Their success does the talking

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This article was published 14/07/2015 (3915 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FXR Racing and Vidir Machine Inc. aren’t among the best-known Manitoba companies, but they are two more jewels that have emerged in this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards program.

Joe Healey, the managing partner of Ernst & Young’s Winnipeg office, said these are the kind of companies that make the EY awards program so great.

“There is a general consensus in the business community that there is a number of companies out there that just focus on keeping their heads down doing great things without trumpeting their own accomplishments,” he said. “We believe it is really important to celebrate that kind of entrepreneurship.”

Milt Reimer at FXR and Peter Dueck and Sid Dueck at Vidir are finalists in the Prairie regional awards.

Reimer, of Oak Bluff’s FXR Factory Racing Inc., is a finalist in the business-to-consumer products and services category.

Many people might be familiar with the FXR brand, but not so many may realize it is a Manitoba company.

Founded in 1996 in Morris, the company grew gradually until the last number of years when things have exploded.

FXR is now the largest supplier of snowmobile apparel in the world. It has doubled its sales in the last two years, to about $43 million, after a couple of years of 40 per cent growth that were preceded by four years of mere 20 to 25 per cent growth.

“That level of growth is just not sustainable for my head or my heart,” said Reimer only half jokingly.

A motocross and snowmobile racing enthusiast, Reimer worked at a dealership while he was racing and eventually realized the functionality of the racing apparel that was available was lacking.

He started the business in his parents’ basement and only moved into Oak Bluff three years ago with about 17 employees.

The head office staff has doubled since then, there’s another 25 staff in a 54,000-square-foot warehouse and the company has three corporate-owned stores in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Saskatoon called Adrenalin Unlimited.

Over the years, the company has been able to grow by continuing to stay close to its market through all sorts of connections with end users, including sponsoring high-profile racing teams.

It’s also developed sophisticated production systems, including establishing an important partnership in South Korea that helps manage manufacturing that takes place in 10 countries in Asia.

FXR also has a co-branding deal with RealTree, the creator and marketer of RealTree camouflage patterns.

That’s helping the company diversify outside the snowmobile and motocross markets into other outdoors activities such as hunting and fishing.

In its fourth season with Cabela’s Canada, FXR is now the fastest-growing brand inside Cabela’s.

“We’re extremely proud of that because we weren’t even a hunting and fishing company — we’re a powersport company,” said Reimer.

Peter Dueck and Sid Dueck of Vidir Machine Inc. of Arborg are finalists in the manufacturing category.

Peter Dueck is well-aware of the challenges of operating a 120-person heavy-steel manufacturing operation that ships technical storage and stacking units to Fortune 100 companies across North America from a rural Manitoba location.

But he and his brother-in-law partner are willing to deal with that.

“We could always find another location that makes more economic sense, but we believe that there is more than one bottom line and one of them is community,” he said. “Our corporate vision is being part of the community and providing stable employment and benefits to the community.”

Vidir makes vertical storage solutions for some of the biggest retailers in the world, such as Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes.

It is the sole supplier of patented mechanized shelving systems for those and many other retailers as well as countless industrial and manufacturing customers with names such as Boeing, GM, GE and Ford.

In the last 10 years, the $20-million-per-year company started supplying the big-box retail sector. It has recently broken into the health care field with an innovative hospital bed stacking solution.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca