Pandemic sales growth drives manufacturer's move from GTA to London

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The pandemic has forced more industries to buy supplies closer to home and that has helped sales at a new London manufacturer to double in recent years.

Progressive Industrial Fluids completes its move from Toronto to London this week, opening a new 33,000-square-foot (3,000-square-metre) plant on Page Street on 1.4 hectares, said Darren Chambers, the company’s chief executive.

The maker of lubricants for manufacturers wanted more space to handle its growth and viewed London as a cheaper place to do business, enabling it to build its own plant, he said.

“The reality is London is more affordable and not just for me, but for employees, too,” Chambers said. “We wanted a new building.”

Manufacturers have seen COVID-19 disrupt supply chains. That has pushed more businesses to use suppliers closer to home, Chambers said.

“Overall manufacturing has been buoyant during the COVID crisis, but the supply chain was disrupted,” he said. “We are seeing now a greater commitment to supply chain in North America. There is more on-shoring of supplies back to North America,” from overseas.

Another growth factor is a focus on research and development. New lubricants Progressive has developed are proving popular.

“We are making inroads with different manufacturers,” Chambers said.

For London, Progressive is one of four new industries the city has attracted from the Greater Toronto Area in the past two years, said Kapil Lakhotia, chief executive of the London Economic Development Corp.

“London has landed a string of GTA businesses setting up new manufacturing here and that has helped diversify our manufacturing sector,” he said.

Along with Progressive, building materials company Quest Brands, drug maker Anvo Pharma and food business Panella Bakery have moved west on Highway 401.

“It is testament to the success of the city’s industrial land development strategy,” Lakhotia said. “Truly, it is a build-it-and-they-will-come story.”

Much of Progressives sales are into the automotive sector, The company supplies lubricants to parts makers supplying auto assembly plants. That includes recent approval from Honda, enabling Progressive to sell to Honda suppliers.

“As we grew the business, we started making our own hydraulic and gear oils and complementary products, more complex products,” Chambers said.

Those complex products include biodegradable oils, now making up about 10 per cent of production. It is less of a focus in the industrial fluids sector, as most are recycled and repurposed, Chambers said.

Production should begin in the new London plant in January and the Mississauga plant will be used as a warehouse, he said.

The London plant will employ 27 workers when it is up and running.

Progressive makes more than 300 different types of lubricants for manufacturers, totaling about 300,000 litres a month.

As for moving his business in a pandemic, Chamber is used to coping in a crisis. He opened his business in 2009 during the economic downturn after losing his job at a manufacturer.

He began small, as a reseller of lubricants, but as sales grew he invested more in research and development. Now 95 per cent of what Chambers sells he manufacturers and sells into both Canada and the U.S.

“I was selling industrial chemicals and started the business in the industry I knew,” he said. “I went to customers I was working with and asked if they would support me and a lot said they would. I was at a point in my career I could have gotten another job, but I was ready to go out on my own.”

Chambers bought the parcel of land in 2018 and he and his family moved to London that year.