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ICI gets its big deal done
Toronto-based Innovative Composites International Inc. on Monday announced it had signed a contract to supply about $68 million (U.S.) of housing for large-scale projects in Haiti and Ghana. The deal with Barclays Gedi Group, a U.S.-based construction conglomerate, follows 16 months of joint efforts to secure such contracts, and ICI will now begin the process of establishing a second manufacturing facility in South Carolina.
The company has committed to start supplying homes as soon as the new plant is up and running. It is expected that first houses will be shipped in the first quarter of next year.
ICI develops innovative products for the construction, transportation and fire fighting industries.
When Report on Small Business wrote about ICI late last year, the company's biggest challenge was the long sales cycle common in the housing market. "Certain customers – such as the government and the military – the decisions they make are not quick. We're weathering this cusp while waiting for the significant contracts," Ilja Troitschanski, the company's chief financial officer, said in December.
Looks like ICI finally got what it was looking for. Read more about it in this Reuters story.
More bleak hiring numbers out of the U.S.
Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of small-business executives surveyed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a report to be released Monday said they were not expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year and another 12 per cent planned to cut jobs. A story by The Wall Street Journal also pointed out that 19 per cent said they would expand their work forces.
The report comes on the heels of a U.S. Labor Department report Friday that showed employers south of the border added few jobs in June, and unemployment rose to 9.2 per cent. The bleak figures joined other data showing the recovery losing momentum in recent months, which has caused many analysts and policy makers to lower their forecasts for economic growth in the second half of the year.
Charges laid under Canada Small Business Financing Act
The RCMP have charged three Toronto-area suspects in connection with business loan-related frauds totalling an estimated $600,000, CTV News reports. Investigators allege that one of the accused applied for loans at RBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and TD Canada Trust. It is alleged she used fraudulent or forged documents to obtain the loans to fund equipment purchases and upgrades to leased property that were never completed. RBC investigators first discovered the alleged anomalies when she defaulted on a loan, the RCMP said. Miriam Cohen, 38, faces a total of 23 charges, eight of which were laid under the Canada Small Business Financing Act.
EVENTS AND KEY DATES
The CIX Top 20 kicks off
The CIX Top 20 highlights Canada's hottest innovative companies in digital media and information and communications technology. An expert panel will select 20 established firms from across the country for a live showcase at CIX 2011, on Dec. 1 at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. The deadline for entries is Oct. 14, click here for more details.
EDITOR'S PICKS FROM REPORT ON SMALL BUSINESS
'They hadn't seen anything like it'
How did 32-year-old Vinay Chopra manage to get his firm, Mobiroo, to count Research In Motion, Future Shop, Best Buy and other large big-box retailers among its clients for its mobile-app gift cards? By creating a product he believed no one else had. The first-mover advantage generated sufficient buzz to garner attention, and sales.
FROM THE ROSB ARCHIVES
Inspired offices
While the hiring outlook is bleak in the U.S., Canadian small-business owners, in a story we published on June 24, said they plan to expand or maintain their pay rolls, a trend that is expected to give the economy here a boost over the next several months.
Got a tip on news, events or other timely information related to the small-business community? E-mail us at yourbusiness@globeandmail.com
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Sean Stanleigh