2023-08-19 09:00:00
Located in an industrial park in the Saint-Nicolas sector, JWG Palettes is not yet a year old and is already looking to grow. “We wanted to be careful and start small. But we quickly realized that our project was taking up more space than expected,” says President Martin Sirois.
With his group of associates from the JWG Group, he therefore bought the neighboring land, in order to be able to dry store the enormous quantity of wooden pallets stacked in the backyard.
“The wooden pallet is a versatile and essential product for many industries. We supply pallets to companies everywhere, here and elsewhere, and we recycle them,” adds his partner Jérémie Gagnon, who founded the JWG Group.
Friends since high school, Jérémie Gagnon and Martin Sirois are not their first business project. With their partners, all under the age of 30, they launched and invested in some thirty businesses, mainly in imports, real estate and even a distillery. They notably made a name for themselves during the pandemic by recovering disposable masks to transform them into electricity.
Yet their main business, JWG Palettes, comes from a specific industry that may seem unattractive to young entrepreneurs.
“The palette may not be a sexy product, but it’s promising. It is a product in high demand, easy to upgrade and we see its full potential. »
— Jérémie Gagnon, founder of the JWG Group
Not only is the market vast for the wood pallet, they say, but this line of business also needed an update.
They therefore embarked, two years ago, on the recovery of this sector in order to ensure its sustainability. The external buyers seized the opportunity of a “dry purchase” of a wood scrap company and transformed it to manufacture pallets by supplying the entire supply chain and increasing productivity.
The young company also wanted to change the way things were done. It has therefore bet on process automation and plans to invest in robotization and productivity in a neglected sector. The aim is to simplify the logistics behind the supply and recycling of wooden pallets.
“It’s a sector that needed to be dusted off,” summarizes one of the partners.
The original plan, however, was not this. “We had taken steps to buy an existing business, but the transaction stumbled on the too high price asked by the seller,” explains Mr. Sirois.
After several months of negotiations, they left empty-handed. But they weren’t let down.
The contractors chose to start from scratch with the aim of automating a new factory. Ultimately, they aim to optimize the logistics and management of the supply of packaging materials.
The goal is to create an efficient and sustainable business model in Lévis and then replicate it in other regions.
After a few months of testing, entrepreneurs now say they are ready to make acquisitions. “We are already in the process of taking over businesses in Montreal and Toronto,” says Jérémie Gagnon.
These two high-density urban markets are coveted by JWG Palettes, which wishes to position itself close to its industrial customers and major highways. “Location is always a key factor. This is true in several areas,” he adds.
Although they say they are ready to move forward, young entrepreneurs do not want to skip the stages.
“We won’t make the same mistakes once more. We have learned and we will take the time to do things well, ”they say. In particular, they have brought together a team of experts who support them in their efforts.
“The takeover is the future of this industry and many others,” they believe.
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