Duane Hicks
Continuing its strategic formation of business partnerships, Naicatchewenin Development Corp. (NDC) recently teamed up with local The UPS Store franchisee Lillian Gerley.
“It’s exciting,” said Gerley, who first opened the local franchise (located on 411 Mowat Ave.) in September, 2006.
She noted NDC’s investment in the franchise increases her ability to expand and reach out to more clients, as well as provide services that perhaps those clients are unaware The UPS Store can provide.
“We still have people that don’t realize all the services that we offer, and the products that we can provide to them, and this opens up the door to bring services and products to them,” Gerley added.
“I think that by partnering, the marketing that NDC does is going to bring a lot more awareness, moreso than I have been able to do myself,” she reasoned.
“When you’re one person trying to do all of it, it’s pretty difficult. So this will give us the opportunity to do it easier and to reach out to more clients.”
Gerley said she offers courier options, both through UPS and others such as Canpar, Courtesy Freight, and Gazette Service.
“We’re able to help the customer choose the service that they want, according to budget and so on,” she explained. “We also have the Canada Post service, so people don’t have to wait in line at this time of year over at the post office.
“They can bring it here and we can process it, too.”
Not only do they ship, but The UPS Store staff also can package items for clients.
“A lot of customers now are just bringing in their package and saying, ‘Here you go. Box it up for me,’ especially with breakables, like china, or valuables,” said Gerley.
“We’ll handle them with care and get them all ready. We’ll figure out a price and they can pay.”
In addition to the courier services, business services at The UPS Store range from copying, designing posters, banners, and brochures, and finishing services to making badges, laminating, and large format printing.
They also do mail-outs, where a client can bring in envelopes, and the staff there will stuff them and send them out. This is especially good for small offices that don’t have much staff.
And they do secretarial services, such as typing up and formatting documents.
The UPS Store also offers mailbox services similar to the post office, with the main difference being they accept packages from all couriers.
Tony Marinaro, chief business development officer for the NDC, said The UPS Store branding was a factor in the decision to partner.
“It’s nationally-renowned, it’s established,” he explained. “It’s a lot easier to market than a standalone business that will provide similar services, and that’s beneficial for us, too, in the marketing of it.
“These are services that are utilized by almost all of [NDC’s] businesses, and it gives us a larger presence in the Town of Fort Frances,” added Marinaro.
“And it does offer the opportunity for people to have employment.”
Marinaro said The UPS Store’s main customer base is the small business and the home office, noting NDC wants to change the focus somewhat to larger businesses.
“Everyone’s looking for cost-effective ways of conducting business, and if we can offer the opportunities and options to people, there’s mutual benefit,” he reasoned.
“We’re very excited to be partnering with Lil and The UPS Store,” echoed NDC CEO Jeremiah Windego.
“We’ve developed a relationship over the last few years where NDC writes over $3 million worth of funding proposals every year, and we send those proposals out here.
“We purchase all of our materials here. We get all of our packages done up here, all of our shipping,” he added.
“It just seemed like a perfect fit.
“When you look to create any partnership, you want to partner with people that have like-minded work ethic, like-minded personalities, people you get along with, and Lil is a great personality,” lauded Windego.
“She’s definitely the type of person that you want running an operation like this.
“It comes down to management and management can be the difference between attracting new customers and keeping customers, and it just seemed like such a perfect fit,” he reiterated.
“Lil and her staff are amazing. They’re hard-working, always happy, always smiling,” agreed Marinaro. “It’s a good work environment and a pleasure to do business here.
“We just want to be able to share that with others.”
Gerley noted NDC’s plans also are in sync with her values and beliefs.
“You work hard, and you like to work with other people who work hard,” she said.
“Our investment strategy has always been to establish a group of companies that supports one another and gives the ability to pass our hard-earned dollar back and forth between companies to help grow our business,” said
Windego.
“All of our companies will benefit from the addition of this partnership.”
Gerley said the partnership with NDC also will lead to more jobs at The UPS Store down the road.
“I look forward to the next phase of growth and development of the business and the partnership,” she remarked.
“It’s exciting to see things happening.”
This latest venture is just one of several NDC has taken on this past year, with the others including NDC Food Services, NDC Synterra Security Solutions, and Arrowhead Gold Drilling.
NDC also has teamed up with Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering, opening an office at 242 Scott St., and partnered with local “World of Water” franchisees Brian and Pia Beers.
Both Marinaro and Windego said while it may seem like all of these ventures happened in a short span of time, they all have been the result of plenty of research, thought, and work—in some cases over years—that only now has come to fruition as full-fledged partnerships.
“We’ve approached a number of different companies and businesses throughout Northwestern Ontario, and we’ve tried to blossom those relationships and do more investigation and research into their business, and see if we can bring value to the partnership, to the project,” explained Marinaro.
“We’ve talked to people for that length of time and never gone anywhere with them because it just wasn’t beneficial,” he added. “But [with The UPS Store], we can see the benefit in this relationship and the service that it offers.
“It’s about longevity. We’re not in this overnight.”
Windego noted NDC has made sure to have diversified investments to market different employment opportunities to different people.
“We can’t just train all of our community members to be drillers, we can’t train them all to be truck drivers,” he reasoned.
“We have to provide a wide range of opportunities, from single mothers to family people that need to be home on the weekends.
“Not everybody can be working in the bush for 28 days straight.”
Windego said NDC values education. In fact, if anyone wants to work for NDC and doesn’t have their high school diploma, part of their contract is they will get their Grade 12 and go on to college.
And once they’ve completed their education, NDC wants to give young people options here.
“That’s the biggest part of bettering our society and traditional culture is by making our community stronger, more educated, better able to respond to the challenges out there,” Windego remarked.
“We try to stimulate the economy,” he stressed. “Any business that can create an extra job, it has a domino effect throughout the whole economy of the district.
“One more person going to work means one more person buying your newspaper, one more person shopping at the drug store, and that’s the key.
“We have to keep the dollars circulating within our municipalities, within our First Nations, so that everybody gets the benefit before it leaves,” he added.
“If we just go and spend it elsewhere, it’s gone. It’s gone forever and it doesn’t come back.”
Windego said NDC’s business strategy has three phases:
•develop business partnerships;
•provide ongoing maintenance to, and expansion of, those partnerships; and
•make sure Naicatchewenin First Nation becomes self-sustaining and self-sufficient, free of government subsidies and dependency.
He added the first phase is coming to a close while the second phase already has begun.
