MOOSOMIN — Moosomin-area business IJACK Technologies continues to grow with an expansion to their current manufacturing facility.
“We’re adding a second building that’s going to be a total of 35,000 square feet,” confirmed Olga McCarthy, co-owner of the company with her husband, Dan. She explained that the new building will be constructed with even more expansion in mind should they need more space in the years to come. Both buildings will be the same size with the new shop having the option to allow for an addition to 98,000 square feet in the future.
Olga explained that when they finished construction on their first building around six years ago, the IJACK team thought they’d have room to grow for a lot longer.
“You start using it and you realize you need more space,” she said. “We’ve grown a lot since we started designing the first building.”
Right now, IJACK employs 25 people with 15 in Moosomin, as well as staff in Leduc and Calgary, Alberta, and south of the border in Dallas, Texas and Williston, North Dakota. The head office in Moosomin handles all the research and development work, engineering, production, and service. The Calgary and Dallas locations are sales offices, and Leduc and Williston are service centres. While serving the traditional oilfield markets, Olga also spoke to where the company has their sights set.
“The U.S. market is huge, and we’ve just started expanding there last year,” she said. “So we’ll definitely continue to grow that as well. We’re growing our international business, we’re shipping more and more to the U.S. and countries beyond.”
Olga noted their products have already been shipped to locations in Â鶹ÊÓƵ America, including Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina. Markets even further away they plan to reach also include Bahrain and Kazakhstan.
What sets IJACK apart?
With many options of where to set up shop, the McCarthys chose Moosomin not only because it made more economic sense with the ability to acquire land and facilities at a better price, but the lifestyle promised, the one Dan recalled from his youth growing up here.
IJACK offers a range of not only efficient technology but products that significantly decrease emissions. They’ve even introduced a powerful web-based app that when utilized in conjunction with their products provides a sense of security, efficiency, and safety.
Items such as gas compressors, multi-phase transfer pumps, and vapour recovery units allow the companies that utilize IJACK technology to bring oil to the surface more safely with reduced emissions.
“In general terms, our designs are very efficient, they’re relatively inexpensive, and they’re a small footprint,” Olga said of IJACK’s product lines.
Aside from quality products, small-town values factor large in IJACK’s environment. Simple actions such as responding to customer feedback are important, and something the company does incredibly well.
“We’re always listening to our customers, and if there’s something that we can modify on our equipment to solve a problem in the field, that might open a door to new a product line,” Olga said. “We’re always designing new things, always improving things we have.”
That sense of ‘leaving things better than you found it’ isn’t limited to within the corporate walls, as IJACK has been very involved with giving back to Moosomin. A perfect example was their donation recently of $500,000 toward the new Moosomin airport runway project and how air ambulance services will be available to the region due to the project.
“We felt like it was a very worthy cause,” Olga said, adding that community donations seem to inspire others to get involved as well, creating a chain reaction where the entire community benefits. “It’s great to see these initiatives being accomplished.”
