Mississauga : Innovation + Job News

Hy-Drive Technologies Ltd, based in Mississauga, announced last week that it was to raise $5 million in equity through a private placement -- the news came just a month after the company was listed as the small-cap clean tech stock of the week by TMXmoney and as one of the Earth Day penny stock picks at Stockhouse.

The company is growing rapidly as it markets its proprietary innovation -- a patented hydrogen generating system that injects hydrogen gas into a regular fuel injection system that allows fuel to burn cleaner and more efficiently. The Stockhouse report explains, "The enriched air/fuel mixture burns more efficiently, extracting more clean energy from the fuel while reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Further, independent tests show that the Hy-Drive Hydrogen Generating System increases fuel economy by more than 10 per cent."

According to a company release, it has recently been engaged in a large marketing drive that it is happy with -- and has resulted in 150 expressions of interest in its product. "We are very pleased with the initial results..." said Fred Florence, Hy-Drive CFO and COO, in a release, "and we expect to add many more fleets to trial HGS and prove to themselves the savings and emission reductions that can be realized."

The company has been around in various forms since 1996, but first launched it's hydrogen generating product -- which it calls the result of "over 100 person-years of research" -- in 2004. Now headquartered in Mississauga, the company employs approximately 30 people.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Fred Florence, COO, Hy-Drive Technologies Ltd.; Stockhouse; TMXmoney

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On April 28, Takeda Canada celebrated the first anniversary of its launch in Mississauga with an event at its headquarters. The company has hired 35 people since opening and says it expects to grow its workforce by 200 per cent "in the next few years."

President and General Manager Daaron Dohler said in an announcement of the celebration that the 230-year-old Japanese parent company, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, selected the GTA location for its Canadian operation because of the people it could hire there and work environment. "Takeda Canada selected Mississauga for its Canadian headquarters because it is a central location that offers a sophisticated talent pool, modern healthcare system, leading medical centres, thriving biotechnology industry and tremendous scientific expertise and innovation," said Dohler. "Takeda Canada is committed to growing our head office team, adding a national sales force and forging strong, collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders in order to serve the unmet needs of healthcare providers and patients in Canada."

In its one year of operation, according to the company, they "reacquired the commercial rights to type 2 diabetes treatment ACTOS(R) (pioglitazone HCI) and submitted multiple New Drug Submissions to Health Canada." It plans to expand by exploiting its parent company's expertise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, oncology and gastroenterology.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Laurene Redding, Takeda Canada, Inc.

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Most people in the GTA probably missed the news about Arclin's new environmentally friendly dust suppression product for rail car topping. In fact, most people in the GTA have likely never heard of Arclin. And who could blame them, since the company's activities -- it is a world leader in paper overlays technology and a supplier of bonding and surfacing materials -- are hardly an everyday household concern.

But the company is one of those hidden Toronto success stories, a market leader owned by Teachers Private Capital (putting them in the more famous company of the Toronto Maple Leafs) and based in Mississauga. Arclin employs 700 people and owns satellite plants around the world, and also has a demonstrated dedication to both innovation and the environment.

That environmentalism was extended this week with the introduction of a new dust suppression product for topping rail cars that are transporting coal. Traditionally such products are made of emulsified, petroleum -based products, while this new topper is made of organic raw materials.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Kevin Griffin, Arclin

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This week, JumpPoint, a data management services company based in Mississauga, launched a new website that includes an interactive message board and a company blog. It is the formal launch of a re-branding for the company that President and CEO Glenn Mowat says is based on growth and a love for work. "We're living in an era of unprecedented growth opportunities in North America, and we're really set up to take advantage of that. And, as far as our team goes, we're also trying to build the company all of us have always wanted to work for."

And there are more and more people's desires to take into account in the second half of that mission: Mowat says the company has grown its workforce by about 30 per cent in the past six months, and expects to grow even faster in the immediate future. According to the company's website, they are hiring now.

Originally founded in 2007 as gloPlug Limited, the company was branded as GPL Solutions and recently rebranded as JumpPoint. Mowat attributes the company's rapid growth to the company's focus on "providing enterprise solutions to mid-market-sized companies" -- an emphasis aided by the entrepreneurship experience of JumpPoint's senior management. "A lot of our team have run businesses in the mid-market ... so we're offering them our experience -- what we've lived and breathed, and we're offering solutions we wish we'd had, and that we'd like to have."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Glenn Mowat, President and CEO, JumpPoint

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IMAX -- the Canadian large-format film company based in Mississauga -- was born out of the cradle of so much Canadian innovation, Expo '67, when a small group of entrepreneurs decided to make a single, giant-screen projection system. The first permanent screen was installed at Ontario Place in 1971, and the technology has waxed and waned in popularity ever since.

