EMBERTECH EXPANDING METAL FABRICATING SHOP IN BRACEBRIDGE WITH NEW JOBS, ONTARIO GRANT

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BRACEBRIDGE — A manufacturing business with 25 employees is news enough.

But an expansion of 12,000 square feet is bigger news amid the pandemic.

Embertech Industrial, a metal fabricator here on Barron Drive, is adding to its existing 5,000 square feet.

And a $363,000 Ontario regional growth program grant announced last week will help the local business add another 10 full- and part-time jobs, says general manager Tawnya Neal.

She and her husband, Mike — who began the business in Gravenhurst in 2010 before moving north in 2017 — are investing a total of $2.7 million in the project, which is already well underway this summer and fall. They had been working on the grant application for about a year.

The money will go to added manufacturing capacity for larger projects, technology, research and development and a new overhead crane system to facilitate even larger work orders and contracts.

Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic, trade and development, toured the new build site Nov. 25 while making the announcement.

Embertech owner Mike Neal, left, shows minister Vic Fedeli electrical conduit laid at the Bracebridge metal fabricator’s new building site on Barron Drive last week. The new steel building will be 12,000 square feet.

The expanded space is on property adjacent to its existing office and metals and machine fabricating plant.

Tanya Neal, who has a background in civil engineering and previously worked for the Ministry of Transportation, came on board in 2017.

She told MuskokaTODAY.com, after the visit, that their other Aquadome business will remain in its present location making dockside boat slip covers.

She said it will also allow the company to maintain its workforce by diversifying its services.

Mike Neal, who was an owner at Crosstech INDUSTRIES before going on his own, has extensive experience in the fields of hydro-electric TURBINE AND WATER CONTROL GATE construction — a niche market the firm has found for itself provincewide.

And locally, including the Port Carling locks, Cascade Generation Station in Parry Sound, another in Mathiasville, numerous for Bracebridge Generation and recently a new design build head gate system at Kingston Mills Generating Station.

Fedeli saw on his tour some of the work Embertech is doing for a set of newly designed water control gates and a large Fowler Construction truck in for repair.

The Neals expect to take delivery of their new steel building in January to go up in the winter toward an opening in about a year’s time.

Embertech owners Tanya and Mike Neal toured Vic Fedeli through their expanding Barron Drive facility in Bracebridge Thursday. The province provided a grant of $363,000 through a regional development program. 

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