One of the world’s oldest drone manufacturers is based in Saskatoon. And they’re expanding.

Saskatoon is home to one of the world’s oldest drone manufacturers, and they have just opened a second facility.

“It's four times or five times the size of our old facility,” Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell told CTV News.

Draganfly first opened in 1998 and became a publically traded company in 2019.

Chell said there are several advantages to doing business in Saskatchewan.

“Saskatoon specifically is very important to us from a number of levels. One is culturally, where we started and we've gotten great, long-standing employees there that have been with the company kind of 20-ish years,” he said.

“There's also an incredibly good and strong education base there with the University of Saskatchewan and so we're able to recruit. Also, the agricultural base in Saskatoon is important.”

He said he saw lots of potential for ag drones.

“Ag drones are a really, really big part of the future, and so the agricultural base there is important.”

Chell said he became involved with the company several years ago after a project put him in touch with Draganfly.

“They had such a strong presence with public safety, sheriff's departments and border patrol and RCMP and such. So we started working with them and as I got to know them we just decided to put an investment group together and make an offer to buy the company.”

He said the company’s history was something he valued.

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“One of the big advantages of being the oldest commercial manufacturer in the world is we're actually also one of only a very few North American manufacturers. At one point, there were no other North American manufacturers,” he said.

“There were some companies that assembled them. They brought in parts from China or whatever, put it together, but in terms of pure manufacturing, we were the only ones that had survived or that were left over.”

He said Draganfly has worked with various industries, including different branches of government, major military providers, US primes and contractors.

“The reason that they worked with us is because we're North American-based, and we didn't use Chinese products. People thought we were crazy to stick to that ethos, but we were committed and convinced to North American manufacturing, primarily because of security reasons, but also because of quality control and customer service,” he said.

Chell said he believes the future is very bright for the industry.

“Every aspect of our life will be touched by drones, whether it's how we collect information, how deliveries are made, how things are constructed, how we get things between people,” he said. “We're moving more and more to automation and to things that require less and less manpower and drones are ideally suited for that.”