Co-op aims to help manufacturers
Machinery to create prototypes for new products fills in ‘the missing piece’
A new co-operative in St-Henri wants to help manufacturers get started in Montreal.
Espace Fabrique, which opened officially on June 2, will allow its members to access the type of industrial machinery needed to create prototypes and small manufacturing runs of new products. It’s the first co-op in the manufacturing sector in Quebec, according to its creators.
“It’s the concept of a gym,” says Michael Novak, chair of Espace Fabrique’s board of directors. “You become a member, you pay an annual fee, and with that you have access to all the equipment.”
The organization has 19 industrial machines for wood and metalwork, equipment that Novak says would be too expensive for individuals to buy on their own.
The organization will also give members access to trainers who can show them how to do things like weld or program industrial machinery.
The idea, Novak says, is to give artists, artisans and entrepreneurs the space, and the equipment, to turn their ideas into prototypes. Because the creators will be doing much of the work themselves and won’t have to hire someone else, it will reduce costs and give them more time to get things right.
“Anything to do with innovation takes a long development cycle, anything to do with innovation and manufacturing has an even longer development cycle,” he says.
While companies that are creating software have access to a wide variety of support services in Montreal, including office space, Novak says, there isn’t much help available for companies that are building physical products.
“This is the missing piece,” he says.
It’s an appealing proposition for Dan Rouleau. He’s the founder of ScrewedCircuitz Inventions Sonores, a Montreal company that sells handmade electronic musical instruments.
Right now, he has to hire another company to make the metal and wood enclosures for his instruments. “It’s not always easy, because I’m a startup,” he says. “It’s a small company, there’s not a lot of money.”
Part of the problem is that it’s difficult to find manufacturers who are willing to do small production runs. He says many manufacturers won’t take on a run that’s smaller than 5,000 or 10,000 units. For Rouleau, who might need a dozen enclosures at a time, that means high costs and long delays.
Rouleau says that by joining Espace Fabrique, he expects that he’ll be able to make the enclosures himself, allowing his business to grow naturally.
For Emmanuelle Raynauld, Espace Fabrique’s general director, taking the organization from the idea stage to reality was a five-year project. The biggest challenge, she says, was that private investors, who might be familiar with manufacturing, don’t usually invest in co-ops, while investors who were interested in supporting social enterprises tended not to be familiar with manufacturing.
While it may have been more challenging, she says that because her vision was to create a collaborative space and “democratize” access to manufacturing equipment, it was important for it to be co-op instead of a for-profit company.
The mixture of manufacturing and social enterprise might have been a tough sell with investors, but it appears to have impressed politicians.
“There’s no economic development without social development,” Dominique Anglade, the MNA for Saint-Henri— Sainte-Anne and the minister of economy, science and innovation, told the audience at Espace Fabrique’s official launch. She says supporting Espace Fabrique is part of the government’s plan to support innovative manufacturing in the province.
Mayor Denis Coderre says the launch of Espace Fabrique is another sign that Montreal is becoming a “startup metropolis.”