The vice president of a Windsor company that's receiving provincial funding to adjust in the current economic climate says U.S. tariffs certainly put a chill on a lot of their business.
Dimachem Inc. Vice President Andrew Conway says automotive sales make up half of our business, and we felt the threats, the slowdowns, and the worry when the tariffs began last year.
Ontario's Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli was at Dimachem Inc. at 3258 Marentette Avenue in Windsor Wednesday to announce over $7.3 million in funding for eight local companies impacted by U.S. tariffs.
Dimachem is receiving near $1.6 million from the province to support a near $11.6 million investment in a new powder blending and packaging facility next to the existing site to help increase capacity and efficiency, enabling the company to expand into new markets in Europe and support reshoring production for the Canadian market. The investment will create five new jobs and protect 65 existing positions.
Dimachem Inc. Vice President Andrew Conway says they were planning an expansion, but with the economic uncertainty, it was a difficult decision to go to the bank to borrow millions to expand.
Conway says the tariffs put a chill on a lot of their business.
"We do contract manufacturing as referenced with the line behind me. We felt a shift in our relationship with some American prospects and clients around having product made in Canada that was going to the U.S. We worked very hard to overcome that," he says.
Conway says they manufacture products and a variety of fluids for the auto industry and aerospace industry along with institutional, food, and clean tech industries.
He says this funding helps with the numbers but also with the courage to expand in light of tariffs.
"Our automotive sales, which are over half our business, really felt the threats last year; we felt a slowdown, and we felt worry. That's why this support for investment is pivotal," he says.
Conway says they are buying a property next door to their current facility and putting in a new high-tech warehouse.
"It's not the warehouse; it's the project. It's what enables us to rearrange our production environment in this building and the building next door. In our main production spaces, we can focus all of our logistics in our new building, and that gives us new production space and new capacity," he says.
The funding is from the Ontario Together Trade Fund (OTTF) to help build and expand capacity or reshore critical supply chains.
Fedeli says the overall funding will help eight local companies leverage nearly $44 million for investments that will create over 65 new jobs and protect another 692 in Windsor-Essex.