OCTOBER 2016
        
        
          H
        
        
          business elite canada
        
        
          
            9
          
        
        
          customer that you are right.” And it wasn’t
        
        
          long before Merlo’s bright green façade
        
        
          started making regular appearances on
        
        
          construction sites.
        
        
          Now the company has put its focus on iden-
        
        
          tifying new markets that will benefit from
        
        
          using their equipment. “We’re going into
        
        
          markets where people have never thought
        
        
          about using telehandlers,” Drolet said. The
        
        
          toughest part about this is changing peo-
        
        
          ple’s mentality on how things should be
        
        
          done. Convincing someone who has biked
        
        
          to work all their life to buy a car is diffi-
        
        
          cult, and it is the same challenge Manulift
        
        
          is presently facing as it resolutely enters
        
        
          new industries like landscaping, recycling,
        
        
          mining, aluminum and steel plants.
        
        
          To say that the company has grown to be
        
        
          a successful enterprise is an understate-
        
        
          ment; the brand new $11 million head-
        
        
          quarters says it all. More growth is cer-
        
        
          tainly on the table for Manulift, and it plans
        
        
          to do so by capturing the Toronto market
        
        
          and establishing a strong presence in the
        
        
          western part of the province. At an inter-
        
        
          nal level, the company is actively recruiting
        
        
          new personnel too — something that can
        
        
          be quite taxing at times, Drolet admits.
        
        
          Though there is no shortage of applicants,
        
        
          Manulift’s recruiting process is a rigorous
        
        
          one. “Not a lot of people are able to get
        
        
          through, but the people that we do hire,
        
        
          they stay with us and they have a long-
        
        
          term career. People who think they are the
        
        
          best at what they do should give us a call,”
        
        
          Drolet said.
        
        
        
          
            “We knewthat this technologywould be able to put customers inamore profitable
          
        
        
          
            and productive situation.”