Some of the Exchange Industrial Income Fund management team (left to right): David Patrick, manager, financial reporting, Dianne Spencer, manager, compliance, Duncan Jessiman, executive vice-chairman, Michael Pyle, president and CEO, Gary Bell, director of acquisitions, Adam Terwin, CFO, Mark Bullion, manager, internal controls, Darwin Sparrow, vice-president and COO – manufacturing, Cheryl Lawrence, director of special projects.

The Winnipeg-based holding company derives about 60 per cent of its $250 million in annual revenues from its three regional jet airlines that serve northern Manitoba and beyond while the rest comes from its manufacturing division, which includes makers of hot water washers that clean drilling rigs in Alberta’s oil fields and producers of stainless steel containers used to hold Crown Royal at Diageo’s Canadian whiskey plant in Gimli.

“Our business is non-cyclical, especially in aviation,” says Duncan Jessiman, CEO of Exchange Industrial.

The most visible of its operating units are the three airlines–Perimeter Aviation, Keewatin Air and Calm Air, which provide passenger, cargo, charter and medevac services to northern Manitoba. Keewatin and Calm also fly into Nunavut.

Jessiman, a former partner at Winnipeg’s largest law firm, Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson, says he likes the strong niche the three carriers have carved out in northern transportation and he’s confident the trio will fly higher still.

“The northern communities are growing at a faster rate than southern communities,” he says, noting outbreaks of disease in remote outposts could also result in increased demand for flights.

Calm Air was the latest example of Exchange Industrial’s desire to grow through acquisitions. The $59-million purchase this spring adds 400 employees to the payroll. The airline is also poised for growth when the economic slowdown is over and vacation demands increase as it provides additional flights during northern Manitoba’s fishing season and Churchill’s polar bear watching season in the fall.

Perimeter, which was Exchange Industrial’s first acquisition back in 2004, isn’t at the mercy of business or vacation travellers, who can be fickle when times are tough.

“(Perimeter’s) target market is people who have to travel for medical reasons and to get in and out of First Nations communities up north. Their only access is by plane,” he says.

Jessiman says Exchange Industrial will pursue other opportunities up north as they come along, such as if other players want to exit the business or if northern government agencies require additional air transportation services.

“The three airlines’ management are getting together. We may expand our charter business to offer a full range of planes to our customers, whether it’s governments, mines or scientific expeditions that we haven’t been able to do before. With the range of aircraft we have now, it’s possible to put together a separate charter organization,” he says.