May 12, 2014
Province, City Partner with Price Industries to Create 175 Skilled Jobs, Expand Training Opportunities
– – –Major Expansion of Winnipeg Headquarters Underway
Today, Premier Greg Selinger joined Gerry Price, Chairman and CEO of the Price Group of Companies, and Mayor Sam Katz to announce a 50,000-sq.-ft. expansion of Price’s Winnipeg manufacturing headquarters and further investments in Price Research Center North that will create up to 175 new jobs, expand local training opportunities and cement the company’s core North American research and engineering capability in Manitoba.
“Price Industries is a Manitoba success story with a growing global presence and a solid reputation for quality products,” said Premier Selinger. “Our government’s priorities are creating good jobs for Manitoba families, growing our economy and expanding training opportunities for young people to build their futures here at home. This partnership with Price Industries helps us achieve all three objectives.”
With a local workforce of 850, Price Industries is a Winnipeg-based manufacturer of HVAC and air distribution products including new products for health care and mechanical and applied equipment. In addition, the Price Research Center North in Winnipeg is one of the most advanced air distribution and noise control laboratories in the world. The company has manufacturing, sales operations, and technical centres in Phoenix, Atlanta and Minneapolis, along with a global distribution network that extends into Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region.
“The non-residential air distribution industry in North America experienced a severe recession – really a depression – from 2008 through 2010, when the market fell over 60 per cent. Over the past three years, the U.S. market has been slowly recovering but is still at a very low level, close to the 60-year low,” said Price. “In Canada, the market for our products remains mired in a slump that has persisted over the past 20 years. This makes conditions extremely competitive, with razor-thin margins. We’ve sacrificed profitability in favour of continuing to invest our earnings into creating new products and to fund start up loses so we can grow and create a future for our company and people.
“With this support from the province and the city, and with the ongoing support and sacrifice of our highly engaged and committed workforce, we are able to do things we otherwise couldn’t do at this time. In turn, this will create jobs and opportunities for our people in Winnipeg. As a company, we are very proud of our reputation for innovation and service, and for our track record of job creation. We’ve grown from 500 people in the Price Group in the early ‘90s to 2,400 today, and are now creating jobs at the pace of 150 per year.”
The expansion will help support Price’s investment in mechanical equipment and health-care product categories. The expansion will include a state-of-the-art training facility and sophisticated testing areas, along with increased manufacturing capacity.
To support the expansion, the provincial government is providing a $10-million repayable, interest-bearing, secured loan under the Manitoba Industrial Opportunities Program (MIOP). In addition, the province will contribute $1.5 million to train the highly skilled workers needed for the expansion.
The City of Winnipeg will provide a strategic economic investment incentive representing a total of 10 years of estimated full incremental taxes otherwise payable over a period of 15 years, subject to the completion of the expansion phases and introduction of new jobs in Winnipeg, up to maximum of $800,000.
“As mayor, I am pleased that Winnipeg is building sustainable incentive models to build key investment partnerships that not only keep Winnipeg competitive with other jurisdictions for business sector investment, but that ensure investors like Price Industries Limited succeed here and want to stay for as long as it remains successful for them to be here,” said Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz.
YES! Winnipeg played a key role by bringing the partners together and facilitating ongoing discussions to help ensure the expansion and new jobs would benefit Manitoba.
“Congratulations to Price Industries for their continued growth and development of lead-edge technologies,” said Bill Morrissey, leader of YES! Winnipeg. “We are delighted that they have selected Winnipeg as their site for the manufacturing of their new technology. Their decision is a testament to our city’s strong value proposition and the impressive collaborative support they have received. YES! Winnipeg is pleased to have assisted in this very exciting new development and the creation of 175 great new jobs here.”
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The Province of Manitoba is distributing this release on behalf of the Government of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg and Price Group of Companies.