Galaxy Tire & Dynamic Tire merge

Galaxy Tire & Wheel, Inc of Boston and Dynamic Tire Corp of Toronto will be merging to become GPX Tire & Wheel. The combined 2005 sales of more than $300 million and assets in excess of $100 million are expected to provide the solid foundation necessary for GPX Tire & Wheel to become one of the leading global players in the agricultural, industrial, commercial and off-the road (OTR) tire markets.

The merger will result in huge synergistic opportunities, the companies say. Galaxy brings strong engineering capabilities, a well regarded brand name and long established original equipment contacts. Additionally, its operations in Europe, including its factory in Serbia, provide a springboard for greater penetration of European markets.

Dynamic Tire, voted one of the 50 best-managed companies in Canada for the last two years, brings industry-leading sourcing and logistics expertise. This has allowed Dynamic to become one of the world’s most cost effective suppliers of high quality industrial, commercial and OTR tires.

GPX is well positioned to offer its customers a broad range of high quality and affordable purpose-built tires, the company says. Galaxy and Dynamic intend to maintain the existing brand names of both companies.

www.dynamictire.com

www.galaxytire.com

Carmanah and Jeffrey
team up

Carmanah Design and Manufacturing Inc have entered into an agreement with Jeffrey Specialty Equipment Corporation to represent several lines of Jeffrey’s equipment to the forest products industries in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The equipment includes the Jeffrey Wood Hog and the Chip-Sizer. Jeffrey selected Carmanah because of the company’s reputation as a high quality innovative supplier and its strong commitment to customer service. The equipment will be manufactured at Jeffrey’s plant with warehousing of parts in Vancouver.

www.carmanahdesign.com

The 1,000th piece
of equipment from
Deere-Hitachi SP’s BC
location has the new
colours

The Langley, British Columbia, plant of Deere-Hitachi Specialty Products recently celebrated its 1,000th piece of equipment to be produced at the plant. The 1,000th unit was a 2054 log loader which was sold to Darren Kashluba of Kash Contracting Ltd out of Kamloops, BC.

The log loader was the first piece of equipment out of the plant to feature the new, but well known, trade dress colours of John Deere equipment, a green and yellow combination.

Deere-Hitachi Specialty Products is a 50/50 joint venture between John Deere and Hitachi and has a 115,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Langley’s Gloucester Industrial Estates. The plant produces track-mounted log loaders, harvesters, delimbers, and road builders.

www.johndeere.com

Research cluster to improve competitiveness in BC forest industry

A new collaborative forest research effort is expected to harness the research and innovation capabilities in British Columbia to improve the competitiveness of the forest industry and increase the economic and social value of Canada’s forests.

The partnership, known as Forest Research Opportunity BC, will bring together the governments of Canada and British Columbia, as well as BC universities and the forest industry. It will focus on delivering results that meet industry and public policy needs in areas such as sustainable forest management and forest products, climate change, energy supply and the mountain pine beetle infestation.“British Columbia has rich resources in its forest, industry, universities and world class forest products research institutes,” said John Efford, Minister of Natural Resources Canada. “Forest Research Opportunity BC will better co-ordinate the activities of everyone involved in the BC forest research community and help spur more robust business development and breakthrough technology.”

The executive director of Forest Research Opportunity BC is Alan Potter, who was most recently vice-president of technology and environment of Nexfor Inc. His first steps will be to identify the priority issues in the forest and forest products sector, where local skills can be applied in a collaborative fashion, and to then set up programs and joint investments.

www.nrcan.gc.ca/media