July 2014
The manufacturing sector in Ontario has been hard hit by plant closings but a Guelph-based company is bucking the trend.
Hematite, a company that produces a range of parts for the automotive industry from recycled materials, has been able to expand and continues to look for new opportunities.
“It certainly hasn't been easy for us,” John Pavanel, President of Hematite, said. “Manufacturing continues to be a very difficult sector here in Ontario, and the automotive industry is extremely competitive in every sense of the word.
“But we have a very strong team that's driven to find opportunity in the industry and work closely together to make it work.”
Founded in 1978, Hematite produces sound insulators, water shields and air management components for automobiles. The company's sound insulation products can be found under the trim panels, behind the rear seat and under the carpeting.
Water shields made by Hematite can be found in the doors, under the hood and body of vehicles.
The air management components can be found under the hood and the body.
Hematite uses extrusion, compression moulding, injection moulding and thermoforming processes to make their products from recycled plastic.
“We have been using recycled plastic materials in vehicles since the early 1980's which was very uncommon at the time,” Pavanel said. “Customers were reluctant to trust both the physical properties of these recycled materials as well as their source.
“Over the years, we have seen a gradual increase in the interest to use products that contain recycled materials, with where we are today.”
However, there is a great opportunity to do more in the future, he added.
"The Enterprise Brant team was very good to work with"
Hematite started in gasketing materials and floor products and quickly discovered an opportunity in acoustics. The perceived quality of a vehicle is closely linked with how quiet the vehicle is, Pavanel explained.
“Our recycled product was an excellent acoustic barrier material and there were many opportunities to help our customers both understand and improve the acoustic performance of their cars,” Pavanel said. “Traditionally, these have been interior applications."
“Our next step was to work on the exterior of the car and we developed products to assist with air flow and water ingestion in under hood and under body applications.”
The value of having acoustic materials in these exterior components is now well understood and this, mated with the need for lightweight materials, is giving us additional opportunities at this time.”
Hematite is a supplier to General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen, Subaru and several Tier 1 customers. The company is now looking to Europe to expand its customer base and to share product and process technology.
Although Hematite is based in Guelph, it has operated a recycling facility in Brantford for five years and for just under two years, the company has operated a parts plant in Brantford as well.
Hematite has 80 team members in Brantford, an increase of 50 people over last year with additional team members still to be hired, he added.
The company's decision to open a parts facility in Brantford was supported financially by Enterprise Brant, a Community Futures Development Corporation that offers business services and financing to small and medium-sized companies in Brantford and the surrounding area.
Enterprise Brant is a member of the Western Ontario Community Futures Development Corporation Association. Community Futures corporations offer a range of programs to support community economic development as well as business growth.
In addition to business information and planning services, Community Futures Development Corporations can provide access to capital for small and medium-sized businesses. They are staffed by professionals and governed by a local volunteer board of directors.
“This is our first time utilizing a program through Enterprise Brant,” Pavanel said. “The funding has been very helpful to us at this time and will support our cash flow requirements as we put new people and processes in place.
“The Enterprise Brant team was very good to work with. A good group of people, lots of experience and motivated to help us as we build a strong team in the Brantford community.”
The company, in addition to manufacturing unique products, has a unique name – Hematite.
“The name comes from the early development work with our material, which was part of a research and development project with Ford Motor Company,” Pavanel said. “We were trying to recycle a waste product and the initial material was grey and grainy and had a similar appearance to Hematite, the semi-precious mineral.
“For a chemical engineer, it seemed simple at the time.”