
Vice President of Operations, Jeff Hall, says that Alltrista’s focus moving into 2026 will be on both strengthening its operational excellence and investing in its people. The company will be expanding its automation capabilities and upgrading its equipment to improve precision, consistency, and efficiency across molding lines.

“Our goal is to build highly adaptable operations that combine high-precision automated manufacturing with the highest quality products,” Hall says, “which will position the company to meet the ever-evolving needs of customers as well as sustainability standards for years to come.”

Hall says that from a manufacturing standpoint, one consistent challenge across all market segments is establishing a skilled and trained workforce. Moving into the new year and the foreseeable future, Alltrista will be placing a strong emphasis on workforce development, as new talent will need to be trained on molding, process monitoring, and quality systems.

Pace-setting product launch
Weikart explains that one of the company’s biggest customers is in the healthcare industry, so there will be a particular product launch next year (among several others) that will aim to benefit these customers and others like them. This product will be an improved version of a medical device that Alltrista has manufactured for a long time, involving the incorporation of an antimicrobial compound into a polymer resin before molding the mixture into a finished wound care device.

This device has simplified the customer’s manufacturing operations, improved their product quality, and enhanced product reliability for patients susceptible to surgical site infections. After this launch, the customer is expected to undertake a complete conversion of the product line thanks to this technology.

Honoring its history of longevity, Alltrista drives innovation, from light-weighting caps to advanced medical devices, guided by operational excellence and sustainability. While the company has gone through changes, and has many noteworthy events on the horizon, its ability to adapt and maintain success relies on one constant: its employees. “Ultimately,” says Piersall, “our people are our biggest asset.”

The post 50-Plus Years of Precision: Providing End-to-End Solutions<p class="company">Alltrista Plastics</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The Town’s Economic Development Manager, Frank Miele, describes Grimsby, Ontario as a “thriving business community that boasts a diverse business ecosystem and has perfected the art of collaboration and networking. The Town is also strategically located less than 45 minutes from the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and right next to Hamilton, with direct access to Ontario’s GO Transit coming soon,” he says. “Combined with very low real estate and operating costs, Grimsby offers the advantages of a metropolitan location without the high-end overhead.”

Strengthening communication between businesses and local government has been a key focus in recent years. The Town is currently undergoing internal restructuring to improve collaboration and avoid duplication of efforts, addressing challenges as a team rather than as separate departments. This approach aligns with the Town’s commitment to proactive economic development, a priority that has guided Miele’s work since he joined the team in 2021.

Along with this favourable and productive business environment, Grimsby sports a talented workforce—a skilled labour pool that is experienced and educated in agriculture, manufacturing, and technology.

Perhaps most importantly, Miele says, “Grimsby has an outstanding quality of life.” It is a safe community surrounded by the scenic Niagara Escarpment, with a welcoming populace, rich in lifestyle choices and attractive to prospective employees and their families to live and work in. Grimsby is the kind of town that Canadians are proud to call home, and its continued evolution has been made possible with Strategic Priorities developed by Grimsby’s Town Council. The Strategic Priorities have been meticulously developed, with specific goals, objectives, action steps, and KPIs (key performance indicators), many of which the town has gone on to exceed.

Ambassadors for business
One of the key objectives of the Town’s economic strategy is to align with the priorities of other departments. As Miele notes, 80 to 90 percent of new jobs in a community come from existing businesses, and that is why the Town is deeply committed to supporting and strengthening its established enterprises.

To this end, Grimsby has instituted initiatives to leverage local business talent in the continued growth and development of the Town’s economic prospects. Grimsby’s concierge service program sees Miele visiting businesses regularly to find out how the Town can help supercharge development and growth, opening lines of communication and breaking through obstacles that get in the way of expansion and development.

A recent highlight of Grimsby’s economic development efforts is the launch of its Business Ambassador Program. The initiative brings together respected members of the local business community to collaborate with the Town in attracting and supporting new businesses in a coordinated way. Originally conceived and developed by Miele during his time with the City of Scarborough in the 1980s, the program recognizes that prospective business owners place great value on the insights and experiences of those already thriving within the community.

