Peerless lands new armed forces contract

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This article was published 13/12/2016 (3435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A longtime Winnipeg garment manufacturer has been awarded another multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract to supply enhanced combat uniforms to the Canadian Forces.

The four-year contract awarded to Peerless Garments LP is worth up to $18.2 million. It includes a firm, $6-million order to supply 18,000 combat jackets and 38,760 pairs of combat trousers over the next two years. It also includes two optional orders, worth up to $12.2 million, to supply a similar amount of jackets and trousers in the third and fourth years of the contract.

Peerless Garments’ longtime president Albert El Tassi said Monday he’s optimistic the Department of National Defence (DND) will exercise the two optional contracts.

“Sometimes they exercise options earlier, sometimes they exercise them on time, and in some cases they don’t exercise (them),” he said in an interview Monday.

“But this is an item or commodity that is used on a daily basis… and because they use them day in and day out, they wear them out,” he added.

“So I’m sure they will (exercise) the options.”

El Tassi noted Peerless has been manufacturing uniforms and other garments for the Canadian Forces since the 1950s, and has been producing this particular type of enhanced combat uniform since 1996. The enhanced garments are made from high-tech fabrics and are waterproof, breathable, anti-static and infrared reflective. They’re also worn by both army and air force personnel.

He said the awarding of the new contract is timely because within the next 60 days Peerless will be delivering the last batch of combat uniforms from a similar contract it won three years ago. He noted that contract also included one firm order and two optional orders, and they exercised both of those optional orders.

He added that as soon as work on that contract is completed, work on the new one will begin.

The new contract won’t result in the creation of any new jobs at Peerless’ Notre Dame Avenue factory because the company hired an additional 20 workers in the past three months to help out with some other new orders it received. Those hires boosted the factory’s workforce to about 120 people.

But he noted the company has outstanding bids on a number of other government contracts, including a new three-year deal to supply 3,000 garments to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The types of garments it manufacturers for Canada’s national police force include parkas, patrol jackets, fleece liners and trousers.

He said if Peerless wins some of those contracts, it will likely need to hire another 10 to 15 workers.

He’s hoping those new hires can include some of the Syrian refugees who arrived in Winnipeg about a year ago. He said their government support is about to run out, so many of the adults will be looking for jobs.

He noted Syrian women often know how to sew, and while they may not have experience working on the kinds of industrial machines Peerless uses, “once you know the basics (skills) it is easy to learn the other ones.”

While language barriers are often an issue, “we help wherever we can,” he said, noting the company recently hired two Syrian refugees to work as garment inspectors in its factory.

Peerless Garments is 90 per cent owned by Vancouver-based Unisync Corp. Unisync also has another business unit called Unisync Group, which produces corporate apparel for clients like Air Canada, Loblaws, Telus and Purolator. Last year, Unisync Group also acquired Vancouver-based Omega Uniforms Systems Ltd. and Ottawa-area’s Carleton Uniforms Inc.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca