2008 Business industry Review -Orangeville Banner
By Will Cottingham
Tim Middlehurst grew tired of commuting to Brampton every morning, so two years ago he decided to move his tooling manufacturing company, Hi-Quality Carbide, back home to Orangeville.
“We have our house two kilometres from here now, so it’s a nice short commute,” Middlehurst says. But, all kidding aside, he says he really wanted his business to be part of the Orangeville community.
“It’s my home: where I was born, and where my family is,” Middlehurst says.
“We brought the company here to help support our hometown, and since we moved here we’ve been trying to purchase as many things locally as possible.”
For example, the company has just recently switched to a local insurance provider, Middlehurst says.
Hi-Quality Carbide produces tooling used primarily in the cold-forming, fastener and spring industries, but has also done some prominent work for the likes of Nascar and Harley Davidson.
“We’d be considered a tier three business in the automotive industry,”
Middlehurst says. “We don’t work directly for the car companies, but we
work for the companies that supply them.”
Tim Middlehurst bought Hi-Quality Carbide with his wife, Wendy, in 1997 from his father, who remains a very important part of the company’s ethos. Middlehurst credits his father’s high ethical standard with the company’s reputation
for exceeding customer expectations.
“My father started his own shop in 1980,” Middlehurst says. “He was
always very meticulous about what he did, and believed when you do something you should do it right.”
Something else Hi-Quality Carbide does right is safety. The company recently received a health and safety leadership award from SafetyWise, an organization based in Orangeville that evaluates the level of safety in the workplace. The goal is to have a safe environment for employees, says Middlehurst, and to prevent accidents before they have the chance to happen.
“We are constantly looking at upgrading and improving the overall safety of the shop,” Middlehurst says.
The future of Hi-Quality Carbide in Orangeville looks bright. The long-term
plan is to stay and continue to grow, Middlehurst says.
“We definitely have some big plans for expansion,” he says. “That was part of the reason we bought the new building, so that there would be room to
grow.”