Business View Oceania | December 2019

109 110 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA DECEMBER 2019 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA DECEMBER 2019 UCC INDUSTR I ES INTERNAT IONAL system has been around for almost 100 years. There are many different strut rolling mills around North America, so metal framing, as a product, itself, becomes quite a commodity item. Hughes adds, “We recognised early in our history the need to find a number of interesting niche products where we could fill certain needs in various areas of the marketplace, in order to stand apart from the competition.” With some of UCCI’s product lines, the competition is more about changing the way things have been done in the past. For example, the Lindapter Steel Connection System is a clamping system for steel-to-steel that replaces the need for drilling or welding. UCCSC, therefore, needs to spend much of its time working with both the specifying engineers as well as the end users, in order to explain the benefits of changing the way things have been done in the past. Further, Hughes remarks, “Our Traffic Division, consisting of various signposts, anchors, custom fittings and accessories, has many different competitors in the marketplace, but we have opted to stay with the highest quality suppliers of the posts and fittings, when possible, and concentrate on providing top notch service to all of our clients and customers. We carry more stock of traffic supply products than any other distribution company in Canada and are able to provide next day service to just about every customer that we have.” In the last year, UCCI has gained exclusive distribution rights for two new product lines; one across Canada and the other across all of North America. The first product line is a support system for instrumentation and control cabling by the James C. White Co., Inc. (JCWCO), out of Greenville, South Carolina, a family-run business since 1952. They produce high-pressure tubing and low- voltage cable supports known as TubeTrack and CableRace, for nuclear and non-nuclear industries. The system isolates instrumentation and control wiring from the higher-voltage electrical runs that may be present in a plant. “Whereas our Unistrut systems usually support high voltage cabling, electrical conduits, and water or gas piping, the JCW TubeTrack and Cable-Race isolates the more fragile low-voltage cable in systems throughout the instrumentation area, such as wiring that has to be completely isolated going from a control room to an operating center in a nuclear plant,” says Hughes. “JCW Tubetrack and CableRace are used in every nuclear plant in the United States, but up until late last year, did not have much of a presence in Canada. They approached UCCI last July and we put an agreement together. We are now supplying their products right across Canada, with customers as far away as Vancouver and Halifax. It’s still in the infancy stage but it’s growing, and we see a bright future with JCWCO, especially in the power generation and transmission business.” The second exclusive product line is a fiberglass trench drain system known as Wolfa Trench Drains. Based in the Bavaria region of Germany, they’re the third-largest trench drain company in Europe. Even though they opened 100 years ago in 1919, they’ve never had a footprint in North America. “UCCI’s Vice President Connon first met Wolfa two years ago at the Bau Construction Fair in Germany,” Hughes recounts. “Cid saw a potential to help them grow their market in North America. In late 2018, we put together a deal with them to have distribution rights for North America. We have just received our first two container loads in Canada, and we have customers ready to begin working with us.” The Wolfa trench drain system, unlike others, is made with 100-percent fiberglass rather than concrete. Concrete trench drains are much heavier, may be more fragile, and can be difficult to install. Wolfa not only manufacturers and assembles the product line, it owns all the means of production, right down to manufacturing the fiberglass matting and any metal products that go along with it. “It’s pretty exciting for us to partner with the Wolfa group. They are a great family business to be associated with,” says Hughes. “The UCCSC business, along with the Lindapter distribution work that we do across the eastern USA and Canada, has grown tremendously in the last nine years since we started that business,” Complete Systems for the Continuous Support of Instrumentation to Control Tubing, Pipe, Cable, Bundles & Instruments USA www.jcwco.com CANADA www.ucci.ca he continues. “We started this business from the ground up. One of the main challenges when we started in 2010, was that we were unable to secure financing to get it going. The U.S. economy was still suffering from the economic downturn of 2008-2009, and the construction industry in 2010 was well behind the pace of recovery. As such, we were forced to self-fund the start up through the retained earnings of UCCI. Although it took us a few years to finally start to turn a profit, we are quite proud of the fact that we were able to do it on our own and grow the business without relying on outside funding. It has been difficult, but in the end, very satisfying to see that we have made it into a profitable little company. “The nuclear power renaissance here in Ontario has been, and will continue to be, an important part of the business. UCC Industries International has been a supplier to Ontario Power Generation, Bruce Power, Hydro One, and their associated contractors, for over 24 years. We’ve become an important supplier to the nuclear and non-nuclear utilities across Ontario as the go-to company for