Groupe Touchette doubling its footprint

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This article was published 24/01/2024 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Montreal-based Groupe Touchette, the largest tire distributor in the country, is about to double its footprint in Winnipeg

In late 2019 Groupe Touchette became one of the early tenants in the Brookside Industrial Park, just south of CentrePort Canada Way on the west side of Route 90.

Now that neighborhood is dotted with new buildings and its purchase of six acres next to its current building was made at a cost much greater than was the case in 2019.

“In hindsight we wish we had bought more land back then,” said William Bakayoko, Groupe Touchette’s national director of real estate assets. “Demand for land in the region has gone up and values have increased.”

Groupe Touchette acquired National Tire Distributors in September 2022, almost doubling its size. The company now has about 50 distribution centres across the country.

Carly Edmundson, CEO of CentrePort Canada, said this transaction is indicative Groupe Touchette’s success in CentrePort and the steady demand that still exists for industrial space in that part of the city.

“Land is moving quickly despite all the changing factors in the real estate market,” she said. “And there is another couple of industrial parks coming on stream this construction season to help answer some of that demand.”

Groupe Touchette will build a 112,000-square-foot distribution centre right beside the 100,000-square-foot one it moved into in 2020.

Initially it will occupy about half of the new building and lease the other half.

“We are typically conservative in our estimates of the space we’ll need but it turns out most times we end up occupying the entire building that we put up,” said Bakayoko. “So far it was determined that this is the right amount of space. We’ll re-evaluate in a few years time.”

Anne-Marie Larochelle, the company’s marketing director, said in addition to increased demand, the company is also diversifying its product offering. In addition to passenger and light truck tires, its Manitoba operation is handling more tires for medium trucks, agricultural equipment and wheels as well.

Larochelle said that strategic partnership with CentrePort is beneficial for the company.

“Being in the centre of the country, in the largest inland port, for us as a national distributor is very strategic,” she said. “It supports the rest of our national and international network.”

In addition to distributing tires to automobile manufacturers, dealerships and independent customers, Groupe Touchette also operates retail banners including Tirecraft, Integra Tire, Signature Tire and Touchette Motorsport.

Dale Klein’s Brookside Industrial sold the land to Groupe Touchette.

Klein said his company “is not in the business of selling land” and prefers to develop for its customers but agreed to sell in this case.

“We’ve had great success in CentrePort,” said Klein. “It’s been a tremendous market for us.”

He’s still got two parcels of land in the industrial park and could build as much as 300,000 square feet of space.

“We’re long-term players,” he said. “We have been holding off, waiting for the right tenants to come along.”

While Klein said the build-up in the area means there is some vacancies in the multi-tenant buildings, he is not concerned because demand for industrial space remains strong.

The Groupe Touchette development is in the R.M of Rosser, which means a tax savings of close to $1.00 per square foot per year.

Bakayoko said those kind of savings add up over the years.

CentrePort is getting ready for another spate of development on some of the inland port’s City of Winnipeg land north of Saskatchewan Avenue and west of the airport.

The city and the province have committed $60 million to undertake sewer and water servicing of that land. Edmundson said the detailed design for that work is scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.

“We are looking forward to seeing the results of that work so we’ll know which land will be the first to start development on,” she said.

As well, construction has begun for the first tenant at CentrePort Rail Park’s first tenant, a $55 million logistics centre for Fastfrate Group.

CentrePort Rail Park, which is being developed by Focus Equities, will be a 665-acre industrial park for large users with access to Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway’s mainline.

More tenants at the rail park are expected to be announced in the coming months.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca