N.B. manufacturer doubles down on Canada after trade war dries up U.S. business

N.B. manufacturer doubles down on Canada after trade war dries up U.S. business

Ambulance producer pivots to Alberta, Quebec markets

Deji Ayoola’s brain has had no time for rest since the first shot was fired in the U.S.-Canada trade war.

Over the past year, the engineer has had to be 10 steps ahead. Malley Industries, the New Brunswick-based ambulance manufacturer where he started working in 2022, was fast losing business in the United States. Trade lawyers couldn’t give solid answers about the future, about what to do. Breaking into an overseas market would be too challenging.

The Dieppe company of about 80 employees needed to not only find new clients but present them with a compelling product — as fast as possible.

Where Malley Industries was a year ago

On Wednesday, after countless tests and pouring $1 million into research and development, Malley Industries launched its newest ambulance design.

“There were definitely long days, long hours,” Ayoola said, “so to see people appreciate and [express] how it meets their needs, I think it's rewarding for everyone.”

Malley Industries entered the U.S. market in 2016. Vice-president Myles Malley said by 2024, the company was doing nearly half its business stateside; after New Brunswick, its biggest customer was New York City.

Since last April, Malley said U.S. business has shrunk by about 80 per cent.

“Our customers haven't gone away, but they're making decisions [like] when they would have ordered 10, now they're going to order two. When they would have ordered six months from now, maybe they’ll wait until next year.”

The volatility of the U.S.-Canada trade war stoked market instability, Malley added; no one wants to cut a business deal on Monday if new tariffs upend everything by Friday.

After decades in business, Malley Industries had to make a hard pivot. What the company found, Malley said, was not only enormous potential in a Canadian market but enormous interest from that market.

Positive response from Canadian market

Potential clients from Quebec and Alberta travelled to New Brunswick this week to attend Malley’s product launch. Their response, Malley said, made him incredibly optimistic. There were several service representatives from Quebec, in particular, representing around 400 ambulances from the province’s eastern region.

To put that in perspective, Malley said there are about 145 ambulances in all of New Brunswick.

“There is enough available demand in the Canadian market that this can keep us busy for quite a while.”

The trade war dried up stateside business for this N.B. company. It looked to Canada instead

While Malley Industries is initially targeting Quebec and Alberta with its new product, the team wants to bring it Canada-wide; challenging, because each province has its own ambulance requirements and standards.

But Ayoola said there’s strong desire for competition in a highly concentrated industry.

“When there is healthy competition, then everyone has no choice but to step up their game.”

Luke Randall, the province’s minister of economic development, said that the Malley Industries product announcement was a ray of light on a difficult day for Canada.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced new import bans, on top of existing tariffs, on certain Canadian goods, including alcohol, motorcycles and molasses, that will take effect at the end of September.

That affects roughly $115.1 million of New Brunswick’s export value, according to the province.

“It's hard, but what we're seeing here is the business community really leading through a very difficult situation and leading in a way that, I think, should give us all a lot of hope,” Randall said.

Malley said over a year into the trade war, some of the company’s U.S. clients still don’t understand its impacts.

“Our experience up until now has been that, honestly, they don't seem to get it. They don't really fully appreciate that it's not our government putting tariffs on our products.”

Still, Malley said the manufacturer isn’t burning bridges; sooner or later, the market could come back.

“If it's open to us, we'll be happy to take it. But we also don't have the luxury of waiting for them to figure out what they want.”

Raechel Huizinga is a reporter based in Moncton, N.B. You can reach her at raechel.huizinga@cbc.ca.