A Business Point of View
A Tale of Two Companies
There are four companies in Canada that manufacture ambulances. You might be surprised that two of these companies are located in the Maritimes. The biggest ambulance manufacturers in Canada are Demers and Crestline. Quebec based, Demers is Canada’s largest ambulance manufacturer and the second largest in North America, following its merger with US based Braun Industries and Crestline Coach in 2018. With its acquisition of US based Braun Ambulances and Crestline , Demers produces between 1,400 and 1,500 ambulances per year. Demers’ ambulances are used in twenty countries.
New Brunswick based Malley Industries and Nova Scotia based Tri-Star Industries are the other two ambulance manufacturers in Canada.
Tri-Star Industries
Tri-Star Industries was founded in 1973 by Keith Condon. From its 55,000 square foot facility in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, the company produces a range of emergency vehicles including ambulances, patient transfer vehicles, fire & rescue vehicles and mobile command vehicles. The company also offers high-quality used and remounted ambulances. The company has built its reputation on its ability to customize its vehicles to meet their customers’ needs. The company currently sells its vehicles to eight provinces, including Nova Scotia where all the ambulances in the province are leased from Tri-Star.
Condon sold his company to his senior management team in 2016 but stills retains a relationship with the company by helping with its sales in South America and has an office for that purpose in Panama City. Indeed, Tri-Star has a long history of export sales to countries in the middle east like Jordan and Iraq and the Western Hemisphere like Cuba and Panama. The company produced 1,500 ambulances for Iraq over a ten-year period. About half of the company’s production is sold outside the province of Nova Scotia and about twenty percent is sold internationally. Along the way, Condon has met famous people like the King of Jordan, Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro through his international efforts.
Malley Industries
Malley Industries was started in 1979 by A. J. Malley, the father of current CEO, Terry Malley, who has been with the company since the beginning. The company has a modern 92,000 square foot manufacturing facility in the Dieppe industrial park near the Moncton airport. The company produces about 200 ambulances and patient transfer vehicles annually. His ambulances sell for between $150 -160,000 in the Canadian market fully equipped, but only about $110,000 in the US for less sophisticated ambulances where the market is driven by the private sector and more cost conscious. The company also produces customize built accessible vehicles for individuals and long-term care facilities. The company employees 80 employees, 40 percent of whom are from other countries. Thirty-five percent of his production is exported outside Canada to the US (30-40 vehicles currently being used in New York City), the Caribbean and Bermuda. The company provides all the ambulances to the Province of New Brunswick under a lease arrangement, similar to Tri-Star in Nova Scotia.
In a recent Insights Podcast, Malley indicated that the average life span for an ambulance is only about four years due to their high usage. This provides companies like Tri-Star and Malley Industries with a high repeat business.
Bodyguard Composites is a division of Malley industries that produces thermoformed products like van liners and partitions that conform to a vehicle’s interior and make their vehicles lighter by 1,000-1,500 pounds and cheaper to operate than their competitors. The vehicles are also much easier to keep sanitized and are pathogen-resistance as a result of seam-sealed walls and compartments that mitigate pathogen intrusion, as well as quieter to operate.
The Need for More Manufacturing in the Region
Tri-Star Industries and Malley Industries are but two examples of long-term successful manufacturers in our region, who saw a market opportunity and developed that opportunity into a business. Both companies are important exporters in their respective provinces. The challenge for manufacturers in our region has always been the small size of the local market. Manufacturing benefits from scale and supply support. Companies like Michelin, McCains and Irving Tissue have the scale to invest in the latest technologies and manufacturing equipment to compete with other larger manufacturers. There is still the opportunity for niche manufacturers like Tri-Star and Malley Industries to be able to compete successfully both nationally and internationally and to do so over many decades. These companies serve as both a model and inspiration for others to consider manufacturing as an opportunity to build production facilities to serve both a national and international market.