Monthly Archives: May 2011

This week Trail Blazer enjoyed a visited by four members of the Department of Economic and Rural Development… a part of our Provincial Government that is very important to our business. Ray MacNeil, Brian Watson, Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia & Jacob Deng took the time to sit down with me and share some interesting stories. Stories that helped me learn a bit more about what they do in the government and hopefully left them knowing a bit more about what we do at Trail Blazer. Then we caped off the visit with an exhilarating tour of our operations and the production floor. The Department of Economic and Rural Development is a part of the Government of Nova Scotia. Its primary purpose is

This week I was proud to become the chair for the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters in Nova Scotia’s board of directors, during the 59thAnnual Meeting Day. The board is a body of appointed members of CME, who jointly oversee the activities of the organization. Our board’s activities are determined by the powers, duties, and responsibilities conferred on us by outside activities affecting the better interest of our members. In CME the board acts on behalf of, and is subordinate to, the organization’s full membership. I look forward to being a part of something so very important to Nova Scotia. Well, many might not realize it, but manufacturing makes up a significant part of Nova Scotia’s gross domestic product and the

We spent last week attending the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. The National Hardware Show is one of the premier trade shows in the United States and held every year by Reed Exhibitions. It is a housing after-market show that brings together more than 27,000 industry professionals to share information on how to grow & improve business. In particular the show includes manufacturers, like Trail Blazer, and resellers of all products used to remodel, repair, maintain and decorate the home and garden. Retailers such as Ace Hardware, Amazon, Sam’s Club & True Value who all offer Trail Blazer products. We didn’t just meet industry professionals and resellers from the United States, The National Hardware Show also host 6,500 visitors

This week, we experienced price increases on raw materials. Including metals, plastic, fabric, packaging and of course freight. We are a Canadian manufacturer and you would expect freight… is our advantage… No, we offer dealers lower volume more often. This is a requirement to manage lower inventories and achieve larger cash flow. To grow manufacturing & employ more Canadians and Americans, the freight companies need lower cost solutions to moving products within North America, not full container loads from China. These full containers leave dealers with large inventories and lack of cash flow… Still wondering how to improve our economy? Metal increases are the highest and most other increases are small for the time being, but based on what I’m