Entrepreneur turns used pallets into a business

BY SABRINA DIVELL Staff Writer

Twenty-eight years ago Mike Hamid came to Canada with a dream of starting a life for himself and his family by following his heart and his passion for spontaneity.
Now at the age of 48, Hamid has made one last career move and opened T.O Pal- lets in Brampton.
"I searched for a year looking for a busi- ness opportunity," said Hamid, who moved from Montreal a couple of years ago and started his business two months ago.
He has bounced from the restaurant business, to the shoe business, and now to the pallet business.
Not a lot of people can fully under- stand what Hamid does for a living until they see it for themselves.
Starting from scratch, he has single handily built up a clientele list by simply searching for used skids of wood.
"Not a lot of people care for the envi- ronment, I kept seeing piles and piles of skids laying in the snow behind shopping stores and warehouses."
With some quick thinking, Hamid's en- trepreneurial mind turned those piles of garbage into a business idea.
"Instead of companies throwing the skids in the snow because they have no
room for them in their warehouses, I thought they could give me a call, send a truck to collect them, and fix them up and sell them again."
"It was a simple idea," said Hamid smiling.
Though his office is unfinished and there are only a few personal belongings on the shelving unit behind his desk, the
warehouse is alive with the noises of his workers banging and stapling the broken down skids.
"Some of the businesses I have started out with were only buying 50 skids a week from me, now they are purchasing 400 a week."
It was a slow start for Hamid, but in- stead of waiting for opportunity to come
knocking he decided to get off his chair and go look for it.
The first account he landed was with Sears Canada in Toronto.
After being persistent and not taking no for an answer, Hamid finally got the jump start he needed for his business.
"I got a phone call to come to their warehouse to talk about a possible pro-
posal, when I got there they offered me 1,800 skids free of charge as long as I could get them out of the warehouse in four days."
Walking around the warehouse trying to absorb the almost impossible task ahead of him, Hamid said his brain was spinning trying to figure out how he could move that many skids in so very few days.
"I didn't even have a warehouse set up for my company," he said laughing at the memory.
But within one day Hamid organized eight trucks and found storage space in Brampton to house the skids until he found a place to set up shop.
"It was the right time and the right place and I knew the opportunity would never come again, this was it."
One tree will make three wooden skids. Hamid not only is an inspiration to the Brampton entrepreneurs, he is also doing his bit to change the environment.
Hamid is also looking for a company or organization that could used scrap wood.
He has a pile of material that T.O Pal- lets can't use for skids, but would love to recycle instead of throwing it away.