In 1989, Elasto Proxy began as a home-based company in a small suburb of Laval, QC. Its founders, Doug and Donna Sharpe, operated Agence Proxy with only a few small contracts for specialty vehicles. In a short six months, Agence Proxy outgrew its humble beginnings and the business moved into its first warehouse. Newly renamed Elasto Proxy Inc., the company was located on Industrial Boulevard in St-Eustache, QC. Elasto Proxy began to flourish, and it didn’t take long before those first 1,500 square feet weren’t enough to accommodate the growing enterprise! In 1993, the company was on the move again to a larger building on Industrial Boulevard.
In 1997, a second sales office was opened in Newmarket, ON in response to the growing clientele throughout Ontario and western Canada. The following year, Elasto Proxy moved its Quebec branch for the third time to its current location at 1885 Lionel-Bertrand in Boisbriand. It now houses the head office, Quebec and Eastern US sales offices and production department.
Most recently, 2005 brought a second expansion phase for the Newmarket, ON branch as they moved into a building nearly three times larger than the original. Now located at 1119 Ringwell Drive, it houses a sales office and warehouse that service central and western Canada and United States.
Expansion has always been a key feature of Elasto Proxy Inc., and the creation of its production department is a good example of this. With a consolidated rubber industry and manufacturers being outsourced, Elasto Proxy saw an opportunity to branch out from distribution and into fabrication. This exciting new venture began with a few vulcanizing presses to fabricate spliced rings from cord, tubing and profiles. From there, moulding presses were added to be able to make moulded corner gaskets. In order to have a steady supply of taped profiles, Elasto Proxy purchased a taping machine so that tape could be laminated to profiles in-house. As the demand for water jet cut parts increased, Elasto Proxy responded by acquiring its own in-house water jet cutter. This largest addition to the production department opened the door to many new industries previously untouched by Elasto Proxy. Most recently, the company purchased three film-splice machines that make faster, more precise gaskets while minimizing failure rate.
With so many changes and expansions, Elasto Proxy needed to keep up to date on all the latest technologies and developments in the business world as well as the rubber world. Hence, in 1999 they partnered with Prophet 21 software solutions enabling them to manage inventory in real-time between locations while keeping transaction costs to a minimum. Elasto Proxy also became ISO-certified in 2001, upgrading to ISO 9001:2000 as of December 2003. This enabled them to design a Quality Management System that ensures quality in all aspects of operation, and continues to evolve with the company’s changes.
Throughout the evolution of Elasto Proxy Inc., Doug and Donna have stayed actively involved in every aspect of the company ensuring that no compromise is made when it comes to providing its customers with the very best in goods and services.
What started out of a basement home office has now grown to over 20,000 square feet with 40 employees. And it continues to grow …
The future goals for Elasto Proxy are very exciting. They plan to continue expanding geographically with the opening of a third branch set for 2006-2007. In order to meet the growing needs of their customers, Elasto Proxy also plans to embrace new technologies for its production department. Finally, they plan to continue focusing on human resources and the personal growth of their employees by recognizing and improving the individual skills of its individuals. But one thing that will consistently remain unchanged is Elasto Proxy’s continued determination to provide its customers with the best service possible.
