Soucie Salo Safety joins big family: Safety clothing and equipment business partners with national company through majority share sale.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: SUDBURY

A long-standing business in north eastern Ontario now has a national partner backing it up.

Soucie Salo Safety Inc. has partnered with Source Atlantic, which provides maintenance, repair and operations products and services to the industrial, government, commercial and residential contractor markets. The partnership came about after Source Atlantic bought the majority shares.

Pat Heaphy, owner of Soucie Salo, said this partnership does not mean the end of the company.

"This is going to give us more buying power in the future," he said. "Soucie Salo is not going to disappear. It's a partnership that allows it to have access to a national market."

Heaphy explained he was the majority shareholder in the company. He decided to sell his shares to Source Atlantic due to several circumstances. There are several partners, he explained, including his father, Don, and Paul Vilgren.

"Don is getting ready to retire; he's 76 years old, and Paul wanted me to have a strong partner going forward. He was hopeful I'd have a strong partner to continue our excellence in supply and service of safety supplies," he said. "So he (Paul) agreed to sell his shares as well."

He explained this is a win-win for both companies. It gives Source Atlantic a national footprint, which already has operations in Adantic Canada, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan though a partnership with Moore Industrial. He stressed Soucie Salo will remain the same in Sudbury and Timmins. It will remain an entity on its own with assistance and he remains owner and team lead.

"The largeness of a company like Source Atlantic behind it, now it can have access to support and systems that are already in place."

Source Atlantic offers a wide variety of supports and services, such as naval and marine services and supplies. While they have access to those supply chains, Heaphy said Soucie Salo isn't looking at getting into all the services Source Atlantic offers. The company is a safety specialist and is concentrating on product lines that make sense for them to offer.

"We made our mark at being good at what we do," he said. "In order for us to grow, we may consider expanding...