Germany trip aims to push local industrial land

One of Tillsonburg Development Commissioner Cephas Panschow’s stops at the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany was to talk to the only Tillsonburg company there, J/E Bearing. Panschow, right, talked to Jamie Tutt of J/E and Derek Dreger, from Dumur Industries, which is the parent company of J/E Bearing. (Contributed Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Taking part in the largest industrial trade show in the world was part of a strategy to attract more industrial investment to Tillsonburg.

Development Commissioner Cephas Panschow attended the Hannover Meese trade show in early April. Although this wasn’t his first time there to promote Tillsonburg, it was under different circumstances before. This year was different in several ways.

With Tillsonburg entering the second phase of its VanNorman Innovation Park and having more than 100 acres of industrial land for sale, Panschow’s primary goal was to market this land. The present situation with the United States and tariffs complicates the challenge, and Panschow believes there is a loss of European investment opportunities.

“If your number one market isn’t strong, you go to your number two market,” he said. “Your number two market is Europe.”

It’s important to understand the scope of Hannover Messe. The show has 4,000 manufacturers in attendance. The focus is on advanced manufacturing, which includes robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and automated manufacturing. Within this broad envelope, some of the companies were dealing with electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, and other alternate power methods.

For the first time, Canada was a partner country for Hannover Messe.

Robbie MacLeod, director corporate communications for NGen, explained the decision for Canada to be a partner country was made in 2022. NGen is an industry-led organization working on advanced manufacturing.

“The partnership was an outstanding opportunity for Canada to continue to build strong business relationships with Germany and Europe while highlighting Canada’s exceptional capabilities in key industrial and technological sectors like advanced manufacturing, clean technologies, AI, robotics and quantum computing,” MacLeod said.

J/E Bearing of Tillsonburg was one of the companies in attendance. This was the company's first time attending the trade show, and Jamie Tutt, business development and sales manager, said it led to some good business leads.

“It was definitely a positive experience,” he said. “We hadn’t been before. We decided to give it a try this year because Canada was partner country. We are continuing to look at new markets and Europe is one area we were looking at.”

Panschow said there was a positive response from European companies he talked to.

“They were sympathetic to the position Canada is in and were open to considering Canada instead of the United States,” he said.

Within the SOMA group, there were representatives from three different communities at Messe.

It was a bonus that with Canada being the partner country, more Canadian industries were displaying at the show. For Panschow, that meant he had access to 220 Canadian companies all in one place – some of which may be looking to expand.

“That many Canadian companies was more than I’ve seen in my entire career internationally,” he said.

Although he has to hold his cards close to his chest, Panschow received some “concrete leads” through the 43 meetings he had set up. He is confident that SOMA communities can be competitive because building large industries in the GTA is too expensive.

Another plus for Tillsonburg is rail access. There are lots in the new industrial park with direct rail access. He said the expansion of residential areas is impacting rail in other communities.

“People don’t want rail banging and clanging next to their homes at 5 a.m. in the morning,” Panschow said.

While Ingersoll and Woodstock are on the main line, there are limited sidings to industries off the main line. The story is different for short lines, and Tillsonburg has two short lines.

The first phase of the VanNorman Innovation Park sold out quickly in 2022. The second phase, which is 140 acres, is expected to take longer to sell. The first 15 acres are now available in the second phase.