National Compressed Air Ltd. (NCA Canada) announced its expansion to North Bay as the Alberta-based company is acquiring approximately two acres in North Bay’s Airport Industrial Business Park to construct its new manufacturing, sales and service facility to support Rubber Track customers in Ontario through to eastern Canada.
"North Bay is a major mining centre and the gateway of the North," states a news release issued by NCA Canada.
"We're intending to put up a 10,000-square-foot structure for service and manufacturing of off-road vehicles," says David Keddie, president of National Compressed Air Canada Ltd. "We hope to start construction as early as in the next two months."
NCA Canada will invest $3 million into the building alone, plus ancillary equipment purchases. The $100,000 land sale was approved during the most recent regular meeting of North Bay City Council.
Keddie says the Carriers Canada branch of the company has been performing the same services on a large scale in western Canada for years. He says this expansion to North Bay will move a similar smaller-scale business model in eastern Canada closer to the scope of the western holdings.
NCA Canada provides engineering solutions and custom-manufactured equipment for a variety of sectors including power line and communications, mining and mineral exploration, oil and gas, pipeline, construction, and civil applications. The North Bay location will also provide service, repairs and modifications of rubber track products including a broad range of attachments such as power line utility post hole diggers, cranes, tilt, and load configurations.
"We operate quite a large rental fleet and we also manufacture and sell units for special applications," Keddie adds. "The new facility will support the rental equipment and support and modify new models."
Keddie says a large proportion of Carriers Canada's work at the North Bay facility will support off-road vehicles used in mining and power line applications, including personnel carriers to shuttle people to and from remote job sites.
The North Bay centre will open with nine employees — with room for growth depending on the rate of development and market conditions, Keddie says — and will augment the company's footprint in Ontario, adding to an existing site in Sudbury, and the larger main manufacturing facility in Mississauga. With almost 60 years of experience, National Compressed Air is an industry leader in developing and manufacturing custom-engineered and standard air and gas compression equipment.
