Pandemics, labor and housing shortages, automation and inflation are all obstacles facing companies wishing to expand today or factors with which they must learn to deal.
Posted at 7:30 a.m.
This is particularly the case of the SP company of Saint-Hyacinthe, the main manufacturer of jerseys for professional hockey teams in North America, which announced this week an investment of 20 million in a new manufacturing plant in Saint-Hyacinthe. which will replace the existing factory which has become dilapidated.
I first met Steve Bérard, the owner and president of SP, three years ago when he was preparing to acquire robots to increase the productivity of his facilities (SP also has a factory in Granby) and compensate for the shortage of seamstresses that was already afflicting the company.
The entrepreneur had also embarked on the process of hiring abroad to meet a fraction of his needs for specialized labour.
“With the arrival of the pandemic in 2020, we had to close our factories, which we reopened later with half the workforce to make hospital gowns. The market for sports uniforms has collapsed. We had to postpone all our expansion projects, ”says Steve Bérard, in his offices in the old factory in Saint-Hyacinthe, accompanied by Tania Berlinguette, director of strategic planning and culture at SP.
For your information, SP manufactures the jerseys of the 32 NHL teams for Adidas, but also has the contract with Nike for the manufacture of the jerseys of all the teams of the International Ice Hockey Federation (the national Olympic teams) and all Canadian and American league teams (including the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) on behalf of CCM.
Another surprising thing to know is that each NHL team orders 1,000 jerseys from SP a year (500 in local colors and 500 for away games). After a few games, used jerseys are donated to charity.
“We do high-end. Each sweater is made from 22 pieces that are sewn by our seamstresses. We do haute couture. The high-volume jerseys that we manufacture for minor or school teams are made of five assembled pieces”, specifies the CEO.
Expansion in the United States and Europe
Plans to expand the plant from three years ago have therefore been updated and will be completed by the end of the year.
“We are investing $20 million in the purchase and transformation of a 115,000 square foot factory, almost double our current area, to make it a well-lit workplace with a good quality of life. We are also investing 2 million in the automation of certain functions to increase our productivity,” explains Steve Bérard.
That said, labor issues are still unresolved. SP had to interrupt the process of integrating a first cohort of 10 seamstresses from Bosnia in the spring of 2020.
We had taken the steps in 2019 with immigration and we reduced to 3 the number of seamstresses who arrived in the spring of 2021, in the midst of a pandemic. There we expect three cohorts, including two from Tunisia and another from Colombia, because we are entitled to a maximum of 30 specialized emigrant workers.
Tania Berlinguette
In addition to the issue of the exact date of the arrival of these new employees, several of whose files are still pending at immigration, there is the equally complex issue of finding them a home to accommodate them once they arrive.
“We are working with the City of Saint-Hyacinthe to find solutions. It’s not simple. We may have to buy apartment buildings to accommodate them. We will do it if necessary, ”says Steve Bérard.
The CEO must also deal with the increase in salaries to ensure greater retention of his 260 current employees.
“It’s a constant challenge. The turnover rate is high even though there is an average seniority rate of 17 years. We have improved working conditions, we are automating certain functions. We also have to absorb higher yarn and fabric supply costs,” he observes.
But the quality of SP’s athletic uniforms has it considering expansion into the United States, where the company wants to distribute more jerseys for minor baseball and school lacrosse, a sport more popular than hockey in the United States. United.
“We also want to further break into the European hockey market, where we greatly appreciate the “made in Canada” on our jerseys. We did not have the capacity to do it, there we will be able to double our production, ”anticipates the CEO, despite the obstacles he will have to overcome to get there.