Miele revived the project in Grimsby and has made it more robust, selecting 10 Business Ambassadors to engage with and represent the community and support economic development for the next four-year term. Ambassadors include CEO of VTR Feeder Solutions, Jim Hills, and President of 360 Energy Inc., David Arkell, among other local business leaders.

These and other ambassadors will be expanding their businesses locally and have been proactive since their onboarding in June. For example, Jim Hills’ company will be looking to inshore their China-based production back to Grimsby in a $10 million machinery investment that will employ more people, while David Arkell will be helping the Town to coordinate the first Grimsby Energy Summit in November to help potential incoming businesses reduce their power loads and costs.

In collaboration with the Tourism Partnership Niagara (TPN), Grimsby has completed its first Tourism Strategy 2026-2031. The strategy has identified specific goals and objectives that will focus on strengthening existing tourism offerings and creating innovative opportunities. One is with the Niagara Gateway Information Centre at the crossroads of the Queen Elizabeth Highway and Casablanca. With more than 3.5 million visitors stopping there annually, persuading even three to five percent of them to explore existing Grimsby tourism assets could help usher in a new era of tourism development.

Space to grow
The Town is certainly not short of land and growth opportunities for those who want to take the initiative. Miele says that Grimsby has two to three large pieces of land that are prime for potential new investment.

One of these is 36 acres of greenfield investment located in the westerly portion of Grimsby, next to Hamilton. Anatolia Business Park is currently going through a site plan agreement and hopes to launch its 650,000-square-foot industrial buildings in the spring of 2026, creating about 500 new jobs for the community.

The second major land investment is 12 acres on Main Street West, the site of an old cannery that has been closed for decades. This land is underdeveloped, but several well-known developers are interested in making an investment in it.

A place for people
Grimsby also has new residential developments in the pipeline, with more than 85 units in a geothermal-equipped award-winning condo building being built downtown by DeSantis Homes. DeSantis and Valery Group are also building the first purpose-built rental building in the Town, with 130 units in a unique and affordable development close to the hospital, with construction to start this fall. An important focus for the community is preserving its heritage, and the Town is investing $2 million in restoring a key heritage property as part of this redevelopment site.

An interesting opportunity has come about through the Grimsby Business Ambassador Program. Breckon Husband, Senior Vice President of Aon Canada, has helped to connect the Town of Grimsby with Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. Known as the twinning project, this opportunity could inspire joint projects, cultural exchanges, and new ventures. Miele says that the twinning process has already begun, with Mayor Jordan and CAO Sarah Kim having visited Grimsby, UK in October to kickstart how the two municipalities can work together in the future, an example of how keen local ambassadors are to make the Town where they live better in every way.

To celebrate ongoing local networking, Grimsby held an Economic Gala in September. Held at the Commisso Estate Winery, the Economic Gala, was conceived to achieve several objectives: celebrating and strengthening the business community; positioning Grimsby as a regional economic leader; and providing meaningful community impact through charitable contribution to McNally House Hospice. Over 140 businesses participated in the event, which was fully aligned with the long-term strategic priorities to strengthen business engagement.

Miele says that cross-developmental coordination is very important in economic growth because industries go where they are invited and usually stay and expand where they are treated well. “If Grimsby looks after its issues efficiently rather than putting up roadblocks, then the Town has done its job,” he says. Roadblocks to development, he says, are largely created not by municipalities but by the development process in Ontario itself, which can involve some slow-moving procedures. However, Grimsby has identified these challenges and knows how to work within and around them, and things are improving.

Already blessed with a great quality of life, the Town of Grimsby, as it grows by leaps and bounds, has much to offer anyone who wants to be part of it—including a warm welcome.

The post Beyond Small-Town Charm: Grimsby’s Big Vision for the Future<p class="company">Town of Grimsby, Ontario</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.