Fort Wayne company expanding to Canada

Fort Wayne-based Convoy Technologies Inc. is growing its North American footprint. The company, which makes cameras, monitors, sensors and other products for commercial vehicles, is planning to open a manufacturing facility in Windsor, Ontario and create up to 50 jobs.

Convoy did not disclose its financial investment in the expansion.

President Ron Harker said the new facility will be key to controlling the company’s supply chain.

“Sourcing parts closer to home and assembling them in North America will ultimately give us shorter, more predictable lead times,” Harker said in written remarks. “And it will eventually help us contain total costs, meaning our customers can count on continued supply and competitive pricing.”

Harker told the Windsor Star the company also looked at sites in Indiana and Mexico in addition, but Windsor made the most sense to locate the new facility.

“Windsor has proximity to our Fort Wayne distribution center,” Harker said. “We don’t face the security issues we’d have in Mexico. There’s a good labor market here. The manufacturing infrastructure exists in the auto sector that we can leverage.”

The company is moving the manufacturing of its products from China to the new location, which will be its only production facility, according to the publication.

Convoy expects to begin operations at the Windsor site as early as this fall. The company will maintain its existing distribution center in Fort Wayne.