But with the development of IMAX 3D and the tipping-point popularity of films that capitalize on the technology such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, business has been booming. The IMAX corporation recorded its first profitable year in three years in 2009, a year in which its stock price nearly tripled and it increased box office revenue for its films by 225% over the previous year. And that, company president Richard Gelfond pointed out in a recent interview, is in a year when most of the Avatar revenue was not yet included. "Avatar played a crucial role in increasing brand awareness with consumers. So people who've never been to IMAX before went for the first time to see Avatar. And it's early, but the evidence is they're coming back again..." he told The Motley Fool.com.

As it adds new screens across North America and around the world, it is poised to grow even more. All that growth means more jobs at the head office. The company is hiring three new staff members immediately.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: IMAX Corporation; The Motley Fool

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Cipher Pharmaceuticals, based in Mississauga, has had its drug CIP-TRAMADOL ER, a pain-killer, accepted for review by Health Canada. The company expects the review to be completed by early 2011. The product has already received tentative FDA approval in the United States. It is an extended release version of tramadol, which already has a $50 million market in Canada (up 30 per cent in one year).

Cipher President and CEO Larry Andrews says it is one of three new drug products the company has in late-stage development. The company's lead compound, a prescription medication for managing cholesterol, is already marketed in the United States under the trade name Lipofen. The third new product, the acne medication isotretinoin, is in Phase 3 trials in the US.

The company went public in 2004 and employs 14 people today, and expects to grow revenue significantly as its products go to market. Given the typically glacial pace of the pharmaceutical research industry, Andrews says the current situation is a relief to be in. "It's nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel," he says. Encouragingly, in a business where financial health is often measured by the ability to generate new capital, the company has a low burn rate. With cash reserves of $9 million, the company spent only $1 million in 2009. Andrews says they are currently able to fund their work through their own revenues.

Author: Edward Keenan
Source: Larry Andrews, President and CEO, Cipher Pharmaceuticals

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EcoWater Canada has announced that in honour of World Water Day, it will donate a portion of its sales throughout the month of March to benefit AMREF Canada and the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health.

In a release announcing the initiative, EcoWater Canada President Paul Godin said that the move will help "truly commemorate the essence of World Water Day. Our support will help improve access to clean water sources among vulnerable communities in Africa and support water education programs in Canadian Aboriginal Communities."

Over the phone, Godin explains that this is an extension of the company's industry-leading environmental initiatives. EcoWater Canada was the first water treatment company to receive the zerofootprint Certificate for Compliance and has led with an innovative recycling program for use with water filtration cartridges.

Godin says the company's "Clean Water, Green Future" programs, launched here three years ago, are being rolled out by the EcoWater parent company this year across Europe and may soon be introduced in the US. "Interestingly enough, we in Canada were the pilot projects for global green initiatives," Godin says. He expects to "very shortly" announce an innovative tank reclamation initiative.

The US-based parent company was founded in 1925 and is now the world's largest manufacturer of home water treatment systems. The Canadian office, based in Mississauga, employs 18 people in the GTA.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Paul Godin, President, EcoWater Canada

Mississauga-based organic food distributor Mike & Mike's has added three staff members to manage a new product line of organic snacks launched earlier this month. The Organic Select line of nut and berry blends is now in stores across the GTA, and the company will soon launch a web home for the brand at www.organicselect.ca that it hopes will become a hub for information on healthy living and all things organic. The company says more hiring may happen with the site's launch.

The new brand is just the latest phase of rapid growth for the five-year-old company. Launched in 2005 out of a 2,500-square-foot Etobicoke warehouse with only three employees, the company today occupies 20,000 square feet (fully half of that refrigerated) in Mississauga and has a staff of 18. Their main business has been distributing organic produce, though they have branched out into dairy and bulk.

The line of 26 different snack foods represents the company's first time branding its own products. "We wanted to develop a product that was really superior quality, and certified organic," President Mike Fronte says. "When people take it home and try it, we want them to say, 'Wow! This is really good."

While bustling business in Toronto, where pretty much everything organic has become a lifestyle status marker, has led to steady growth for the company, Fronte says that he's always focused on expanding gradually, at a manageable pace. And that's his forecast for the future as the new line and website develop. "We're going to take growth slow and steady and ensure that our current customer base is served 100% -- we never want our existing customers to suffer for our growth."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Mike Fronte, President of Mike & Mike's