The Man behind PeakWorks

Founded by Gabriele Fusco, P.Eng., who has worked in the industry for over 12 years. Through his years in the fall protection business Gabriele has seen a gap in the market place between the product suppliers and the service providers. PeakWorks was formed to close that gap and offer customers a complete solution for aerial productivity by offering product solutions with real value-added services such as cleaning, inspection, and compliance services.

Why Clean your Personal Protective Equipment?

Here are four reasons why you should have your PPE cleaned.

1. Inspections are extremely difficult if there is heavy build up of dirt.
   
2. OSHA and other regulatory bodies recommend cleaning PPE on a regular basis.
   
3. Cleaning minimizes the passing of communicable diseases when PPE is shared.
   
4. Cleaning extends the life of equipment thus saving on replacement costs.

Cleaning and inspection of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are essential services that could prolong the life of your equipment many times over. Cleaning and inspection will ensure that your equipment will be ready if the need arises. PeakWorks offers a hassle-free approach to the cleaning and inspection of your PPE. Our team of experts can clean and inspect your PPE fast and conveniently - usually within a week. Our non-evasive cleaning process does not weaken reflective materials, stitching or seams. The colours of your items will not fade nor will delicate materials such as leather be ruined.

ShopTalk: A Total Safety Package Saves a Lot More than Money

with Domenic De Giorgio, President Investments Hardware Ltd.

Ever wonder what can you do with an old harness/lanyard? As far as I know, you can do one of the following;

1. Condemn it and buy a new one


2. Send it to inspection, get charged for inspection and then buy a new one- Double the trouble!


3. Wait ‘till your site is inspected and get a hefty safety fine - Doesn’t make for a good day at the job! Of course there are worse case scenarios, God forbid, I will not get into those.

But imagine there is a better option which includes a program designed to save you time, money and let you download all your fall protection safety concerns to a single, able, qualified and certified entity- wouldn’t you jump on that immediately?!In the course of a week there are numerous new products that pass my desk; new construction tools, equipments, gadgets of all kinds, new chemicals, mixes, you name it. Hardly do I ever get to hear a company selling me on a service primarily and products secondarily. Peakworks did exactly that. They sold me on not selling more products, but, rather selling you a total concept of“Being Safe at your jobsite Under the Auspices of PeakWorks” and, I liked that greatly. The PeakWorks Protection Program (3P) saves a lot more than money!

ShopTalk: Purchaser 2 Purchaser

with Domenic De Giorgio, President Investments Hardware Ltd.

Being a purchaser myself, I know exactly how volatile times can affect your decisions when it comes to buying. The unstable Canadian dollar, the cost of raw materials, and discouraging news from the global economy concerning a credit crunch, can create some buying uncertainties. Albeit, if I have learnt one thing in the last 25 years, it is the fact that markets are cyclical and you and I, have to go on and make a living during the good as well as the not so good times.

A couple of years ago when the signs of market slowdown started to surface, I implemented a number of changes on how IHL does business. Given where we are in the chain supply, I felt responsible to mitigate the affect of a volatile market by absorbing some of the aftershock created by unsavory new market realities.
Entirely with our customers in mind, we drastically adjusted how we conduct business. Some of the first steps we implemented to make sure the market instability will not jeopardize our customers’ ongoing and future projects were to:

· develop a comprehensive forecast system
· make our purchasing decisions in consultation with our clients
· utilize IHL’s purchasing power to leverage pricing
· define and contract selected vendors who are willing to go the distance with us by relating to and prioritizing our clients demand
· negotiate contracts that are favorable for our customers in terms of cost and time of delivery
· streamline our own processes to lower inventory and administrative costs
· provide better logistical support to customers with advance booking incentives

Here at IHL, we are going to positively use this time to reach out and further assist our customers. I can personally discuss potential issues that may arise and help plan for your particular business needs. This will be extremely useful to younger businesses that have not yet experienced the ups and downs of the industry.
Come visit us at Investments Hardware and we’ll ShopTALK.

A Proud Partnership Built on Cutting Edge R&D, Technical Service & Ongoing Support

“The Euclid Chemical Company philosophy of “demonstratively better” is the foundation upon which Euclid Chemical serves and supports it’s customers. Cutting edge research and development, technical service and support, and educational driven specification effort along with ongoing customer training provides Euclid customers with the best products and support in the industry.”

We are proud of the partnership we have built over the years with IHL, as they have grown to become one of our largest distributors in the country. Their ongoing commitment to finding top quality products for their customers is nodoubt the reason for their unprecedented success, and exactly the kind of distributor we want.

At Euclid, as with IHL, we stand behind everything we sell, and would enjoy the opportunity of doing joint calls with their outside sales people, to discuss your particular job requirements.

It has been very exciting to be part of IHL’s growth, and we at Euclid Canada look forward to continuing to build our businesses together.

