Kacee Vasudeva, President & CEO, MAXTECH (SIM Ltd) and his team
In the second week of March, when the entire nation went under lockdown, most businesses closed their doors to flatten the curve and defeat COVID. However, few took the challenge to combat the pandemic differently. Kacee Vasudeva and his team at MAXTECH (SIM Ltd) soldiered on and worked through the pandemic 24×7 to develop innovative products that were aimed to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. As a result of these efforts, several products were launched- face masks, face shield, hand sanitizers, My Clear Mask, My Safe Key, My Safe Badge, My Safe Band and even advanced medical devices. Most of these products are “Made in Canada” and are designed not just for individuals bit also businesses as they gradually get back to work. Continuing with its spirit of innovation, the company also filed 10 patents for COVID related products in the last 6 months. However, things were not always this cheerful when crisis began in early March. As the news of pandemic spread and fear gripped the society, several people stopped showing for work for obvious reasons. The company’s primary business in the automotive industry started showing signs of recession. Sales started to slow down. Our group company had to cut its regular operations in half. The customers progressively became unresponsive. It was at this point that CEO Kacee Vasudeva stepped up and in an exemplary show of leadership, decided to shift gears. The company started focusing on manufacturing of PPE for frontline workers and related products that would not only address the growing problem of pandemic but also made eminent business sense. While several people jumped on to PPE bandwagon, the company advanced its discussion into more sophisticated medical devices. We partnered with professors at the University of Waterloo and experts at Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network to design and develop technological innovations that could solve the scarcity of N95 masks using UVC & Ozone. The team also came up with a brilliant idea of converting a regular CPAP machine into a non-intrusive ventilator. In a short span of time, MAXTECH (SIM Ltd) has created a name for itself as far as manufacturing of COVID19 products is concerned. To put things into perspective, we are manufacturing almost 50,000 face shields and 5,000 Liters of Hand Sanitizer in a week. Several big retail stores got interested in our innovative products like No Touch Brass key & My Safe Band- a portable wrist band with hand sanitizer. As a result of pivoting quickly, we ended up doubling our workforce in a clear display of swimming against the tide. “When crises happen, don’t put your head in the sand. There are opportunities in all circumstances. Understand your strength and utilize that to provide products/ services required at that time/juncture,” says Kacee. MAXTECH (SIM Ltd) has never shied away from giving back to society. The company donated $5,000 in cash, 10,000 Face masks & 1450 personal hand sanitizers (Made in Waterloo) to the frontline workers at York Hospital, Grand River Hospital & St. Mary’s General Hospital in June, July and November this year. “I have always been about Made in Canada,” quips Kacee. “It pained me to see my country suffer- either because of faulty PPE from China or rationing of PPE export into Canada by other countries. There is no better way for a minority like me to express my gratitude for the country that has been my home for the last 48 years.”
Despite the unprecedented challenges that 2020 brought upon us with uncertainty still looming ahead, Maxtech has actually worked on a plan to achieve growth in the year 2021. We will ring in the new year with the formal launch of our new brand, Maxsafeguard, a fast responding, consumer oriented product line providing innovative safety products and solutions to individuals and businesses. Our other businesses- Mosquito, fruit fly and tools will be strengthened with addition of new and innovative SKUs. We will be penetrating deeper into the North American market with a smarter and better range of products and will also expand our footprints in the UK market. Growing online sales will remain a focus area and to that end we will be looking to hire young, bright minds to join our eCommerce team. |
