Consider it a Christmas present for the Langley economy, one that won’t be unwrapped until this summer.
Rimex, a Surrey-based leading international manufacturer of giant-sized wheel and rim assemblies for mining and industrial industries, is building a new, 106,000 sq. ft. home at 5929 274 St. in the Gloucester Estates industrial park.
It will move 190 jobs to Langley by relocating the company head office and manufacturing facility.
“We’re building for the future, “said Tyler James, Rimex’s director of sales and business development.
Rimex’s new purpose-built facility will have about 25 per cent more space than the buildings the company is currently based in, a 25-year-old office building and a older, much-modified and expanded separate manufacturing facility that serves as a secondary factory to the main Rimex facility in Agassiz, which has 200,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
James said the Rimex administration will move in first, in February, with manufacturing finishing it’s move-in around May.
During the last fiscal year, the company used 16 million pounds of steel, up 20 per cent from the previous year, James said.
Even though industry in something of slump at the moment, James said the company is optimistic it will post another increase in the next fiscal year, though not quite as big.
The privately-owned company got started in the Lower Mainland over 40 years ago.
RIMEX Corporate Video from RIMEX on Vimeo.
It currently operates from 18 locations on five continents, serving mining and logging customers in countries like Australia, Indonesia and South Africa as well as Canada and the United States.
It builds tires and rims that are often taller than the workers who built them.
Rimex also manufactures the TyreSense pressure and temperature monitoring system, an advanced system developed in-house.
Rimex will be joining more than 70 other mining-related companies based in Langley that contribute $23.8 million is contributed to the economy, according to a study by the Mining Association of B.C.
READ MORE: B.C. task force aims to grow mining jobs
It estimates there are 3,000 businesses in 125 communities across the province that provide $1.35 billion worth of materials, goods and services to six metal mines and seven coal operations, including more than $460 million of goods and services from 1,200 suppliers located in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
Those numbers, the association said, prove all BC communities are mining communities.
