Some local companies will have a chance to expand or modernize thanks to a boost from the province.
Ten Windsor-Essex manufacturing firms are receiving a share of roughly $3 million in support from the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund. According to the government of Ontario, these grant funds will be used to create 178 new jobs in the area while retaining 384 jobs.
One of the companies is Stratus Plastics International, a Windsor company that manufactures injection molding and plastics for automobiles. The company was started in 2004 by William Wu, a refugee from China, and has grown into a 34,000 square foot facility employing about 30 people.
The grant announcement was made at Stratus Thursday afternoon by Mitzie Hunter, MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood. She represented Jeff Leal, minister responsible for small business in the Wynne cabinet.
Wu, who moved to Canada in 1963 and started out as a newsboy, says the $121,000 his company is receiving will make it easier for the company to modernize, and for him to turn things over to his son Colby.
"He's coming up," says Wu. "He's done everything for animation for the last two years. It's a good time for the next generation."
Colby Wu, who works in business development for Stratus, says the company will benefit from the grant money it is getting from the government and that it's making it easier for them to be competitive.
"It helped us grow this company and without it we would never be where we are today," says the younger Wu. "We're growing exponentially. We're actually opening another location in Kentucky. Honestly, the government has really helped us succeed and grow."
The province says Stratus Plastics International will use their share of the grant money to increase energy efficiency, install two new robotics systems plus a material handling system to increase company capacity. The project as a whole will bring in 12 new jobs and retain 12 more over a four-year period.
The other companies receiving grant funding in Windsor-Essex include the following:
- Greco Aluminum Railings, for the purchase of new equipment for line expansion
- Jesse Garant Metrology Center, Windsor, for expansion to a second facility and the purchase of new equipment
- Proto Manufacturing, Oldcastle, for research and development in a new product line
- Ramstar Carbide Tool, Oldcastle, to allow its facility to accommodate automation equipment
- Saturn Tool and Die, Oldcastle, for the purchase of new equipment for increased production
- Select Tool, Oldcastle, to diversify operations through robotics and automation
- Superior Tool and Mold, Windsor, for the purchase of new equipment with automated robots to increase capacity
- Technical Molding Management Systems, Oldcastle, to purchase equipment and develop lightweight molds
- Windsor Mold, Windsor, for the development of an automation process for plastic injection molds
