Winnipeg Free Press, Monday, June 2, 2003
Monday Business Page B07

By Murray McNeill

A Winnipeg electronics design firm is expected to more than double in size over the next five years and, in the process, provide another shot in the arm to the University of Manitoba's fledgling Smartpark development.

IDERS Engineering Inc., an 11-year-old firm which researches, develops and manufactures electronic products and systems for a wide variety of uses, is one of three new tenants slated to move into the Smartpark development later this year.

The addition of IDERS and the other two firms will bring to seven the number of major tenants in the two new, 30,000-square-foot multi-tenant buildings that are planned for the 43-hectare research and product-development enclave, which is located between University Crescent and Pembina Highway and south of Chancellor Matheson Road on the U of M campus.

The first multi-tenant building was completed earlier this year and houses four main tenants -- TR Labs Manitoba, ProfitMaster Canada, Transgrid Solutions and Incubat, Winnipeg's first incubation centre for high-tech companies emerging from the research stage to become early-stage commercial entities.

The multi-tenant building that IDERS and the other two new tenants are moving into will also be 30,000-square-feet in size and will be completed late this fall. It's part of about $40-million worth of development that is either underway or is scheduled to get underway this year at the Smartpark site.

Perfect fit
Smartpark president Alan Simms said IDERS is a perfect fit for Smartpark because it already collaborates with the university on many of its projects and supports a variety of U of M research activities and product development initiatives. Moving from its current location in the west end of the city to the U of M campus will further enhance that relationship, he added.

As well, IDERS hires a lot of its design and software engineers from the university and having the company located right on campus "will provide a great opportunity for engineering grads to do co-op work with them," Simms noted.

"So I think it's a real win for both IDERS and the university."

IDERS co-owner and vice-president, David Fletcher, also described the pending Dec. 1 move to Smartpark as a winning situation for IDERS.

For one thing, it will give the company the extra room it needs to substantially expand its operations, Fletcher said.

At 13,500 square feet, the new Smartpark quarters will be more double the size of the space IDERS now leases in the former Yamaha Music building on Clifton Street. And with twice the amount of space, the company expects over the next five years to more than double its sales and production, and more than double the size of its staff, which now stands at 26 workers.

Fletcher noted IDERS likes to work on a wide variety of electronic design projects. The electronic products and systems it has developed over the last 11 years are being used to, among other things, protect buried natural gas lines, direct cell phone traffic, fly planes without pilots and perform debit-card transactions. Most recently, it has been assisting U of M engineers in designing and building better bridges.

He said the company would like to not only do more product development and manufacturing work for other companies, but also would like to develop and manufacture more of its own products. But right now it's severely restricted in what it can do because it simply doesn't have enough room.

However, that won't be a problem in the new building, he added.

"We're going to miss this building," Fletcher said of their current facility, "but we're really excited about the new building. It's going to be an absolutely spectacular building."

He said he, IDERS founder Bradley Brown and most of the company's design and software engineers are also looking forward to the move for another reason. They're all U of M graduates, so moving to Smartpark "is a homecoming of sorts" for them, he added.


JEFF DE BOOY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
IDERS President Bradley Brown (left) and vice president David Fletcher with some examples of their products.

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