Created in 1991, Mid South Contractors ULC is an electrical contracting company based out of Windsor, Ontario, that was formed to facilitate the area’s commercial and industrial electrical needs. In 1995, Mid South was bought by Motor City Electric Co. (MCE), a large-scale North American electrical contractor.
As a subsidiary of MCE, Mid South has access to larger projects, innovative new technologies, and several electrical trade organizations and labor unions. MCE was founded in 1952 in Detroit, Michigan, and has since become one of the largest electrical contractors in the nation, operating within nine divisions: automotive and process, commercial, industrial, specialty industries, service and emergency, public works and steel, technologies, utilities and excavation. All of these services are available at each one of MCE seven subsidiaries, which are found in Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Nevada.
“We continue to evolve as a company, becoming even more accomplished in advanced technology, achieving greater diversity in our workforce and expanding our overall capabilities,” says Dale M. Wiecaorek, MCE’s president and CEO. “Our
integrated operations have grown to serve a wide spectrum of customers and customer needs, management lnterwoven in this growth are the long term relations hips we build with customers by helping them to achieve success.”
Inner Operations
A part of MCE’s growth , Mid South is focused primarily on the institutional, commercial and industrial markets. The firm employees 14 administrators, project managers and other full-time staff, but can have as many as 50 to 300 electrical laborers out in the field at one time. John Salvatore, Mid South’s current president, has been with the company since the 1990s, when he began as an electrician.
Salvatore says the company values using local, Ontario based subcontractors who haw proven their capability while remaining reasonably priced. “We work with the same group on a fairly frequent basis,” Salvatore explains. Such subcontracting companies prove handy on projects such as Mid South’s work at two water treatment plant projects, two schools, and the Chatham Capital Theater, which requires complex electrical wiring, The firm is also bidding aggressively on a new stimulus-funded hospitality project in Ontario.
As a result of its relationship with MCE, Mid South is developing an expertise in sustainable electrical design and energy efficiency. The firm has gained experience building facilities that use natural electricity and are LEED certified. Facilitating these projects, Mid South has gained membership in the Windsor Electrical Contractors Association, the Sarnia Electrical Contractors Association and the Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario.
“We’re excited about going into green construction; we are going to start a wind farm and we’ re putting up solar farms, too,” Salvatore adds.
Evolving Growth
During the time it was independently owned, Mid South began by installing automotive equipment and conveyors in large factories.. When it was acquired by MCE, the company broadened its s cope to include schools and universities, hotels, casinos and even more industrial facilities. By 2.000, Mid South had become one of the largest electrical contractors in Ontario.
Over the last decade, Mid South has worked on some of its largest projects, including an expansion project for the famous Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino, where the firm did the electrical work for its 27-story luxury hotel and the 5,000-seat entertainment and convention center. During this time, the firm also worked with Chrysler to launch the Chrysler minivan complex in Windsor and the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger factory in Bramalea, Ontario.
When working on the Chrysler minivan plant, the firm completed the body shop tooling, trim/chassis final tooling. paint system tooling, an extensive installation of conveyor systems, the retrofit of old equipment and a complex data systems integration, coordinating more than 300 laborers. For the plant in Brampton, completed in 2005, the firm used 200 laborers to install large conveyor systems and new?? electric machinery, remaining active over the span of three years.
These and other successful endeavors have shown the potential Mid South can continue to realize, drawing on the resources of Motor City Electric Co. and its own ingenuity. Salvatore says that during the next decade Mid South Contractors ULC will continue to refine its services in the automotive and institutional sectors, while expanding it s work in the commercial and hospitality markets. “We (want to be) all over the board with our projects,” Salvatore adds.
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