04.2.1
Advanced manufacturing
Loewen, Barkman and WS Steel already ship to export spec from here.
04.2.2
The pattern
Loewen sells into the top of the North American window market from a city of about 18,000.
Premium windows are an unforgiving category. The tolerances are tight, the finish is visible, and the customer is often an architect. Loewen has held that position from here for decades, and Barkman and WS Steel hold comparable positions in theirs.
What that means for you is the supplier base underneath them. Your fabricators, your finishers and your trades already work to that standard every week.
04.2.3
The advantage
Your local suppliers already know what your tolerance means.
A precision manufacturer moving into a new region usually spends two years teaching local suppliers what tolerance means.
Loewen has run a premium window line here for decades. Barkman ships concrete product nationally. WS Steel runs a highly automated Tier 1 OEM fabrication operation. The expectation is already set, and you inherit it.
04.2.4
Fit
Automation, packaging machinery and precision fabrication.
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01
Automation and robotics integration
The protein and manufacturing base here is actively automating and buying that capability from outside the region.
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02
Packaging and machine building
Equipment for food and ag, built next to the customers who run it.
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03
Precision fabrication
Components, assemblies and structures for the cluster and for export.
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04
Work that needs skilled hands
Anything that needs trades and does not need a city to find them.
04.2.5
Workforce
The constraint here is headcount.
Quality is available. Volume is what the immigration route exists to fix.
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36
median age of the workforce
SEDC
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RCIP
a federal immigration pilot designated to this region, open to employers hiring in priority occupations
STEINBACHEDC.COM/RCIP
04.2.6
What ships from here
Barkman hardscape leaves this region for streetscapes across Canada.
A paver is an unglamorous object with an unforgiving spec. It has to hold colour, hold dimension through a Manitoba freeze-thaw cycle, and arrive on a pallet without a chipped edge.
The plants that hit that standard here are the same plants your suppliers would be.
04.2.7
Power
Manitoba Hydro rates, and a climate that helps.
Manitoba’s industrial electricity rates are among the lowest in North America and the supply is predominantly hydroelectric. For an energy-intensive line that is a structural cost position rather than a one-year incentive.
The cold season also carries part of your heat rejection. Request the current rate schedule and we will walk your load through it with you.
04.2.8
Next
Tell us what you build and what it needs.
Floor area, crane and ceiling requirements, power draw, headcount, timeline. We come back with sites, costs and the caveats.