Providing high quality parts, solutions, services and expertise
By: Mudeeha Yousaf
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As manufacturing companies die down, Soucy Baron Inc. thrives in the industry providing a competitive price and extensive production capacity. Headquartered in Quebec, the company provides advanced technical expertise to the world of rubber mixing, molded elastomeric parts, and cryogenic finishing of parts. A division of the Soucy Group, Soucy Baron has become an expert in design and manufacturing services from proposal to delivery and uses the most advanced manufacturing techniques and multi-faceted approach to accomplish this.
Initially founded as Baron Rubber in 1967 by French immigrants who manufactured the outer soles of shoes, the company rebranded away from the shoe industry towards the technical component business in 1982. It wasn’t until 1996 when the company was acquired by Mr. Gilles Soucy that the corporation emerged as a key player in the market, and Soucy Baron Inc. was born. Today, their business strategy has evolved and services industry leaders within the power sports, lawn and gardens, military, agricultural, leisure and industrial arenas. “We want to give the customer exactly what he wants rather than off-the-shelf, catalogue items. They come to us for this customization,” says General Manager Guy Joannette. The company’s first large-scale customer was Bombardier Recreational Products, and Soucy Baron started growing its technical component business and customer-base thereafter. Today, the corporation provides a variety of products to its high-status clientele, such as safety equipment manufacturers that supply gas masks to the North American fire departments. As well, Soucy Baron takes pride in being the exclusive supplier for all 30 NHL hockey teams for their famous rubber hockey puck. “We’re the only ones on the planet that can supply the official game puck for our national sport, and we’re very proud of that.”
Eighty percent of Soucy Barons production is exported internationally to the United States, Germany England and China. Soucy Baron has secured two international customers this year alone. Their competitive advantage comes from supporting the complex parts and engineering side of the business in Canada, and outsourcing the simple solutions manufacturing to China. “Our overhead is higher, but to counter this we opened up our own shop in Shanghai to offer our customers a maximized service.” Outsourcing overseas allows the company to receive the quality and know-how evident in North America, with the cost-reduction from China. “Being in North America and serving North American customers, mostly in the United States, there is still a satisfaction in believing China is the world’s leading manufacturing factory, and customers are still driven by cost reduction,” says Guy. “I’m not too concerned with the labour part of things and the advantage we have is that we own that shop in Shanghai. This has helped us to continue to pursue organic growth.” Both ISO 9001 and ISO/TS16949 certified Soucy Baron is also recognized as a quality supplier. Proof of this is the winning of the BRP Silver Plate Award, the Zenith “Employer of Choice” Award and the Supplier “A” Award. “We are reputed here in Canada for being extremely good at delivery and are recognized for our on-time delivery record and quality parts.”
Soucy Baron is not an expert in a particular market, but are experts in particular applications. The team constantly implements the latest in technological innovations to explore new composite materials. “We’re not a volume-based company. We have a strong business model and take pride in making top quality parts customized to the customers’ needs.” The company’s long-term goal is to grow in revenue but still stay true to the original commodity and philosophy that created its success. Guy closes, “we’re not a nuts and bolts company but provide complex parts. Though we’re located in the outskirts of Montreal, we need exposure and strive to let people know we exist, and we will continue to expand markets, our customer base and be known in the market.”
For more information on Soucy Baron Inc. visit www.soucybaron.com
