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History

Cross Tech Industries Ltd. began as Northern Ontario Castings Ltd. (NOC) in 1974. NOC, was originally owned by John Parry, Ray Parnham, Thomas Curtis, and Milton Cross.

Northern Ontario Castings was set up as a foundry, primarily, to manufacture gray iron castings for Ingenious Devices Limited (IDL). IDL manufactured and distributed automotive engine rebuilding equipment throughout North America and the UK. Ingenious Devices was also owned by John Parry, Thomas Curtis and Ray Parnham.

[Photo - Peterborough P.U.C. Hydro Electric turbine maintenance and repairs]
Peterborough P.U.C. Hydro Electric turbine maintenance and repairs.

In 1981 John Parry and Thomas Curtis sold their interests in Ingenious Devices and Northern Ontario Castings to a group of new shareholders who included the principle owners of Barrie Welding and Machine and a group of Barrie Welding employees. Ray Parnham and Milton Cross retained their interests in IDL and NOC respectively.

Along with the foundry business Northern Ontario Castings operated a machine shop that provided finished castings to Ingenious Devices and many other customers. They also provided machine shop, welding fabrication and industrial millwright service to support many of the other industries in Muskoka. Some of their customers included, Alcan Foils, Alcan Wire and Cable, Domtar (now Panolam), Rockwell (now Dura), and Corning (now Scandura Rubber). They also provided hydroelectric water turbine maintenance service to Peterborough Public Utilities, Parry Sound Public Utilities, and Bracebridge Public Utilities.

By 1995 Barrie Welding closed the Ingenious Devices plant. Market share from the other client base, beyond IDL, also was on a steady decline. Casting from third world countries started flooding Canada at prices less than NOC could purchase the raw materials. This competitive pressure along with more and more stringent, and expensive, environmental regulations forced the closing of the foundry. Fortunately, the machine shop, metal fabrication and millwright services had continued to grow over the same 20 year period.

In the spring of 1999 Leslie Cross joined NOC as the General Manager with the intention of purchasing the business. Leslie asked Mike Sweet, Mike Neal and Gary Cross to join him in setting up a new company to purchase and operate Northern Ontario Castings, and CrossTech Industries was born.

CrossTech Industries Today

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your crew for the excellent performance during our recent July shut down.

Your crew worked in a very professional manner, both in the skills required to do the jobs, and in the way that they conducted themselves interacting with others while they were here.

I have heard only positive remarks regarding your crew and we look forward to working with them again.

On behalf of myself, Peter, Kia and the Roll Form crews thank you,

Bill German
Roll Form Supervisor
DURA Automotive

We have an established customer base of large and small businesses both locally and afar. Our hydro-electric turbine service takes us regularly to power plants owned by Orillia Water Light and Power, Parry Sound Power Generation, Peterborough Public Utilities and Lakeland Power Generation.

Some of our Machining and Millwright work comes to us from Kubota Metals, GL& V, Jacuzzi Leasure Products, IntierAutomotive (a division of Magna International Inc.). We are also building tooling for Alcan Wire and Cable plants in Quebec and Sedalia, Missouri.

Locally, we provide services to some of the major industrial employers in Muskoka;

Possessing a large facility with overhead cranes, coupled with an experienced and respected staff of tradespeople, Cross Tech Industries continues today to provide, quality, experience and value to our established and new customers alike. We look forward to adding your business to our list of valued clients.