High-Tech Firm Purchases E-business - Kamloops Daily News

May 26, 2001

A local technology company has acquired the assets of UniEX Products Online Ltd., a successful Kamloops online retailer.

Grant Robertson, president and chief executive officer of MediaWave Communications Corp., made the announcement on Friday.

"UniEx's success in the online retail world has been nothing short of remarkable," he said. "Despite the negative press that e-commerce has received over the past six months, UniEx has proven that online sales can be highly successful."

David Michaud, founder of UniEX, an Internet site that markets household products such as tankless water heaters, started the company as a sideline while he was working as a metallurgist at Highland Valley Copper.

"It was a hobby. I had nothing to lose and I wanted to learn the Internet," he said.

What started out as fun and interesting truend busy and tiring.

"It got to be too busy. I was working 40 hours a week at Highland Valley then 60 hours at home," Michaud said. "I was unable to relax. It was too much, I was burning out."

Robertson called UniEX an "entrepreneurial dream."

"But it grew to big too fast and David felt he wasn't able to keep up the quality of customer service he wanted to provide," he said.

Michaud considers MediaWave, a fully integrated eBusiness solutions provider and e-commerce retailer, a natural choice for a buyer. MediaWave, which hit it big with Miningsurplus.com, had designed and programmed all the UniEX sites.

"Where I was limited as a one-man show, MediaWave has what it takes to grow it further," said Michaud. "It's a good marriage."

Robertson believes the acquisition has lots of potential.

"It's a business we can grow over the years with new products," he said. "We feel with full-time devotion we can enhance the business and introduce new products."

Michaud, meanwhile, is free to again focus on his mining career. He has accepted a three year contract as mill operation superintendent at the new Atamira Mine in Peru.

"I'm a mining engineer, so it's exciting. It's a promotion." he said. "But I gave birth to this so I didn't want to sell it to anyone."

Michaud will not be completely out of the picture. He has a position on MediaWave's board of directors where he can oversee new product investigation. Michaud is happy with this arrangement as he can still let his creative juices flow.

"I have a crazy mind. I'm very , very creative and I take chances. I have the ideas for new products," said Michaud.