Motrec moving ahead with Sherbrooke expansion
Motrec International, the Sherbrooke-based manufacturer of electric industrial vehicles, announced late last week that it is in the process of a major expansion project that will nearly triple the amount of space available for its production floor and administrative offices. At 70,000 square feet, the nearly $10 million project is currently under construction, with the first foundation walls visible at the corner of Portland Boulevard and Robert-boyd Street in Sherbrooke’s industrial park.
Blair Mcintosh, President and CEO of Motrec since 2011, said that the expansion is the manifestation of an idea that has been floating around for years and a plan that started to come together in the last 12 months. Cramped in its current Brompton headquarters, having reached that facility’s operating capacity, Motrec opted to stick with Sherbrooke over what the President called “interesting offers” from communities like Drummondville and Plattsburgh, New York.
“The company has been here since 1988,” Mcintosh said, explaining that although the techniques and equipment could easily have been moved to a new city, the history of Motrec and its labour force is rooted in Sherbrooke. “We didn’t want to play with that too much,” the president said, estimating that the majority of the company’s workers live within a 25 kilometer radius of the current factory.
“If all goes according to plan we’ll be moving our inventory in during the Christmas shut down,” Mcintosh said,
estimating that all offices and operations will be moved into the new building by mid-january. “It’s going to be a beautiful industrial building.”
While highlighting the fact that the new facility will be cleaner and brighter, Mcintosh also pointed out that the bigger, better designed space will better equip the company to meet growing international demand.
“Right now we’re in pretty tight quarters,” the president said. “If you can’t deliver fast enough then it comes back to haunt you.”
Although the new facility will include more automated processes and equipment, Mcintosh still estimated that the workforce could grow by half of its current level over the next two years.
“You’ve got to (automate) in this competitive market,” he said.
In the name of keeping ahead of the competition the president also pointed out three significant projects that Motrec is engaged in that might have significant potential in the new headquarters. While pursuing prototyping work on self-driving vehicles and data logging systems that will help the company keep its fleet of vehicles up to date and operational around the world, Mcintosh said that work with a research team in is opening up the possibility of shifting the Motrec fleet from lead-acid batteries to safer, more efficient lithium.
“We are thinking very seriously about manufacturing the batteries at Motrec,” Mcintosh said, noting that doing so would make the company the only industrial-grade lithium battery producer in Quebec. “We want to be the first,” he added.
Motrec’s current facilities in Brompton are up for sale, and when asked about the idea of one day having multiple production facilities the president said that he does not really see that in the company’s future.