In 2014, Shanying moved with his family from China through the Provincial Nominee Program, with a mandatory requirement to establish a business. To fulfill this requirement, he set up an import-export business based on his skills and experience. Soon after he acquired permanent residency, by complete happenstance, he discovered an opportunity to produce milk bottles for Amalgamated Dairies Limited (ADL). He came to learn that these bottles came all the way from Quebec and began to consider the possibility of producing these bottles locally for ADL and similar businesses. This way, he would create local jobs, enable more efficient business operations, and reduce carbon emissions associated with transportation. With that, Reito Industrial Products Limited was born.
The idea of innovation as a response to opportunity is embedded in the operations of Reito Industrial. The team imported the necessary equipment in 2018 and began to produce locally. Their client base has grown steadily across Atlantic Canada. They have also begun to produce plastic buoys for aquaculture businesses in the region.
Shanying’s background in trading and his study of polymer science and technology in university have been very useful in his current line of business. Applying this expertise has helped position Reito Industrial as one of the foremost companies in the industrial manufacturing scene on PEI.
To Shanying, innovation involves big picture thinking where even the smallest parts are integral to the whole. His understanding of innovation entails reimagining the old but also dreaming up new creations. “Innovation is for daily life,” he says. Nothing is without it. Reito Industrial has worked with local and international engineers to develop, modify, and maintain their own machines.
For the company, creating solutions to shared problems using local resources is not the preserve of single actors; they require system-wide collaboration. A business can innovate within its own operations, but it is part of an ecosystem. Reito Industrial is still involved in trading. When the pandemic started, the cost of wood increased. Local builders approached the company seeking alternatives to lumber. They recommended steel studs and wood composite decks and facilitated the importation of these products.
While the challenges of the pandemic made the possibility of automation alluring, Reito Industrial was hesitant about its wholesale adoption as it considered the impacts to larger society. This openness to ideation and concerns from actors across the manufacturing ecosystem is reflected in its work culture. Shanying considers the suggestions of his employees and clients, all of which he sees as “helpful advice.”
Many customers approach Reito Industrial with ideas, which are then translated into three-dimensional images from which prototypes are built. Viability is analyzed along technical and financial lines and sometimes okayed. There’s an interesting feedback loop involved here: when Reito Industrial experiments and prototypes viable customer suggestions, there is a market already waiting. As a result, the company’s products are overarchingly consumer-driven. A win-win for all involved.
“Innovation is important as a motivator that keeps society moving forward. It’s a way to learn lessons from mistakes in history and make improvements. New ideas give us more opportunities to move our society forward, although we sometimes move in the wrong direction. But we cannot stand in one place,” he says.
Written by: Elizabeth Iwunwa
Photography: Mostafa Alizadegan
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