Finding those places, and finding those treasures, is what successful business leaders have been doing for centuries.

Hey, even Marco Polo was a business opportunist first, an explorer second.

The business leaders at Mississauga-based Normiska Corporation have been attempting to tap into a very valuable resource for the past few years. So far, so good.

The early-development-stage company owns a giant peat bog in the northwestern portion of Ontario, near Fort Frances, and they think by extracting valuable peat moss and processing it for sale across the border in the U.S., that process will turn them into one of Canada's fastest growing companies.

The company's 3,500 square food processing plant is already up and running in Fort Frances, and now employs 35 people.

Normiska is harvesting the peat and producing high-grade sphagnum peat moss, as well as pine bark mulches and composted pine bark (in a further collaboration with nearby Abitibi plant). Its products are geared for the giant mid-western market in the U.S. and the firm hopes to win a sizable portion of the multi-billion dollar gardening and landscaping business in the U.S.

In essence, the firm is turning waste products into consumer ones and cashing in handsomely.

The firm's target of $1 million in profits for 1999 has been compromised slightly by a recent Abitibi strike, but the strike has been settled. Normiska recently signed a 20-year contract with Abitibi-Consolidated for a supply of bark, and by using the bark, the firm is taking a product that has been a solid waste management concern and turning it into a growing material.

In an interview with Northern Ontario Business, David Graham, president and chief executive officer of Normiska says the real key to his firm's potential success is cross-border business.

"It's a good combination to be developing in Canadian dollars and dealing in American dollars," he says. "The export factor in this equation is very important to the economics."

That's why 100 per cent of Normiska's business is in the U.S. - at least for now.

"We really think our company fits David Foot's demographic model (from his book 'Boom, Bust and Echo"", says John Arnold, the firm's chief financial officer, from the Mississauga office that houses its administration and sales force.

Graham began looking at the Fort Frances area in 1991 because of its high-quality peat resources (Canada has some of the largest peat reserves in the world), and the firm acquired a large tract of land soon afterwards. The site had to be opened and worked on, and when a deal was finally completed to also process the bark from the nearby Abitibi plant, the real work began to building a manufacturing facility, man it, market the final product, and get it into the giant U.S. market.

Arnold who, along with Graham, was in the mining business for years, says junior Canadian companies are not the flavor of the month for many investors, "but a lot of them have us up on their radar screens theses days."
Why.

Normiska materials will be used by plant growers, turn and lawn care specialist gardeners as soil improvements agents.

This, according to Arnold, is a huge multi-billion market in the U.S., and that market in the U.S., and that market is right across the border from its manufacturing facility. In fact, there are 57 million people living in the nearby area that includes cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and Indianapolis.

The company's marketing strategy is based on the production of sphagnum peat moss and pine bark, stock product of most every lawn and garden retailer in North America.

The quality of its peat products will play a critical role in the company's success, says Arnold and selling to major distributors in the U.S. is what keeps the Mississauga office busy.

The Normiska-owned bog is expected to provide young, relatively unhumified sphagnum peat, and Arnold is sure it will be well received by a potentially huge market.

If there's a growing demand for "soil-less growing materials," then Normiska seems perfectly poised to take advantage.

The company is listed on the Canadian Dealing Network, an over-the-counter exchange, and the CDN has recently approved the quotation of the common shares and warrant of the company. The company also successfully closed its initial public offering of 1.2 million units. Each unit consisted of one commonshare and one-half purchase warrant, for gross proceeds of $1.2 million.

Arnold, the company's chief financial officer, says initial capital investment was between $2 and $3 million, and the bog from which it draws its peat, has about 40 years of harvesting.

Whether they can turn her harvest into a rich business opportunity over the next millennium, is still a question mark. But Arnold is thrilled with the prospect.

"What could be better business then turning waste product into usable, salable product" he asks.

Graham says: "Environmental responsibility continues to grow into the future. As this population ages, more people are retiring to their green spaces such as gardens, gold courses and park lands. They are very aware of environmental concerns and wish to buy from responsible corporate citizens."

Normiska management believe that business will need to find creative ways of producing products in an environmentally responsible manner, and they believe its product line of peat and bark will break down into a 60-40 split over the next few years, the largest percentage favoring peat sales.

Mother Nature, it seems, has been a very good business partner to the people running Normiska.

"Environmental responsibility continues to grow into the future as this population ages, more people are retiring to their green spaces such as gardens, gold courses and park lands. They are very aware of environmental concerns and wish to buy from, responsible corporate citizens.

David Graham