- Brett Barnum, Technical Sales Representative, Euclid Canada

IHL Launches New Business Enterprise Software

“I want technology to work for us and for our customers too.”
- Joe Martino, Vice President of Operations

During the past few months, our Information Technology team has been busy. They have taken it upon themselves to move our company into the new and exciting realm of Business Enterprise Software. Joe Martino, our VP of Operations and Steve Zheng, IT Manager, were at the helm of this massive Information and Infrastructure leap.
It could possibly seem like a simple task of exchanging an old inventory system with a modern one; however, when examined closely, it was quite a complex task. It involved integrating all aspects of IHL business processes from financial, to customer service, and human resources into a single IT backbone.

Partnering with TGO, a Toronto IT firm specializing in technology consulting and business process engineering, our team worked diligently for a good part of 2008 to finish the new system deployment. Bravo and congratulations. On May 3rd, 2008 our company was fully utilizing one of the best business Enterprise solutions out there. Not only has our team managed to finish the project successfully and in a timely fashion, they have also worked equally as hard on training the rest of the IHL staff.

In an answer to a question we posted to our boss Joe Martino about the timing for this big transformation IHL is undertaking he said, “We just had to do it. We needed a more robust IT solution to meet the demands of our growing business and our customers growing demands. We require all sorts of information to be readily available to our staff each in their perceptive departments and capacity.”

He added, “From a senior management point of view we needed powerful reporting capabilities and tools to monitor and manage business performance in order to improve productivity. The time limitation of our customers required and deserved a more efficient transaction process.” And that’s exactly what we have done.

We asked Mr. Martino about what this new system implementation should mean to our customers. He answered “I want technology to work for us and for our customers too. We need to execute orders in an expedient fashion, and eliminate undesired office work redundancies. I can certainly use the saved time to follow up with customers and address their work related issues, see how their projects are developing. The good stuff, you know.”

We left it here with our busy boss! Again, we congratulate Mr. Martino, Mr. Zheng and the TGO team.

Stabila Sets Home @ IHL

“It is quite possibly the best display in North America, maybe the world.”

- Mike Fraser, President Stabila North America

Stabila’s life-time guarantee and patented design features are unbeatable in today’s construction industry. Mike Fraser of Stabila was recently interviewed regarding the success of the manufacturer/distributor relationship between Investments Hardware Ltd (IHL) and Stabila.

“Measuring confidence!” was the first reaction when Mike was asked how Stabila products stand out from its competitors. “Stabila has built a name of being the most dependable level manufacturer in the industry.” “Top-quality customer service begins in a German factory and continues through to IHL, who have created a clear and informative display area, highlighting their confidence in Stabila’s product line. It does not take long for a “Stabila Measuring tool” to pay for itself. Without the guaranteed precision of a Stabila level, “one mistake on a measuring application can triple a job’s cost,” explained Mike.

It is obvious that Stabila’s standard of precision is set high, but is it possible to develop newer products that are even more precise? “The answer is ‘Yes,’” Mike assured, “It is possible to make even more precise measuring tools, but the main goal with Stabila is to make dependable products that offer optimal precision that don’t create frustration.” Mike noted that Stabila’s investment at IHL has been “absolutely successful.” He continued, “IHL is consistently meeting and exceeding our expectations as a serious trade partner.” The display area dedicated to Stabila at IHL benefits the customers because “contractors want and need recommendations.” “The display area at IHL benefits Stabila as well by giving the measuring department a real presence. When a distributor shows their support on a product line like they have with Stabila, it shows the contractors have added confidence in the product.” Mike added, “We feel that there is no display to date [that] is like the display at Investments Hardware. It is quite possibly the best display in North America, maybe the world.” Stabila expressed interest in expanding the line of products sold by IHL. Mike said, “There are many areas of growth that are possible with Stabila and IHL. One for example, is Lasers. With proper teamwork, IHL could be the leading distributor of Lasers in Canada.”

Tradespeople will benefit by having a distributor that is highly trained on Lasers, an often misunderstood and, therfore, intimidating category. In the future, a dedicated yet continually evolving hands-on demonstration area could really make an impact on sales and customer product knowledge. Investments Hardware Ltd. would like to thank Stabila for their contributions and ongoing excellence in providing quality products that are proudly promoted to valued customers and business partners.

New Technology from Hitachi

Demolition Hammer H60MRV

Some of the features which make Hitachi a leader in this category are U.V.P and I.D.I technology. U.V.P or User Vibration Protection can reduce the full-load tri-axial vibration by up to 60% to significantly decrease end user fatigue while extending tool life by 30%. Hitachi’s patented I.D.I technology enables the aluminum housing to be integrated with an injection molded inner nylon core. The technology combines the durability of a metal bodied tool with the double insulation advantages of today’s plastic housings. Because of this revolutionary technology, the tool bearing sits in die cast aluminum instead of plastic, improving tool reliability and greatly extending tool life. This coupled with many “best in class impact energy”, makes Hitachi the tools of choice.