Local Company Expands It’s Business In Northwestern Ontario and
Manitoba: Central Canada Industries Inc
by Scott A. Sumner
www.thundertbaybusiness.ca
Wayne Maunula, President of Central Canada Industries Inc. was a business student at Lakehead University when he got the call to work fulltime at Central Canada Equipment. He had been looking for work as summer student but when one of the regular employees quit he started full time.
“ They phoned me to work in the welding shop. I never went back to finish at LU although I had been meaning to.” smiles Wayne Maunula who ended up in the shop, parts department, sales area and then management, really learning the business from the ground up.
The new Central Canada Industries Inc was started 20 years ago in February 1991. It was formerly Central Canada Equipment but when the then owners bought the John Deere operation locally, which was being run by the head office, they were told to get out of the equipment side of this business. “ As a result the business was getting ready to close
down when they came to me and said if you would like to buy the company we will keep it running but if not we are going to close it down. We took some of the product lines from them and ran with that as Central Canada Industries Inc. The former owners were Marvin Maunula, Don Picard, Alan Visser and Archie Gavin. Marvin grew the John Deere operation to 22 locations from the Manitoba border to Newfoundland when he sold out 5 years ago in 2006,” said Wayne Maunula. “We had around 10 different product lines but losing the equipment line we went down to about 6 product lines. We also went to 8 employees from 20 overnight. Since then we have built those lines to what they are now.”
The company soon began to grow when they opened a second store of Central Canada Industries in Winnipeg. Then they took over the Dow Auto Parts line and started up Auto Parts Central, a second store in Thunder Bay. That was the company foundation. Now they have 12 stores in total including Lakehead Alternator and Starter Company, which were purchased 6 years ago.
“We have three auto parts stores in Thunder Bay on Cumberland Street, Amber Drive and a satellite store here on Commerce Street. We moved Lakehead Alternator to Amber Drive a year ago. We opened a store in Kenora about 10 years ago and now have three auto parts stores in
Winnipeg and are opening a fourth one in there this April. We also have stores in Brandon and Malita, Manitoba for a total of 12 locations. We have just opened up in Atikokan. Atikokan will be 50/ 50 automotive parts and industrial. With the mining operation opening there we hope to see it swing more industrial.” said Wayne Maunula.
Central Canada Industries has done well by diversifying into the automotive parts sector especially serving those in the industry. “ We sell to the aftermarket industry. If you need brakes for your 3-year-old car we will have the brakes for your car. In Thunder Bay we have an associate program with local operations like One Stop, Stop and Steer, Intercity Fleet or John Tronson in the North side of the city. They buy their parts from us and we give them special rates and warranties as well. They get a national look and warranty program. If you are say a Toronto person travelling through Thunder Bay you can get your vehicle repaired here with our warranty program.” said Maunula.
Today the company operation in the industrial and automotive fields has 105 full and part time employees. “ Our business has seen the cycles of the forest industry. At one point in time we did large sales with the Buchanan Group and now it is much less. The industrial side
was about 33% of our business but has gone down to 20% because of the logging industry problems. The automotive area has stabilized while industrial is diminishing. We have even started selling some auto parts out of our industrial location here, not so much to sell more auto parts, but to protect our share of the market. It is a time sensitive issue. The local auto technician doesn’t want to stock inventory but get it from us in 5 minutes. We deliver the parts right to them even a spark plug at a time. On a Saturday morning at the quick oil places we
could be there up to 6 different times with 1 oil filter at a time. Our inventory is huge and we stock 27,000 different part numbers.,” said Maunula.
The group of parts stores forms a good-sized business. “ A Montreal company, Uniselect bought Bumper to Bumper in Western Canada off Acklands. At that time there were four stores here. They helped us take over the stores 7 years ago when I bought into the business from
Marvin Maunula. His involvement was at the 30,000 foot level then. Now because of his teaching I don’t get involved in the day-to-day business operations. When Marvin moved down to Southern Ontario everything was on my own and it was good learning experience for me to operate without his guidance here,” said Wayne Maunula. “ I have enjoyed the business.
The biggest issue is when you see the economy sliding and you have to work on expense management. It is not as much fun as seeing the economy turn and hiring people. The sales area is the most fun. We did see some retraction when we got into the automotive area. A process valve product we carried decided to go with someone else. We lost a lot of
sales per year overnight then but looking back it was better to be in the automotive business.”
“ We have just opened a store in Atikokan where we think there are good opportunities. Next is the opening of a new store in Winnipeg and if it works well we will open a fifth store in Winnipeg. We want to be leaders in the market we choose to be in but not in every market. I
don't think we have the resources to be everywhere. We walked slowly in Winnipeg with our first auto store in 1997 and with 3 now and the 4 Th or 5th coming up has taken our time. As the market changes we must react accordingly.” said Wayne Maunula.
