London Inc. Weekly 05 • 25 • 2018

Bill Gray and Claude Pensa are this year’s London Business Hall of Fame laureates

TWO NEW MEMBERS have been added to the London Business of Hall of Fame. Claude Pensa, retired founder of Harrison Pensa LLP, and Bill Gray, president of L.H. Gray & Sons, were announced as this year’s Hall of Fame laureates earlier today at a news conference.

Called to the bar in 1956, Claude Pensa has had a significant impact on the practice of law, his profession and his home city, not the least of which has been the growth of the firm that bears his name. Throughout his career, he has been an energetic litigator, appearing in Ontario trials courts, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2007, he received the Law Society Medal from The Law Society of Upper Canada in recognition of his outstanding service within the profession. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which recognizes the best of the courtroom bars in the United States and Canada, and is given to those who demonstrate they are skilled trial lawyers as well as outstanding moral citizens.

In addition to founding London Lawyers Feed the Hungry with his wife, Elaine, Pensa served as chair of the board of governors of Western University, and was a member of the boards of Biotech London Council, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, C.N.I.B. and Regina Mundi College.

Bill Gray first joined the family firm of L.H. Gray & Sons (founded in 1934) fresh out of high school in 1954, paying his dues by grading eggs and driving delivery trucks. By 1968, he was president. His philosophy of “keep growing, keep building and operate as if you will go on forever,” is what spurs the business to ensure they have one of the most modern and innovative egg businesses in Canada.

With more than 1,200 employees, current divisions of L.H. Gray & Son are Grayridge Eggs Inc., Gray Brook Farms Ltd., Golden Valley Foods Ltd., Global Egg Corporation and Egg Solutions.

Founded in 1990 to honour outstanding members of the city’s business community and sponsored by Junior Achievement London and District, the London Business Hall of Fame is located in the Central branch of the London Public Library. The new members will be formally inducted October 18 at the London Convention Centre.

Drexel Industries to utilize crowdsourcing service PigeonShip

LONDON-BASED DREXEL Industries, a shipping, logistics and warehousing operation located at 100 Kellogg Lane, has announced it will begin offering delivery and return services for omnichannel retailers, local businesses and e-commerce customers in Ontario through PigeonShip, a crowdsourcing provider of same-day delivery services.

According to Drexel president, Jason Salmon, the business will also move to seven-day-per-week operations to ensure expedited order fulfilment. “What our customers and strategic partners need is instant order fulfilment,” says Salmon. “The faster we can deliver, the greater the level of customer satisfaction. It’s no longer a nice to have—it’s a need to have.”

Based in Utah, PigeonShip provides a platform for connecting businesses and individuals in the U.S. and Canada to a crowd-sourced fleet of couriers for final mile delivery. The couriers, also known as pigeons, generate revenue by performing deliveries during their daily driving routine while utilizing PigeonShip technology.

Drexel was the first business to open in the former Kellogg cereal plant, where it occupies 28,000-square-metres of warehousing space.

Sifton building province’s most energy efficient high-rise building

SIFTON PROPERTIES HAS begun construction on Ontario’s most energy efficient high-rise building.

Dubbed Helio, the 10-storey apartment building will be a highlight of the company’s West 5 development in northwest London. The $50-million, 115-unit building is situated in the middle of the residential-commercial medium-density development that will also be Ontario’s first solar-powered community.

While the density of the Helio building and the lack of roof space for solar installations made it impractical to build a net-zero structure (producing as much energy as the occupants consume), energy advanced HVAC, lighting and window systems will make Helio 70 to 80 per cent more energy efficient than a standard building. Solar panels on the roof and parking canopy will produce about 750 kilowatts of power.

Helio is expected to take about 20 months to complete, and three more similar-sized residential high-rises will be constructed nearby. West 5 will eventually have about 2,000 residential units, including townhouses and low-rise and high-rise units, along with ground-floor and stand-alone commercial units.

Two London industrial parks reach capacity

ON TUESDAY, THE city announced that two of London’s industrial parks—Trafalgar Industrial Park and Cuddy Industrial Lands—are at capacity.

Recent purchases of the final remaining plots of land capped off the developments. Two properties were sold on Cuddy Boulevard, one to a numbered Ontario company, which purchased a 2.17-hectare plot for $348,400, and the other to Mississauga-based C6 Developments, which manufactures lubricant and metal-work products. C6 purchased 1.4 hectares for $224,835. London-based Centennial Windows and Doors picked up the final lot in the Trafalgar Industrial Park, a 0.87-hectare parcel for $118,250.

“Both of those industrial parks are sold out completely, which is great news for Londoners [and] great news for jobs,” Councillor Josh Morgan said in an interview with the London Free Press. “In July, we will get an update—the annual update—on the industrial land development strategy, which will tell us what our current stock is, what the prices are going for, what our strategy is moving forward for making sure we have the right supply of land available to those who want to bring their businesses here and create jobs.”

Media Sonar awarded for outstanding tech development

MEDIA SONAR HAS been awarded the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) Motorola Solutions Award for Public Safety Technology. This award is presented to a Canadian technology company demonstrating outstanding technology development and is enhancing Canada’s international reputation for innovation and excellence in public safety.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as a leading innovator of public safety solutions that helps build safe and thriving communities,” says David Strucke, CEO of Media Sonar. “Our team is extremely dedicated to transforming the world’s information into actionable insights and this award is a powerful indicator of the amazing work that we do every day.”