Niagara Investment Castings operational again after July fire

But despite the building and equipment damage, Paul Tuzi said its management team was still able to figure out how to provide a service to their customers and get the product out. With construction to rebuild the factory set to begin in early 2024 – the company is expected to award bids by the end of the year – Niagara Investment Castings should be “back to where we were before, which will be great.”

A difficult summer but the company did not miss too many beats.

“We really had to work in a compact work environment, but safely and well-done and we were able to start up again,” said Tuzi, chief executive officer of Zynik Foundry Group, owner of Niagara Investment Castings.

“We are about 90 per cent operational as of today from where we were before. We’re missing some key pieces of equipment but through outsourcing and some ingenuity of the associates, we’re able to run again.”

On July 24, three days after the company closed its doors for yearly maintenance, St. Catharines Fire Services was called to 16 Smith Street following reports of a fire. Crews were on scene for about 12 hours, pulling back the wall of the facility to extinguish the fire completely.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
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An investigation concluded the fire began in the autoclave area but the extensive damage made it too difficult to determine a cause.

Following the fire, Tuzi expressed concern the business would be lost altogether if it was not able to get back on its feet relatively quickly. Its core business is manufacturing investment castings, from commercial grade to more stringent applications, in base mental such as carbon and low alloy steels, high alloy stainless steel, nickel base, cobalt base and copper base alloys.

Because the process relies on precise tooling and equipment to ensure the final metal parts meet the correct specifications, there was concern customers would pick up their tooling and send it to other facilities.

But Tuzi said that did not happen, in part because of how quickly the company was back to work.

Workers spent about two weeks cleaning the extensive damage before getting the demising walls up to safely close off the building. Tuzi credits Zynik for its commitment to the business, the management and associate team, as well as the City of St. Catharines for understanding the importance of the company to its employees and to the Niagara region.

“St. Catharines really came through, helping us get everything back and working properly. They cut out any possibilities of red tape,” he said. “We don’t have any more employees on layoff, every employee’s back to work so if you look at all those key ingredients, I think I would rate it very successful. Tragedy turned into, I don’t want to say a ray of sunshine, but it worked out.”

The original damage was estimated to be in the low millions. While it is still not clear how much was lost in terms of equipment, Tuzi said it is about $2 to $3-million in damages to the building itself.

Despite that, as well as working in a space about one third of the original building size, the company is at 90 per cent of where it needs to be in terms of sales. Bob Borthwick, plant manager at the St. Catharines company, and how relationship with the customer base, was important to keeping its doors open.

“He’s been with Niagara Investment Castings for close to 30 years and his relationship with his team and with his customers was fantastic and it went a long way when he said, ‘customers, give me some time to provide you information,” said Tuzi.

“We made a weekly newsletter to all of our customers, giving them updates on where we are with the rebuilding phase and where they are with their products. Every customer was phoned and given a weekly update on their order. The customer never really missed a beat.”