We are pleased to be featured in the Edmonton Journal last week:
Specialty parts supplier MSI opens new Leduc facility
BY DAVID HOWELL, EDMONTON JOURNAL
APRIL 28, 2015
MSI PLC, a U.K.-based global supplier of specialty packaging products for the oil and gas industry and other sectors, has opened a new distribution centre in Leduc.
The building, at 6704 41st St. in the Leduc Business Park, officially opened Tuesday. It has a 23,000 sq.-ft. warehouse and 3,000 sq. ft. of office space. The company had outgrown smaller spaces in Edmonton and Nisku.
The Leduc facility marks “a new chapter for us in Canada” and reflects MSI’s worldwide growth ambitions, chief executive Colin Day said in an interview.
“What you see here in this site would be fairly indicative of what we are investing in and upgrading throughout the world — brand new, modern, state-of-the-art facilities,” Day said.
MSI, which saw revenue increase 8.5 per cent to $1.6 billion in 2014, operates in more than 30 countries.
The Leduc distribution centre, operational since December, serves two of its businesses.
MSI Pipe Protection Technologies supplies plastic caps that protect the threaded ends of drill pipe and line pipe during shipping and storage.
“Our focus is on the oil producers, the pipe mills, the drilling contractors, the oil service companies, the pipe inspection companies,” said John Boben, president of the pipe-protection division.
The second business, MSI Components, distributes small plastic protection and finishing parts, from fasteners and netting to adjustable feet for appliances.
Boben, who is based in Houston, said MSI’s Alberta business is positioned to weather the downturn in energy prices that has led to dramatic reductions in drilling and other activity.
“When this market returns to where we know it will be, we will be out at the forefront of that, and we’ll be ready to lead and support the customer base here in Western Canada,” he said.
“We’re very fortunate to be part of a global organization like MSI where we have the financial resources to make those strategic moves now, rather than wait until the business comes back.”
SOURCE: Edmonton Journal.
