A new business that focuses on manufacturing heated Muskoka Chairs will be setting up shop in North Bay this September.
John Pomeroy, co-founder of Wrmth Corp. says his company is eager to get going in the Gateway City.
They call themselves"manufacturers of intelligent outdoor furniture."
"The first product is a heated Muskoka Chair which will go in your backyard or on your porch or in restaurants to provide a heated outdoor seating experience," explained Pomeroy.
Pomeroy and his partner are both from the semi-conductor industry and established the new business in October of 2020.
"It allows people to extend the seasons and use those evenings that are cooler in the summer or early fall to continue to enjoy the outdoors without using propane and polluting the atmosphere and keep themselves warm," says the Toronto native, who has now moved to this area along with a material scientist from Nova Scotia.
"When we started the company we set out to solve a problem that we thought - there were some competitors out there but we felt we could do a better job. We felt the way to do it was to build it in Canada so we are bound and determined to manufacture our product in Canada, it is all designed in Canada and we are working on building a manufacturing facility that uses a combination of automation, modern technology, modern manufacturing approaches to make sure we can competitively manufacture the product here in Canada."
Pomeroy got his lead on North Bay from conversations with officials at Canadore College. Currently, nine of their unique heated Muskoka Chairs are at the Village at Canadore College.
"Because of that conversation we were encouraged to think about North Bay as a potential destination and frankly the cards just landed the right way," he said.
"The 13,000 square foot facility on Commerce Crescent will be the new home to Wrmth on September 1.
"We are hoping to do some local final assembly stuff here before the end of the year and be in full production in the spring at that facility," he said.
"Obviously that will be dependent on our ability to hire," said Pomeroy.
Pomeroy hopes to have hired as many as 27 employees within the first two years of operation.
"It will ramp up a little bit slowly this year and accelerate through the first half of next year," he explained.
Pomeroy says they will have some other new products set to launch out of the new facility as well.
"We need the new facility to help manufacture them," he said.
Wrmth is also taking advantage of some funding support from a variety of government funding agencies including the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.
