Business 101 teaches entrepreneurs to think global and act local. But suppose a more advanced course taught students to accomplish the reverse by thinking locally and acting globally. Suppose again that this course's professor is a rising CEO in an oft-neglected industry.

In this hypothetical class, Michael Bryant could finally wax poetic about road emulsions and water-based solvents to explain how repairing a city's skin is more than a Band-Aid solution.

Bryant and his staff of 12 at Matrex Co. prefer to stare down the potholes, cracked subway tracks and other urban scabs with a technology so impressive that the Port Perry company is fielding orders from the United States and the Middle East.

The Permanent Cold Patch sounds like a painfully icy bandage, but it is a road's best friend. Tougher than asphalt and climate-friendly, the patch is poured into any crack, cut or pothole in a road and begins to set automatically.

Tyler Anderson, Business Edge
Matrex CEO Michael Bryant has turned the Permanent Cold Patch into a solution for road-surface care around the world.

A co-polymer, the patch's secret ingredient, quickens the setting process and requires no rollers or extra manpower. In short, the patch saves money and allows transportation to continue flowing, unlike some cold patches that only last 18 months. No wonder almost every continent is hungry for Matrex products and Bryant couldn't be happier - or busier.

"We're shipping to Atlanta, Afghanistan," said Bryant before a trip to Argentina. "It's exciting to see global acceptance of a company founded on a small idea."

Think local. That was how a small idea took root. Bryant found top Canadian scientists to develop a bituminous aggregate mixture that bonded permanently, evolving into a polymer-modified asphalt.

Small Ontario townships such as Scucog were the first clients. Word-of-mouth sparked long-term contracts such as the agreement between Matrex and the Toronto Transit Commission. Cold Patch is the TTC's "product of choice," Bryant says, when winter cold creates fissures in subway tracks.

Financial success attracted media attention and Profit Magazine listed Matrex No. 38 on its 2004 Top 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. One key stat is a clue to Matrex's progress: Revenue ballooned by more than 1,700 per cent between 1998 and 2003, growing to about $8 million from roughly $440,000.

"We're up against big companies, but we're getting sales from our website, from our international trips," Bryant says. "We think outside the box and make sure we deal with one customer at a time so they feel welcome."

Matrex has won over St. Thomas, a city of 35,000 south of London. Roads foreman Roy Orchard, whose crews have been using Matrex products for three years, says pothole problems prompted him to use Cold Patch.

"My guys just get in there, fill up the hole and leave, before they even block traffic," Orchard says.

Highway repair crews also appreciate Matrex's contribution in the field. Southford Aggregates, which maintains roads on Highways 401 and 404, wrote Bryant a thank-you letter: "Matrex has withstood the heavy traffic demands very well, while allowing us to repair the damaged pavement expeditiously."

The local touch helps. But so does expansion and Matrex has been setting its sights overseas for several years. The U.S. Air Force uses Cold Patch to repair landing strips in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently, Bryant spoke to manufacturers in Southeast Asia about road repairs, although it wasn't the tsunami that took Matrex there. They already had been working in Bangkok for 18 months.

Act global. Pierre Trudeau taught Bryant that pearl and it wasn't just a business strategy. Bryant appreciates his fulfilling projects, ranging from smoothing roads in Kabul to filling asphalt scars in Brazil. Matrex also supplies countries with a concrete repair mix known as Pozzolanic 45, furthering bolstering the company's international appeal.

Field support from Export Development Canada also smoothed any bumps in Matrex's ascent.

Bryant appreciates "a financial institution that understands the global market.”

After all, he says, Matrex is not just working in one country.

On any given day, Bryant could be leading a seminar in eastern Europe, where he sells $200,000 worth of Cold Patch after a little one-on-one chat (true story). Or Bryant could be in Port Perry manning an urgent phone call at 5 a.m. that demands materials to repair a runway (also true). Working 75 hours a week is only a symptom of Bryant's dedication to making this road-emulsion business a global leader, since it is already a hit in Canada.

And how does Matrex set itself apart from established competitors such as Lafarge and Norjohn?

"I credit my people," Bryant says, almost too predictably, but then he rushes to justify. "I've gone out to find retired experts to work as consultants. I've surrounded the company with highly qualified people."

Stressing innovation also carries a footnote: Social responsibility, he believes. "We're helping the environment with our products," Bryant says, explaining how a new alternative to roadside salt could replace the more corrosive variety used today.

A non-corrosive liquid de-icer, under trial in North Wellington about 100 kilometres west of Kingston, aims to reduce water pollution and work effectively in any temperature.

Coupled with motives that sound too altruistic to be true is Bryant's commitment to charity work. Contributing to UNICEF and World Vision made him realize "that there is an incredible need for all of us to understand and come to help those so unfortunate."

After visits to Africa and Russia, Bryant understood that need so thoroughly he tried to set up financing for Third World countries desperate for HIV medication. Although the drug companies rejected Bryant's idea, a lesson emerged: A company can start a chain reaction, one that makes changes incrementally.

Matrex has already won that honour. Going global is paying off and it is only looking better for the nine-year-old company.

Bryant tactfully talks about going public: "I envision the company to be so well-managed and well-financed that it will be in a public trading situation shortly."

Bryant hopes his company will be attractive to investors because of Matrex's advantage in the transport industry. "Roads are important to getting goods transported," he says, leaving a silence that implies Matrex leads in road emulsions and repairs. The confidence comes as no surprise since exports are 50 per cent of revenue.

While Matrex may choose to have its headquarters in a quiet town of 20,000, it's applying valuable lessons across the world.

"Moving to Port Perry made us a big fish in a small town, and we like that," Bryant says. "We're close to the townspeople and we're close to lakes, so it feels like we're part of the community. Bigger companies move in and then move out.”

He pauses. "We're the opposite. We don't want to lose touch of what shapes us."

(David Silverberg can be reached at silverberg@businessedge.ca)