MTD started as a 2-man tool shop in a 1500 square foot unit in the heart of Mississauga's industrial sector. Andy Pantano, the founder of MTD, was a highly skilled Italian immigrant who had the vision to build a company on the basis of providing the best solutions to the customers tooling problems. Andy started the company at the bright young age of 50 years old. This would be the 3rd company that he had founded. The 1st was Algie Machine, a 3-way partnership in the early 60's that was dependent on the success of the Avro Arrow. When this advanced aircraft was canceled by the Canadian government; the company was sold to the individual who was in charge of sales for the company, and a second company Newcan was founded. This company was in existence for 3 years until a decision by the partners was made to disband and go their separate ways. Andy worked for various tool shops in the Toronto area until 1972 when MTD was founded on the strength of a $7000.00 bank account. The 1st job that he had was for 5 dies for a local tool shop that needed a very inexpensive price but a quality set of tooling. MTD was now on it's way to becoming a provider of precision progressive dies for the stamping industry.
MTD continued as a small tool shop with a reputation as a company that could take on the tough jobs and deliver the results that the customer needed. A case in point was a job for then CEB Electric. The job was to manufacture a single station aluminum fin part that would go into a baseboard heater. Another tool shop was given the go ahead to design and build a four station progressive die that would stamp this part. The tool shop was having problems with a functional design and an acceptable delivery date to CEB. Enter MTD. Andy Pantano was approached to build a one off progressive die in 4 weeks: a job that CEB felt was nearly impossible. When the job was completed the CEB engineers were astounded. The tool was fitted with the then state of the art electronics, automation and stacking units for shipment to the plant. Not only did he complete the die in 4 weeks but also the tool produced a better part then what the other Tool shops die was capable of. This one tool cemented the relationship with CEB. MTD started to grow and more employees joined. In 1978 Marcel Pantano, Andy's oldest son joined the firm. Straight out of College he brought zero knowledge of manufacturing but a keen business mind. Marcel served his Tool & Die apprenticeship under his father. He took engineering courses at night and applied what he learned during the day. He soon started to take a leadership role and changed the direction of the company. Our customers started to ask about our manufacturing capabilities. They said that we were the experts in tooling it would be natural for us to also stamp the parts. MTD purchased a 65-ton punch press and started stamping the dies that they had built. Soon the father and son team realized that it was easier to stamp parts then it was to build dies. They changed the direction of the company and focused on stamping and die building. Marcel started to scour the market for potential stamping work. His efforts brought him to then Xerox Canada. They were interested in MTD but they told him that without a vendor number Xerox Canada could not deal with him. Marcel's next question was how does MTD get a vender number. The buyer told him that the head office, in the USA, must approve him. The next major break came with the introduction of Calvin Smith a senior buyer at Xerox Corporation in the US. He had 2 rush jobs that he needed the dies built and parts at his dock in 4 weeks. If we could do this then he would give us a vendor number and more work. Andy contacted his good friend and former business partner John Olivieri, president of Peko Precision in Rochester N.Y. to tell him of our good fortune and ask for his advise on how we should handle this very important work. John was eager to help and suggested that Andy send his son Marcel to his company so that he can learn the Xerox requirements. After one week of learning the ropes he was ready for this first job for Xerox. MTD was able to produce the 2 dies, run parts and have the Xerox shipment at the dock in 3 weeks. The buyer was ecstatic. We were able to help him out of a jamb and exceed his expectations. On the strength of this first job we were awarded 4 more parts. Our relationship with Xerox has grown over 30 plus years and we are one of a select few certified sheet-metal stampers on their base.
Through the years MTD took on a vast amount of projects covering most industries. Automotive was one industry that MTD excelled in. it was an industry that we really didn't pursue but we always had one or two jobs on the go for the automotive industry. We were well respected and always did a good job. We dealt with a number of companies such as Magna, Dura, Rockwell, AG Simpson, A.Rea, and SKD to name a few. Gone are the days when we would put a large automotive die in the back of Honda hatchback to deliver it to the customer so that they could make some rush parts.
As MTD grew we added capabilities. Our customers continued to give us projects that needed specialized operations. One such project was a powder-coated aluminum Tray with a projected volume of 1 million parts per year. This part was very delicate, as any adverse handling would result in damage. When we were awarded the job we contacted various powder coat companies in our area to quote and provide samples. We decided on one company and when the progressive die was comp we started to supply parts to our customer. What we found was a number of issues started to rise from our powder coat supplier. The 1st issue was that they could not keep up. We soon added a second source to rectify this situation. The 2nd issue was that of quality. We were getting damaged parts from the supplier. On further investigation we found that there employees were not adhering to our handling requirements. Once we corrected these issues we found that the suppliers were slipping back to their old ways. We found that they would promise us what every we wanted to hear but deliver what was best for themselves. We changed suppliers numerous times until it was decided that we should investigate bringing this technology in-house or lose the customer. We visited the Powder coat paint show in Indianapolis to familiarize ourselves with the technology and to find out who were the top suppliers. It took us 3 days at the show to understand what questions we needed to ask. Once we understood, we started the process of selecting the company that had the best equipment. The equipment that we chose was the latest; state of the art and we were the 2nd company in Canada to posses it. It was fully automated so that the operator involvement was minimized and we could control the thickness of the finis. This investment gave us the added capabilities to satisfy our customer's requirements. The next major milestone for MTD was the addition of a Robotic weld cell. The winning of a large photocopier frame from Xerox, again, fueled this acquisition. This frame comprised of 60 different sheet-metal stampings and required precision and repeatable welding. The only choice was the acquisition of a robotic weld cell. This weld cell gave us the technology that would allow us to further our vertically integrated manufacturing strategy
As customer requirements changed so did our manufacturing capabilities. We would explore it to the fullest, anything that our customers threw at us and we could turn into a viable business. Our company is made up of 4 main business units each a profit center. They are our Tool-room, our stamping department our Powder coat paint line and our Welding, packaging and assembly department.
Over the past 35 years MTD continued to grow in the Toronto market. MTD currently has 3 facilities, 2 manufacturing centers and one storage center. Today MTD is a world-renowned organization that has built a reputation of honesty, and is dedicated to providing quality products, which consistently meet or exceed the requirements of our valued customers.