Canadian Manufacturers Looking for U.S. Addresses

The Winnipeg Free Press reports that the “buy America” sentiment is strong enough in U.S. heartland that some Canadian companies are pursuing U.S. acquisitions just to get an American address.

Craig McIntosh, CEO of Acrylon Plastics, said potential U.S. customers, for the first time in 20 years, are telling him they’d rather buy from an American supplier.

“We’re up to bat for the fourth time right now and I hope we’ll get to the finish line with this one,” McIntosh said of his efforts to buy an American company.

“It would be for tactical reasons,” he said. “It’s an operational manufacturing company (that is being targeted), but we want a U.S. address.”

This comes from a company that is now the largest North American plastics supplier for Case New Holland. “It’s the first time in the 15 to 20 years I have been doing this stuff that I have felt this,” he said. “It used to be we were greeted as friends.”

Now, he said, there are some who lump Canada in with China and Mexico as countries that are taking American jobs. “With a U.S. address, we can be seen creating American jobs and that will overcome some of the fears,” he said.