The article below was published in the January 1, 1998 edition of Kingston Business Journal.
In the spring, management expects to move the 161 Kingston Andyne employees into their new home. With room for up to 250 employees in this one building alone, over the next few years three additional buildings are projected to be added to this Andyne complex, the focal point of the new St. Lawrence Business Park.
"We're delighted that it's finally coming together", says Cameron Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Andyne. "Our company is constantly growing and we need more office space to accommodate our new employees."
Founded as a small consulting firm in 1976 by Queen's University Professor Glenn MacEwen and four graduate students, Andyne, which now employs more than 220 people world-wide, demonstrates that it is possible for Kingston enterprises to grow and to thrive in the competitive world marketplace.
While the five founders remain shareholders, today the firm has grown into a public company with common stock listed on the Nasdaq National Market System (Nasdaq) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE). Andyne now has thirteen offices worldwide and has forged strategic alliances with the foremost companies in the computer industry.
While looking forward to increasing international success, enhanced by a pending merger with Toronto's Hummingbird Communications Ltd., Andyne's management has chosen to maintain the firm's corporate home in Kingston.
According to Andyne CEO Thompson, "Kingston is where Andyne was established over 20 years ago. Since then, we have expanded our operations all over the world, but our roots remain here."
Clair McCann, Andyne's Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer, confirms the corporate view that (the Kingston) community is a good place to be. In fact, McCann waxes positive about Kingston as an environment for business.
"We are quite pleased to remain in Kingston," McCann says. "We have no reason not to. We were founded here and we are able to attract quality, qualified employees to Kingston."
McCann states that, while Andyne is able to enlist well qualified employees locally from among graduates of Queen's University, St. Lawrence College and R.M.C., Kingston is also attractive to applicants from other areas.
"Kingston has amenities that do draw people here. Having Queen's University and government agencies makes Kingston comparable to a larger city." According to McCann, "this helps us draw employees who are in demand by our competition in a highly competitive market."
Contributing to the attractiveness Andyne holds for prospective employees is the company's sizable and growing client base of Fortune 1000 corporations. Key Andyne customers in Canada include Lockheed-Martin, CIBC, TD Bank, Radio Shack, CP Rail, CN Rail and Queen's University. Outside Canada, customers include British Telecom in England and the Burlington Northern/Sante Fe Railway and Carnegie-Mellon University in the United States.
Andyne's network of strategic partnerships represents a big plus for both potential employees and prospective clients. Over the years, Andyne has forged lasting and productive alliances with innovators and major players in the computer industry. These alliances have enabled Andyne to develop applications and solutions which are truly integrated to the needs of their customers, thus effectively expanding the marketplace far beyond what Andyne alone could achieve.
Well known partners of Andyne include IBM, NCR, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle Corporation, Unisys Corporation, Sybase, and many other firms at the leading edge of the industry.
From the beginning, while pursuing technological and marketing alliances around the world, the people at Andyne have remained very much a part of and committed to the Kingston Community.
Andyne is a founding member of the Greater Kingston Technology Council. According to Cameron Thompson, "The real growth in jobs over this last period of time has been from small-to-medium sized businesses. They're the companies that are really contributing strongly to the economy." Thompson adds that he hopes the Technology Council and other local groups will be able to bring new high tech companies to this area.
Historically, Andyne has provided support to many local charitable agencies, both through donations and through participation of management and staff in the activities of these agencies. Each fall, the firm conducts an internal campaign for the United Way. As well, an annual donation is made each year to the Festival of Trees and donations are made to other charities where possible.
According to McCann, "We get lots of requests for funds. We cannot meet all the requests, so we do what we can. What more can you do? We encourage our management and staff to be part of the organizations, to work with them as volunteers. And we make our board room available for those organizations to use for meetings".
The new building, now under construction, is another case in point. Although it was designed by Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects, an Ottawa architectural firm, and construction will be spearheaded by PCL Contractors Canada Inc., McCann says Andyne, "tried to ensure that there is as much local content as possible" involved in the construction of this building. Several Kingston area contractors are contributing to various aspects of the new 4.8 million dollar, 53,000 square foot Andyne headquarters.
McCann is also optimistic that, in addition to new jobs at Andyne, the new headquarters and the industrial park it anchors may help to generate greater opportunities for Kingston in the future.
"I hope that we can provide an example of how a company can grow here and that we can draw other companies here", says McCann. "I hope Kingston can attract other high tech or service oriented businesses to the park. The park is a modern location featuring leading edge facilities."
This sentiment is echoed by Paula Nichols, who until December 31 last year had been the acting Executive Director of the Kingston Area Economic Development Commission (KAEDC).
"We're thrilled that Andyne chose to expand in greater Kingston," says Nichols. It enhances our
position as an advanced technology centre, and it should be the catalyst for growth in the St.
Lawrence Business Park and in the Kingston region."
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