100,000 feet of ventilation ducting supplied in record time
Schauenburg Industries Ltd. of North Bay has landed two big contracts to supply ventilation ducting to remote mining operations in Western Canada.
The combined value of the two orders is close to $1 million, said managing director Don Croteau. Seven tractortrailer loads were required to transport approximately 100,000 feet of flexible PVC ducting to laydown yards in Edmonton and Saskatoon by February 1. From there, they were transported north to the two mine sites - on winter ice roads to the final destination.
The orders were for 42-inch oval and 48-inch round ducting. Schauenburg cut and stitched the PVC to the prescribed shapes and lengths, added adapters and rings on the ends, then folded and placed the ducting on pallets for shipping.
The company had eight weeks to manufacture and ship the ducting from the date the orders were received.
“We were fortunate to get our suppliers to work with us through the Christmas holidays to supply the material and parts we needed to manufacture the finished product,” said Croteau. Twenty-four temporary helpers were hired to meet the tight delivery deadline, giving the company’s 15 core employees the extra hands needed to complete the order.
Schauenburg serves the mining industry across Canada, but does most of its business in Ontario and Quebec.
“These orders are an important milestone for us because it puts us on the map with mines in Western Canada,” said Croteau. “We supplied to them before, so they were familiar with our capabilities. Also, the price was right and they knew they could count on us for service. With that volume over a short period of time, it made sense to be as competitive as we were.”
Croteau credited the Schauenburg team for getting the order and fulfilling it on time - especially sales manager Daniel Mainville, who was instrumental in putting the tender packages together, and operations manager Elizabeth Fournier, who scheduled the production and worked with suppliers and trucking companies.
“It was a real team effort,” he said. In September 2014, Schauenburg joined several other northeastern Ontario companies to establish Saskatchewan-based D3 Mining Solutions to represent them in Western Canada. These two orders were already in the pipeline, but with its established customer base and sales representation in the region, Croteau hopes to see more business in the future. Other companies represented by D3 Mining Solutions are Jannatec Technologies and Maslack Supply of Sudbury, and Porcupine Canvas of Timmins.
