As Renishaw celebrates 50 years of business globally, its Canadian office is celebrating 20 years of business in Canada.
Early in 2003, Renishaw’s plans to form a subsidiary office in Canada got underway and by the summer of that year a 5,000 sq/ft industrial space had been rented with a 50/50 split of warehousing and offices.
“We chose the city of Mississauga as our new home due to the location being well situated to several main highways and only 20 minutes from Toronto’s Pearson Airport,” explains Dafydd Williams, President, Renishaw (Canada) Limited.
That was the easy part.
“That October, the initial team of four who relocated to Canada from other Renishaw operations around the world, got stuck into building racking for the warehouse, putting together desks and getting the subsidiary office in a position to provide support and product for the Canadian market,” Williams says. “During the same period, we started connecting with current and future customers, letting them know that we were open for business.Thankfully, we received a very warm welcome from the market and quickly saw strong growth.”
By December of the same year, Renishaw (Canada) was in desperate need of additional help and hired its first local Canadian employee, growing to a total headcount of five.
“Today we support our customers from coast to coast with additional staff located in Eastern and Western Canada. Our main office in Mississauga supports sales activity for central Canada as well as technical support country wide and of course, product fulfillment,” Williams says. “Whilst our primary goal is to grow Renishaw’s business within the Canadian market, it has been a special privilege for me to watch young ambitious people who joined our company from college or university, grow both personally and professionally throughout the years and in many cases now fill senior rolls within our team.”
The Canadian economy has experienced significant growth and fluctuations over the past 20 years, including the Great Recession of 2008 and the recent COVID pandemic, yet Canada has been able to recover relatively quickly compared to other countries.
“Thankfully, we are still standing,” Williams adds. “It’s been great to take a moment and think about how much ground we have covered in the last 20 years, and we are certainly looking forward to the next 20. I want to say a huge thank you to our customers, and our dedicated, hard-working staff that always go the extra mile.”
