Services firm stays diversified: Timmins business offering complete site services.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

Northern Industrial Services Group (NISG) wants to be the first--and only--call for Timmins businesses, whether it's to collect their garbage or sweep their parking lot.

Or, as chief operating officer Michael Perello puts it, NISG wants to be the Wal-Mart of site services.

"The vision is to be able to, whether it's a mine or a grocery store, go to (a business) and say, 'You concentrate on what you make money at, whether it's mining or selling groceries, and we'll take care of all the other stuff,"' Perello said.

"We'll take your garbage away, we'll take your recycling, we'll sweep your sand, clear your snow, and we'll do your industrial cleaning for you."

Now in its fourth year of operation, NISG is the amalgamation of five smaller businesses, which consolidated under one roof last summer, in a 42,000-square-foot building on a 30-acre property in the city's west end.

The building is a little big for the company's current purposes, but it gives them plenty of room to grow, Perello said.

Included under the NISG umbrella are Timmins Disposal (garbage and recycling disposal, demolition, landfill management); IMS (hydro excavation, high pressure wash, emergency spill response); Heritage Paving (snow removal, road maintenance, landscaping and design, interlocking stone, fencing); Techno Metal Post (commercial and residential application of helical piles); and Fun Swim Pools (in ground and aboveground pools and design). NISG Earthworks (sewer and water, tailings rehabilitation, dam and road construction) was formed later.

The seemingly disparate array of services actually works in the company's favour.

Because they're so diversified, NISG's success isn't contingent on landing industrial contracts, making the company better prepared to weather fluctuations in workflow--like Timmins'...