‘We see Windsor-Essex as a gateway to the North American automotive corridor.’
The Windsor Star/Madaline Mazak
A Japanese global engineering and digital solutions firm’s $2 million investment in Windsor-Essex — creating about 40 local jobs — is the latest sign that companies from Asia are increasingly attracted to the local region as a place to grow.
Landing Solize Partners is part of a much more extensive, years-long effort championed by the region’s lead economic development agency to attract new foreign investment.
The non-profit organization’s focus on Asia, and other global locations, is happening in lockstep with the Canadian government’s efforts to search out new trading partners beyond the United States.
“We know the Asian market is very important,” Gordon Orr, chief executive officer of Invest WindsorEssex, told the Star. “Right now, we’re concentrating a lot on it because it’s being fruitful. It’s providing us with a lot of opportunities.
“That’s not in the absence of being in other markets where there’s other opportunities. But for right now, it certainly is top of the list, because that’s where we’re seeing a lot of success.”
Over the years, Invest WindsorEssex has led a series of trade missions to connect with companies looking to establish a North American presence.
During an upcoming mission planned for late May and early June, Orr said the organization’s investment attraction team will visit Japan, South Korea and China to meet potential investors, as well as representatives from Global Affairs Canada and Invest Canada.
Invest WindsorEssex’s vice-president of investment attraction and strategic initiatives, Joe Gonclaves, had met the president of Solize Partners at the company’s Tokyo office.
The company had been eyeing Windsor-Essex for many years, said Bharath Mani, executive leader of Solize U.S.
“The geopolitical situation delayed our start,” said Mani, “but we were thinking for the last three to four years. Then we took the plunge and said, ‘We don’t want to delay any further.’”
The company, which also has a Michigan location, formally announced its expansion into Windsor-Essex earlier this month. Mani said the Windsor site has been operational for about one year.
“We see Windsor as a gateway to the North American automotive corridor,” Mani told the Star.
“I see a lot of great potential in looking at Windsor closely, even with the dynamically changing geopolitical situation. We see the long-term strategy surrounding EV batteries and Canada’s own automotive ambition.
“Windsor is going to be a very integral part of Canada’s own automotive ambitions.”
Solize Partners provides services like 3D modeling and AI-powered digital solutions, primarily for the automotive industry.
Its customers include global players in the auto sector, like General Motors, Stellantis, and Magna International, as well as Japanese aerospace giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It plans to grow its local workforce by 20 to 30 jobs over the next few years.
Orr said the door to Asia opened when Windsor secured the landmark $6-billion NextStar Energy battery plant in 2022, owned by South Korean-based LG Energy Solution, with the promise of creating up to 2,500 local jobs.
“NextStar was a unicorn — you certainly do not land a $6-billion investment every day,” said Orr.
“When you start to build this sort of roster, and people start to notice and take notice of what you’re actually building in the Windsor-Essex community, they say ‘Well, if they’re bringing their plant there, or they’re investing their significant dollars in that community, maybe we should take a look at it, as well.”
NextStar was followed by another major investment last April by Taiwan-based Minth Group, which is spending more than $300 million to build an EV battery case plant on surplus airport lands in Windsor. The plant lands an additional 1,100 jobs for the region.
Minth Group later announced a joint venture with Japan-based AISIN Corporation to build a second facility in Windsor.
While these large investments are major wins for Windsor-Essex, said Orr, smaller and medium-sized firms, like Solize Partners, are “the backbone” of the community.
“Once you land a big one, then you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the feeder plants to be able to help support it, and they’ll naturally show interest,” he said.
“Once you land these big plants, it’s the companies that want to be the suppliers to those companies that then start looking at us. Then we start saying, ‘Okay, how can we tie this all together?’”
Despite the success in Asia, Orr said Invest WindsorEssex is looking at investment attraction through a “wide lens.”
Beyond Asia, the team recently participated in one of the world’s largest food processing and food and beverage conferences in Barcelona, Spain.
It also attended the Premier Mineral Exploration and Mining Convention (PDAC) in Toronto to pursue more opportunities for the region in critical mineral processing and battery‑related minerals.
Last fall, Invest WindsorEssex attended the Best Defence Conference in London, Ont., to find ways local manufacturers can dip into Canada’s growing defence sector.
While Invest WindsorEssex looks abroad for future investors, Orr said supporting local business remains his central focus.
“Our companies here need help and need support, and we’re there to help them as much as we can,” said Orr.
“By landing firms like Solize Partners, it strengthens our workforce, our supply chain, and keeps the focus on Windsor-Essex on the world stage, which is really what we want to do.”