Planting its roots in the northwest.

• Author: Knudsen, Peter

Company grows from small business in Thunder Bay to include branch offices across the North.

In 1973, Equipment World Ltd. began as a small, northwestern Ontario company specializing in material handling, storage and packaging systems with a strong commitment to provide high-quality service to a market in need of practical solutions.

Today, Equipment World Ltd. maintains its role as a material handling, storage and packaging systems specialist, and prides itself on its 27-year commitment to "good value and great service" to its ever-growing client base across the province and throughout North America.

Equipment World was the brainchild of Peter Knudsen, who, after seeing similar facilities in other cities, recognized the potential of an industrial packaging warehousing business in Thunder Bay. With the help of partner Jim Sutton and a handful of investors, Equipment World opened its doors in September 1973, striving to provide better and safer ways to move, store and distribute materials.

Today, 62-year-old Knudsen heads the company as president and continues to remain dedicated and active in the business, says Lyle Knudsen, his son and also the vice-president and general sales manager.

Peter was born and raised on a farm in Pass Lake Ontario, about 50 kilometres east of Thunder Bay.

Armed with a decade of experience working with local industrial supply companies, and numerous years experience as an accounts manager with a financial institution, Peter ventured onto the entrepreneurial stage opening the doors to Equipment World Inc.

Little did Peter Knudsen know at the time that one day his company would swell beyond the borders of northwestern Ontario and grow to service practically every industry, from mining companies to educational institutions.

"Obviously there was a good market for it," Knudsen says, pointing to the success the company has enjoyed over the past quarter century. "He (Peter) saw that this area wasn't as developed as other larger centers" and he changed that.

Perhaps the most significant challenge the company faced during its initial stages was to convince manufacturers a need for specialists in the field of material-handling existed, he explains.

"It really took a long time to establish a good firm selection of suppliers, manufacturers that would support the "...