The International Group Inc., Scarborough, ON

The International Group, Inc. (IGI) has been in the wax business for over 60 years. The organization, originally known as International Waxes Limited, was founded in Toronto, Ontario by William Reucassel in 1943 and incorporated in 1945. William Reucassel was responsible for building Canada's first solvent de-oiling petroleum wax refinery on a 3 acre piece of property that he purchased in Agincourt, Canada in 1945. It was at this refinery that an oily by-product of lube oil manufacture called slack wax was converted into what we now refer to as fully refined paraffin wax. In 1949 the refinery came online with 100 sq. of filtering capacity and hand slabbing capability at the rate of 2, 000 lbs every 6 hours. Total refinery output was 5 million lbs per year. Today IGI owns Greer machines that output wax slabs at the rate of 8, 000 lbs/hr and total refinery output is in excess of 150 million lbs of wax per year.