Armoured car maker INKAS launches new Toronto manufacturing plant
by David Kennedy, Online Reporter
Company's new facility to employ 200 and will ship armoured vehicles worldwide
The plant floor at INKAS’ new Toronto facility. Depending on type of vehicle and extent of the retrofits, the company takes anywhere from three weeks to three months to strengthen OEM vehicles. PHOTO: David Kennedy
TORONTO—Though the vast majority of its clients are a long way from the relatively safe streets of Toronto, that’s not stopping armoured vehicle maker, INKAS Group of Companies, from beefing up its North York operations.
The company has officially launched its new north-end manufacturing plant and office space, which will serve as a headquarters for more than 200 of its Toronto-based employees, as well as Canada’s only armoured vehicle showroom.
INKAS CEO, David Khazanski, at the launch of its new facility. The company’s co-founder highlighted the importance of the company’s workers in a speech to suppliers, clients and partners. PHOTO: David Kennedy
“It’s a great achievement for our company,” INKAS CEO, David Khazanski, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “It’s a small victory on the way forward.”
Co-founding the company as an armoured car service more than 20 years ago by personally ferrying cash from casinos and other businesses to banks in the small hours of the morning, Khazanski and his team have since grown the company into a global enterprise with divisions spanning car and safe manufacturing to metal fabricating and software development.
“Since 1993 INKAS has truly represented what’s great about Toronto,” Ret. Maj.-Gen., and recently-appointed INKAS COO, David Fraser, said. “It has hired Canadians—first generation Canadians—it has put Canadians into the manufacturing business and put Canada and Toronto not just as a national brand but as an international brand known around the world.”
A Mercedes SUV undergoing the Inkas transformation. PHOTO: David Kenndy
To upgrade vehicles from a range of global OEMs—from Mercedes SUVs and sprinter vans, to discrete Toyota sedans and upscale Cadillacs—INKAS strips down much of the original vehicle, fabricates bulletproof exterior components and installs a wide range of standard upgrades. Its armoured Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG, for example, comes standard with full perimeter armouring, under-body plating that protects against shrapnel and run-flat tires that allow a vehicle to extricate its passengers from a hostile situation even after the tires have been compromised. It also has reinforced suspension and of course, multi-layered bullet resistant glass.
A stripped-down vehicle on the INKAS shop floor awaiting its bulletproof upgrades. PHOTO: David Kennedy
While Khazanski recalled INKAS’ first armoured vehicle took about six months to complete, the company can now strip down vehicles and produce an armoured version in as little as three weeks, while the most intensive jobs may take three months. Its vehicles are used by financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, corporate clients and individuals across the globe.
By bringing its sales force, production team and engineers under one North York roof, the company is focusing on collaboration to drive more innovative and competitive life-saving designs. Along with the manufacturing plant, the new North York facility will serve as as an international INKAS showroom, where the company can exhibit its armored vehicles to its wide range of foreign clientele.
