Northern Cables acquires former manufacturing site for Selkirk

Friday, Jun 25, 2010

Continuing its trend to utilize vacant manufacturing facilities, a burgeoning Brockville cable producing firm has bought another building to handle the growing demand for its products.

Last week, Northern Cables announced it had acquired the former Selkirk Metalbestos plant on the west side of California Avenue to the north of its main plant located further south on the same street. Selkirk, which produced lightweight metal chimneys and venting products, had closed its operation at the end of February of this year. With that acquisition, Northern Cables now has three manufacturing facilities, two in Brockville and a third in Prescott. The company will also add on to its workforce, eventually employing around 134 workers.

In March of this year, federal officials announced the company would receive a $1.5-million grant through the Eastern Ontario Development Fund towards a $10.6-million expansion program for Northern Cables to extend its commercial and industrial cable product lines and build an addition to its north-end Brockville factory. Plans also called for upgrades to the firm's Prescott manufacturing plant. That will still take place but with the acquisition of the former Selkirk plant, the company is changing its expansion plans, according to Todd Stafford, plant manager and vice-president of Northern Cables.

"We have been negotiating for the purchase of the Selkirk plant but we did not know if we could obtain the property so we continued with plans to expand our existing building on California Avenue," said Stafford.

Some new additional expansion will be built at the company's main manufacturing facility, the former Coca-Cola plant, which is the first factory on the west side of California Avenue just north of Parkedale Avenue in the John G. Broome Industrial Park. But it will not be as extensive as originally announced earlier this year when the company said it would add 30,000 square feet to the plant for warehousing space. An estimated 6,000 square feet will be added to the plant with its production facilities reconfigured to meet demand.

Acquisition of the former Selkirk plant, also on the west side of California Avenue across from the Procter and Gamble plant, has added 75,000 square feet to the collective manufacturing and warehousing space for Northern Cables. The company now has close to 200,000 square feet of space with 65,000 at its main production facility, also known as 50 California Avenue, 55,000 at its Prescott operation and the recently acquired Selkirk building.

In its original plans, Northern Cables had intended to move its warehousing facility from its Prescott plant on Susan Street just southwest of the Edward Street railroad overpass, to the new addition at its home plant at 50 California Avenue. The warehousing will now be moved to the former Selkirk plant but manufacturing will also occur at that site.

"The former Selkirk plant is located on about 12 acres of land, which is similar to the amount of space we have at 50 California Ave.," said Stafford.

The vacant factory sits at the rear of the property meaning the company has ample room to expand that facility.

"We plan to have manufacturing capability at all three plants in order to meet demand," said Stafford.

Northern Cables was started 14 years ago when a small group of displaced workers, who were among hundreds of employees who lost their jobs following the closure of the mammoth Phillips Cables plant in the city's southwestern end, met to discuss the possibility of establishing a new cable-manufacturing firm. From its very start, Northern Cables has continually expanded and business has been brisk even through the recent recession.

Each month, the company manufactures upwards of four million metres (13.1-million feet) of low-voltage, armoured electrical cables made with a layer of aluminum or steel wire armour to provide protection for the conductor (wire carrying the electric current) and insulating layers. It is used in commercial and industrial applications, including condominiums, hospitals and schools which require a commercial-grade of electrical cable. Some projects where the company's cable had been utilized are the Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island to mainland Canada, at City Field - home of the Mets - in New York City, at the new CityCentre in Las Vegas, lighting cable for the Ring Road in Calgary and the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

STAFF INCREASE

With the acquisition of the former Selkirk plant, the expansion at the 50 California Ave. plant and the reconfiguration of the Prescott plant into a full manufacturing facility, Northern Cables anticipates it will have a total staff of 134 workers according to Stafford which is an increase of about 15 more employees than the current workforce of 120. When all three manufacturing facilities are operating, the company will have 110 workers at its 50 California Ave. plant, 14 at its Prescott facility and 10 at the former Selkirk plant.

Source: EMC St. Lawrence