Skip to content
NB Tech NewsSubscribe

Companies3 min read

Province Offers APEX Industries Up to $2M for a Defence-Focused Moncton Expansion

Opportunities NB's performance-based support is tied to a 35,000-square-foot addition and up to 35 jobs at the Moncton contract manufacturer, which supplies Lockheed Martin and has faced protests over F-35 parts.

A Moncton factory gains a new production wing as advanced machining equipment rolls in and 35 worker icons fill the floor. A readout shows up to $2M performance-based.

Opportunities NB is providing up to $2 million in performance-based support to APEX Industries to expand its Moncton plant. Luke Randall, the minister responsible for the agency, announced the support on Oct. 7 at DEFSEC Atlantic, the defence, security and aerospace trade show in Halifax.

According to the province, the project will:

  • add about 3,250 square metres (35,000 square feet) of production space
  • buy, install and commission advanced manufacturing equipment
  • create up to 35 full-time jobs
  • contribute up to $15.3 million in direct provincial GDP by the end of 2029

"Performance-based" means the money is tied to the company meeting targets. The release does not say what those targets are or how the payments are scheduled.

A contract shop that has moved toward defence

APEX started in 1961 as a repair machine shop for heavy industry, according to an Opportunities NB profile. In that profile, CEO Keith Parlee said the company had more than 250 employees. Its work spans aerospace components, security and detention doors, optical coating systems and automated equipment. The company's aerospace group says it has supplied military and commercial aircraft programs since 1992 from an AS9100-certified plant. It also lists Boeing, Bombardier Aerospace and Lockheed Martin among the primes that have recognized its work.

Parlee framed the expansion as part of that shift. "This investment represents an important step forward as we expand our contract manufacturing business, which has been largely migrated to the defence and naval sectors in recent years," he said in the provincial release. Naval work already includes a $25-million Irving Shipbuilding contract for LED lighting systems on the River-class destroyers. APEX makes those lights under licence from MARL International of England, the Telegraph-Journal reported.

The F-35 question

APEX's role in the F-35 program has made the Millennium Boulevard plant a protest site. The NB Media Co-op reported that activists have demonstrated outside the factory over the work. Their objection centres on Lockheed Martin's sales of the jet to Israel.

The Co-op earlier reported that APEX signed a deal with Lockheed Martin in 2013 to supply aluminum parts for the jet's wing and forward fuselage. It also reported that Lockheed later named APEX one of its top-performing suppliers for 2016.

In the Co-op's Oct. 14 story, reporter David Gordon Koch said neither Parlee nor Randall's office responded to interview requests by publication time. Parlee had earlier told the Co-op the company has "no control" over how its products are used. Canada is also an F-35 customer. Ottawa is committed to buying 16 jets while it reviews the rest of its 88-jet order, the Co-op reported.

The provincial release does not mention the F-35, Lockheed Martin or the protests. It describes APEX's markets as aerospace, defence, naval, food and construction.

What to watch

The province's numbers are targets: "up to" 35 jobs and "up to" $15.3 million in GDP by 2029. Opportunities NB has not said which defence programs the new capacity will serve. It also hasn't said how much of the $2 million depends on hiring, or when the addition will open. Those are the details that will show whether the money paid off.

Sources

Related coverage

Tags