At its 16 branches located throughout Canada, Wainbee, Ltd., and its president, Mike Marthold, face many of the same industry concerns as his colleagues in the United States.

Many Wainbee customers work in the oil and metals industries, which are doing well at the moment. In Eastern Canada, though, the MRO companies in the automotive and aerospace industries are facing more rocky times.

Demand for hydraulics and related products in the oil fields of Western Canada has been strong, Marthold says from his Vancouver office. He is also the immediate past president of the Fluid Power Distributors Assn.

“The economy is up nicely over last year,” Marthold says, “and it looks like it's going to stay strong, from what we can see. The price of oil and metals is up. And when they are up in price, people spend money to go look for them, and that helps us all.”

In Eastern Canada, Wainbee sells mostly OEM-related equipment to the aerospace and automotive industries.

“Some years the East will be stronger because manufacturing is up,” he says. “In other years, the West will be doing better, [like now], with resources doing well. It's the advantage we have of being a national company. You can pick up the good stuff when it happens, and that helps us overcome the weak spots.”

Another source of concern for Marthold is getting good people. Canada is experiencing a shortage of workers— “a lack of potential employees,” as he puts it. Some businesses are even closed on Sundays, he explains, due to a lack of workers. McDonald's and Tim Horton's (a chain of donut shops) simply don't have enough staff.

“It's almost a crisis for some people,” he says. “Hiring and keeping good people is my biggest concern at the moment.”

Recently, Wainbee even had to use a headhunter to hire a shipper, he says.

“We never had to do that in past. But we couldn't even get qualified candidates to answer the ad,” Marthold says.

Wainbee made an acquisition in January of this year: Del-Tech Automation, a Parker Hannifin distributor in Western Canada.

“That gave us an additional branch in Western Canada in the mining and forestry area, and also gave us an additional 25 people to help us. That was something we wanted to do to get more feet on the street. The fastest way to do that in this economy is through an acquisition,” he says.

Training—both for Wainbee customers as well as its employees—has proven to be a key to surviving tough times.

“Wainbee is one of the few companies in Canada that offers regular hydraulic and pneumatic training,” he says. “We'll do several one-week courses on hydraulics or pneumatics. We also do in-house training for our customers.”

Customer training sessions allow Wainbee's sales and technical staff to go into customer locations and work on specific problems. Parker Hannifin and other manufacturing partners take part in the training, Marthold adds.

“We end up with a more educated customer,” he says. “Even in a competitive marketplace, that educated customer will give you the fairest hearing possible. An uneducated customer may not know what to ask or what to look for.”