Web gateway to world market.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: North Bay Canoe and Kayak Co. - Brief Article

Manufacturer finds success exporting via the Net

For Bill Schorse and Andre Leblanc, paddling is an obsession.

As manufacturers and repairers of high-quality handcrafted canoes, the idea of cutting corners to put out a product they themselves would not be proud to own is almost unfathomable.

And evidently their customers, many of whom but their product through the Web and over their 1-800 line, feel the same way.

Since developing an online presence six years ago, North Bay Canoe and Kayak Co. has transformed itself from the neighbourhood hobby business bill and Nona Schorse began more than two decades ago into a five-employee outfit that exports canoes, paddles and other accessories to more than 20 countries.

"The Web really is our storefront to the world," says Leblanc, a business partner at their Corbeil shop, just eat of North Bay on Highway 17. "It's like 200 new people visiting out store every day."

"Being in Northern Ontario with a seasonal product, what the Web does for us is it extends our season because people in the southern U.S. or the Far East or Wherever, they're paddling year-round or they're rebuilding canoes, and we're always selling them products for restoration," Leblanc says.

Cedar canvas canoes are the mainstay of the business, but their product line has expanded over the years to include dozens of models of canoes and kayaks.

Years before, as the photographic director for the local television station and an avid paddler, Schorse could never find a canoe with the proper handling characteristics. So he began researching the traditional building techniques and set about constructing his own moulds.

"I also perceived a real need in the retail market for repairs and building supplies for canoes, and the business just seemed to grow from there," explains Schorse, who went from working out of his two-car garage on Campbell Avenue in North-Bay, to moving a few years later to the present location in Corbeil. ""t was really just an overgrown hobby."

They now sell about 120 canoes annually.

Their introduction to the Internet began in 1996 through a pilot program called the Business Adjustment Service, a now-defunct program funded by Human Resources Development Canada and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The Web site development program provided small companies like North Bay Canoe with the financial support to take their first baby steps in becoming an online business.

Nona Schorse taught herself HTML...