About Ray

Ray Gauthier grew up in Timmins, and Timmins made him.

His father, Roger, was a prominent cabinet maker — the man behind R. Gauthier Cabinets, respected, precise, built things that lasted. Ray worked alongside him for eighteen years. He learned the language of wood the way most people learn to speak: by doing it every day, beside someone who had already mastered it. When people ask Ray where his pedigree comes from, he doesn't hesitate. It came from his dad's shop.

In the summers, the Gauthier family camped across the Timmins region — weeks at a time, sometimes the whole summer. Ray grew up in the bush the way kids grow up in backyards. He fished. He explored. He was always curious, always trying to figure things out. Not to conquer nature — never that — but to live alongside it with a little more grace. He once rigged a working camp shower out of hoses and a barrel. Not because he had to. Because he wanted to solve the problem. That is Ray.

Over the years, his career took him through the MNR and the mines — the backbone industries of Northern Ontario. He understands this land and these people. He is one of them.

But something kept pulling him back to the shop.

After years of working for others, Ray finally decided to build what he had always dreamed of: a business of his own, doing what he loves, for the community he belongs to. He started with wood — handcrafted pieces, custom work, the things a qualified cabinet maker builds when he finally has his own space to create. Then he invested in laser engraving equipment, because he saw a gap. He could offer something nobody else in the region was offering: precision custom engraving on just about anything — wood, metal, glass, leather, acrylic — at any scale, for anyone.

And then came Chilly Moose.

Ray became an authorized Chilly Moose dealer because the brand felt like his own. A proudly Canadian company, strong supporters of Canadian organizations, making premium outdoor gear that actually holds up on the water. Ray uses it himself. That was the whole pitch. He loved the idea of offering his customers something they could personalize — a quality tumbler or cooler engraved with their logo, their team name, their kid's name — and having it shipped anywhere in Canada.

Hockey teams. Local businesses. Families. Anyone who wants something made right, made personal, and made to last.

That is Northern Custom Designs.

That is Ray.

— Ray Gauthier, Timmins, Ontario