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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - AUGUST 2014
chemical compliant warehousing and
distribution facilities. The company
“
has also pioneered manufacturing
processes, warehousing and distribu-
tion solutions, regulatory compliance
programs and creative marketing ap-
proaches for the automotive, marine,
power sport, heavy duty industries.”
The company has more than 140
proprietary formulas and is at the fore-
front to develop a chemical solution
for direct injection combustion cham-
ber cleaning.
SHIFTS IN THE INDUSTRY
Innovation plays a major role in
product development, and has since
the beginning of Shrader’s history.
The company has had to stay innova-
tive in order to compete, in a market
that has shifted seemingly constantly.
“
The biggest change in the market, in a
real way, has been the advancement in
technology in automobiles,” Snowden
explains.
“
Today everything under the
hood is run by computers which is far
different from the early automobile
market. Now, the big trend is getting
the best possible highway gas mileage.
Before that it was how many horse-
power you could put under the hood.
Now everything is about how little gas
you can use which means our business in
fuel additives has been working to help a
vehicle achieve its highest potential. We
have been working on our formulas to
improve that,” he continues.
John adds: “This is our single big-
gest challenge: keeping up with techno-
logical changes and staying ahead of that
curve, and meeting new market shifts.”
Shrader’s primary market is the
OEM and automotive aftermarket sec-
tor. OEMs are the company’s biggest
customers. However, when the market
is down, the aftermarket is where focus
goes. “When things aren’t great, people
will repair rather than replace,” Addison
says.
“
When cars are in the one to four
year old range, they are under warranty
at the dealership. From 4-10 years these
cars are getting serviced at the second
tier repair shops. So when people aren’t
buying new cars they’re servicing their
own vehicles,” John adds.
Shrader excels at developing prod-
ucts for their OEM clients, “We are Can-
ada’s largest manufacturer and supplier
of OEM approved service chemicals.
Our chemicals are sold to the big North
American, Japanese and Korean OEMs,”
SHRADER
“
When cars are in the one to four year old range, they are under warranty at the dealership. From 4-10 years these cars are
getting serviced at the second tier repair shops. So when people aren’t buying new cars they’re servicing their own vehicles.”
