New generation of leadership brings energy, growth to NTI

BY MARY JO MARTIN

Editorial director

Kevin Dennison, owner/president of ny Thermal Inc., believes strongly in two concepts -- profitability and innovation. Together, these two building blocks have helped the boiler manufacturing company achieve tremendous revenue growth.

“As the owner, I must present a single, clear and simple goal for the company,” Dennison explained. “I am a strong believer in commonality of purpose, with everyone working towards one common goal or purpose -- which is profit. Without profit, nothing happens, and the company ceases to exist. From the worker who sweeps the floor to the CNC operator to the president, we must allow an individual to positively impact that contribution through freedom and coaching.”

In explaining his dedication to innovation, Dennison went on to note: “As we have a very flat corporate structure, we are able to very quickly adapt to changes in the market and technology. We can’t compete with billion-dollar corporations to make ‘me-too’ products. The economics are just not there. We only develop products that are extremely efficient and provide increased features to the installer or homeowner. We coNTInuously try to develop products and services that make the customer want to do business with us, and we do our best to make sure it is easy for them to do business with us.”

Research and development are crucial at NTI -- evidenced by the fact that, except for sales and marketing, the company dedicates more resources to research and development than any other department. Two of NTI’s most recent product launches are:

• Trinity condensing gas boiler, a state-of-the-art condensing boiler that modulates its capacity depending on the indoor and outdoor conditions. The boiler is now available in numerous versions and has input capacities for 15,000 to 400,000 Btu.
• Matrix, an integrated heating appliance that combines all the functions of a furnace, boiler, water heater and heat recovery veNTIlator and is air conditioner ready.

“We began developing the Matrix back in 1999, based upon our feeling that in the future, the opportunity for this product would be huge with the requirement of more energy efficient appliances,” noted Dennison. “In the development process, an efficient condensing heating unit needed to be developed, and through this effort, the Trinity boiler was designed. As this unit was so superior to products available to the market in 2000, NTI decided to introduce the Trinity as a stand-alone product. The development of the Matrix coNTInued for five years and has gone through numerous versions. Every function of the Matrix is produced with the most efficient, reliable and intelligent component available. I don’t think there has been a smarter home heating appliance ever developed.”

NTI’s products are manufactured by three factories located in New Brunswick, which comprise more than 50,000 square feet of floor space. The highly-automated facilities require a total workforce of just 50. According to Dennison, NTI has been very aggressive in continuous process improvement. The cnc and robotic manufacturing techniques used at NTI’s factories have allowed the company to achieve greater efficiency and build a wider range of product.

“NTI has several pieces of cnc fabrication equipment,” he explained. “The newest addition is a Global 30 metal fabricator with auto work unload. It is the neatest machine to watch. It processes all of the thinner metal for all three facilities. As a totally lights-out machine, it can work by itself, without an operator. The blank material is picked off a pallet, punched and returned to another pallet without the interveNTIon of an operator. The machine runs one shift totally by itself, with nobody at the plant and with the lights out.

“We also have robotic welding cells together with special manipulators and gigs. Over the past few months, we have totally changed our manufacturing philosophy from the ‘drag line’ concept to that of a ‘work cell.’ The work cell has given us a tremendous amount of flexibility and efficiency. It forces people to be an integral part of the process and promote coNTInuous process improvement at the worker level.”

Consistent growth

NTI was founded in 1966 by Malcolm Dennison, Kevin’s father, as New York Boiler Company. At the onset, the company manufactured residential and commercial steel boilers in a small building in Sussex, New Brunswick, that was a former military firing range. The company only marketed its products in AtlaNTIc Canada, and became known as a leader in providing quality products and customer support.

As sales increased, the original building was expanded several times to reach its current size of 27,000 square feet. In 2003, an additional 10,000-square-foot factory was built in Moncton, New Brunswick, and a 15,000-square-foot factory in Saint John, New Brunswick.

In 1995, the company went through a total revitalization, spearheaded by Kevin Dennison.

“It was apparent for future success that the company needed to expand its market and product offerings,” he said. “In retrospect, I think we did a very commendable job spreading into the Ontario and Quebec markets. We developed a plan to totally update our products, literature and even changed our corporate name to give us a fresh and modern image before we entered new markets.”

It was around this time that NTI hired its first dedicated marketing manager, Brian Grainger, to develop the Ontario market. Within two years, the company added sales managers Greg Boudreau for Atlantic Canada and Clifford Taite for Quebec.

NTI successfully negotiated succession planning in 1998, when the company was sold to Kevin Dennison. Since then, its management team has been expanded to five senior administrative managers, a marketing manager, sales manager and new business manager. The marketing managers sell direct to wholesalers in some markets and use independent representatives in other territories:

• Brennan Ferguson covers Atlantic Canada and oversees reps in the Eastern United States.
• Brian Grainger covers Ontario and uses agents in Western Canada.
• Clifford Taite covers Quebec and has numerous agents in the United States.

At the core of NTI is the company’s dedication to customer relationships. This is done through building trust, offering training programs and providing timely information.

Because of the technical nature of NTI’s product, training is a fundamental component of the company’s marketing efforts. These training programs ensure that wholesalers and contractors fully understand the workings and installation procedures for NTI products. A dedicated trainer supports this effort throughout North America. While most of the courses are small dedicated sessions held at wholesaler locations for eight to 10-25 people) NTI occasionally does corporate training seminars with as many as 125 participants.

The company has also developed a clean, well-designed website that is easy for customers to use. It provides them with needed technical documents, literature and product information so they don’t have to spend extra time contacting the company for the information.

Since Kevin Dennison took over in 1998, NTI has grown its revenue more than 10 times, while also increasing profitability. Dennison feels confident that such growth will coNTInue, thanks to NTI’s coNTInuing product research and development efforts. He is especially proud of the tremendous growth and prosperity NTI has brought to its customers and employees. Under his watch, NTI will coNTInue to pursue and maintain strong customer relationships -- which he believes benefits both parties.

“Building a solid business is based upon developing a sound product and upon developing relationships with companies and customers that stand the test of time,” said Dennison. “Our future is not only dedicated to the strength of our company, but to the strength and integrity of our customers who bring our product to market.

“We continuously listen to our customers. We treat every failure as a learning opportunity. Could we have done something better or not? Sometimes the answer is no and that is fine, because it is telling us that we are doing the best we can for our customers. I also look at every problem as an opportunity for us to help the customers and show them that we care about their businesses and that we are committed to supporting them. I assume that their goal is profit, so we try and do everything in our power to maximize that goal and do it in a pleasant and timely manner. Loyalty is developed over time, and we are in this for the long haul.”             

For additional information, visit www.nythermal.com.