One aspect of the Wood Manufacturing Cluster of Ontario that makes it stand out from other associations is the power of diverse wood segments in the network. Most associations in our industry have one segment, such as kitchen cabinetry, or commercial millwork, or furniture or wood pallets. All of the companies who are members make the same product. The people you meet make the same product, and the plant tours you see all do the same thing, although in different ways as per their company’s processes. While this makes it relevant to each other within the association, people are missing out on an important opportunity.
It is important to have learning opportunities within the context of your immediate industry. They become easy take-aways when you see operations making the same product; it makes it easy to compare. However, innovation and new ideas often come from things you see outside your immediate industry segment.
YOU CAN HAVE IT BOTH WAYSKitchen cabinetry and commercial millwork are the dominant segments in our wood manufacturing industry. But what if there was a network where you could get exposed to both? What about more segments such as office furniture and prefabricated housing components and mass timber construction as well? And not only are these plant tours, these can become people in your peer group, and in your industry WhatsApp chat where you can ask questions, get new ideas, and share solutions to common problems.
Examples of WMCO plant tours in 2025 included:
Mobel Cabinetry: Kitchen Cabinets
Toyota Canada : Lexus SUV Plant Cambridge
Cayuga Displays Commercial Fixtures
Timmerman Timberworks : Mass Timber Prefab Construction
Woodlore International: Office Furniture and Kitchen Cabinets
WMCO Plant Tours
Coming Up for 2026Jan 29: Tayco International:
Office Furniture
Feb 26 :Toyota Canada :
Lexus SUV Plant Cambridge
April 30: Diamond CNC:
Kitchen Cabinets Automation in Action!
May 13: Laurysen Kitchens-
Ottawa Regional Event (TBC)
Aug 27: Earthscape Play-
Outdoor Playgrounds
Oct 29: Cedar Planters-
Wooden Planter Manufacturer
These don’t cost anything extra for members.
PLUS: Members can access any member- anytime- through our cluster network and request plant visits.
This past year the BRC Group of companies joined WMCO: Woodlore International, Tayco Inc. and BRC Manufacturing. They are large office furniture and cabinetry manufacturers, with a new IMA cabinet line at the Woodlore location. They have 600 employees across the three locations.
Why did they join? Best practices, sharing ideas, build new and strong relationships. BRC group is building to transform their company, and being part of the cluster to help them be exposed to new ideas is key to their growth.
So what makes the WMCO cluster different from associations?
One answer can be found in geographic coverage. Clusters are very regional in focus whereas some associations have national mandates. Another difference is the inclusion of all segments within the wood manufacturing industry as described above.
Another difference is the focus on collaboration. While we all know there are really no trade secrets in our industry, perceived competition is still top of mind for many people (wrongly so I might add). Having a mix of wood segments in a network eliminates the possibility of competition because people you connect with make a different product.
Government funded projects and events, designed to get competitors talking to each other and sharing best practices and challenges, is another unique feature of clusters.
In Upper Austria for example, they have seven different clusters making up one large national cluster.
Where a cluster may not exist, enhanced virtual engagement now allows companies to participate in clustering activity outside of their region with other clusters, as is the case now with WMCO, with member interest coming from not only all parts of Ontario, but across the country as well.
The engagement and management of supply chain is another difference: while supplier members are embraced for their expertise and knowledge to support the industry, their participation is managed through the WMCO cluster board governance: suppliers cannot become president, and while suppliers can vote, they cannot contribute to a quorum.
The true definition and discipline behind industry clustering was theorized by economist and business strategist Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard University back in the early 1990s. His cluster theory has been embraced and formally operationalized to guide local and regional economic development policy and strategy by most countries in the EU, by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and other countries around the world (Google Michael Porter and clusters and you will see hundreds of articles and news feeds). So, clustering has been around for 30+ years, and the EU countries are 30 years ahead of us.
Porterian clusters focus on one industry, one region, the manufacturing companies (SMEs), the supply chain, academic partners, other industry partners, and government stakeholders. The idea is that when you combine all of these stakeholders; and facilitate collaboration between competitors and the supply chain, channel feedback to post secondary institutions for workforce development, involve government for support of collaborative projects, and facilitate collaborative activities that provide impact and value to the companies, the industry at large becomes more globally competitive vs. expending energy competing within itself.
Get involved now with the only cluster for the wood industry in Canada.
You can learn more here: www.wmco.ca,
or contact us at
mbaker@wmco.ca
