PDF Parrsboro Doubling up on
By Martin van den Hemel
Staff Reporter
Sep 16 2006
The head of a local board game manufacturing business is bucking one trend and has become the buzz of a small town in Nova Scotia because of it.
Kerry Martens, chief executive officer of Headz Gamez International on Richmond’s Maycrest Way, recently announced plans to build a new multi-million dollar assembly plant in Parrsboro, a rural coastal community which has a population of only about 1,500 people.
While other firms facing increasing production costs are looking to move their work to Asia, where labour is much cheaper, Martens said his move makes financial sense and is urging other CEOs to consider small towns in Canada as an alternative to places like China.
Parrsboro figures to double in size as a result of the announcement and had a party-the likes of which the town had never seen-last week featuring the Hanson brothers from the 1977 hockey flick Slapshot.
Headz Gamez will be building condos as well as a day care and a swimming pool for its 1,500 new employees.
Martens said building the plant in Richmond just didn’t make economic sense considering the high cost of living and steep real estate prices. Keeping the assembly end in China would have been the cheapest alternative.
But bringing the jobs back to Canada, he said, wasn’t so much more expensive as to eliminate that as a realistic option, he said.
Martens plans to pay his workers a starting wage of $12 per hour-some positions will be paid much more-which for a resident of Richmond wouldn’t go very far considering a house costs upwards of $500,000.
But in Parrsboro, where homes on generous lots can be had for under $60,000, the company can easily tap into the area’s labour force with its competitive wages.
Headz Gamez produces sports-based board games, which has seen its market share soar more than 30 per cent since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. in 2001. People seem to be spending more time at home and traveling less, Martens said.
To this point, the games have been produced in China, employing about 3,000 people between the printing and assembly, and the plastic manufacturing and hand painting end.
The latter, which employs about 1,500 people when production is in full swing, will remain in China, but the printing and assembly can be done competitively in Nova Scotia.
“It adds a little bit of cost to our game, but not so much that we’re not able to do it. And we also subsidize that part by selling advertising in our games.”
Martens said he hopes other companies will consider small towns throughout the country as reasonable, sensible and financially sound alternatives to exporting the jobs offshore, whether it be Asia, Central America, or Europe.
“When you do all the numbers, it is actually more advantageous for us to build this factory in a small town than it is in a big town.
“I think if corporate Canada took a real good look at where to invest, it’s better here.”
Buying 23 acres of land in Richmond would cost in the region of $23 million, he said.
“I’m $22 million ahead of the game already,” said Martens, who reportedly will pay around $100,000 for 17 acres in a Parrsboro industrial park.
Martens and Bill Perry, now the head of operations for Headz Gamez Inc. in Nova Scotia, were Navy mates and best friends when they were younger. One Christmas, Martens flew to Parrsboro to visit Perry and his family.
“It just felt like one of the most comfortable places in my life,” Martens said. “I’ve never forgotten it, not in 30 years.”
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