As the youngest, fastest-growing, privately owned company of its kind in the Canadian cable assembly manufacturing industry, Ben-Mor is a forward-thinking firm with the largest fabrication capacity amongst its competitors. In addition to its expertise in cable assemblies, Ben-Mor is a trusted manufacturer of lifting slings and supplier and expert of crane cables, delivering high-quality solutions for industrial, construction, and material-handling applications. Moreover, this 30-year-old company’s leadership team and 500 employees share a clear vision for the future: one of growth. As a result of this expansionist business strategy, this is not an outfit that focuses merely on sales.
Headquartered in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec since 1999, the company prides itself on adding value to its customers’ operations with practical solutions and well-considered, overall improvement strategies. This, of course, explains its impressive customer retention rate. Ben-Mor’s drive for speed and efficiency also provides its client partners with reliable, comprehensive services, further driving significant expansion of its Canadian presence over the past three decades.
Growing largely through acquisition has catapulted the business to more than 10 times its original revenue in the last 15 years. In the past year alone, Ben-Mor acquired three new companies without external funding, bringing its current number of locations in North America to 17. This is just one example of its outstanding fiscal sturdiness and purchasing prowess.
Now that the company has established and integrated its Canadian presence, complete with Canada’s highest-capacity test beds at its Winnipeg and Edmonton facilities, Ben-Mor is crossing the proverbial Rubicon by introducing its first U.S. facility, currently under construction in Indiana and planned to open in the fall of 2027. This state-of-the-art facility will feature a 1.2-million-pound test bed, significantly expanding Ben-Mor’s testing and certification capabilities. The Indiana operation will also provide the capacity to manufacture cable assemblies and lifting slings while maintaining a large inventory of products to ensure rapid delivery and exceptional service to customers across the United States. Its growth continues even now.
At Ben-Mor, every acquisition brings improvement, whether in logistics, distribution, technology, or engineering. Recent additions included this preliminary foray into the United States with the purchase of an international leader in custom cable assemblies and accessories, Fortune Rope and Metal, in 2023. The company came with locations in Jacksonville, Florida; Bristol, Rhode Island; and Bensenville, Illinois.
Other recent acquisitions include Faucher Industries, a 175-year-old Canadian transportation and industrial hardware supplier with a location in the United States of America and six locations throughout Canada. Faucher joined Ben-Mor last year. This year’s acquisitions include the power and hand tool distributor Boomerang Tools/Rouge Import from Boucherville, Quebec, as well as Titan Supply, a big name in Alberta for lifting, hauling, and excavation for the rigging industry.
Chief Executive Officer, Mélanie Frappier, is exceedingly positive about what each new addition brings to Ben-Mor’s overall capabilities. “Acquisition has become part of our DNA,” she says.
Born into the family business and starting work in the company as a youngster, this dynamic leader has served the company full-time for just over a decade and a half. Working her way up from quality assessment and administration to managing the sales team, her leadership position came into effect five years ago, alongside Louis Tétreault during the first phase of her father’s succession plan. The second part of this two-phase process will be announced soon.
Ben-Mor was founded by Mélanie’s father in 1992. Working as a sales representative for a firm that fabricated silo cable assemblies for the agricultural sector, Benoit Frappier decided to strike out on his own, working from his carport in Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, Quebec. With his wife’s support—and secure in the trust of a single supplier in Rhode Island who offered him an open credit limit, alongside the support of two or three loyal customers—Benoit started the company, initially fabricating cable for fitness equipment. Ben-Mor finally acquired this original supplier in 2022.
Today, Mélanie Frappier ascribes her father’s success to building and maintaining healthy relationships throughout his career. Ever committed to stability, the enterprising leader spent the first decade building strong foundations. Developing its product offering and garnering market share, the company mainly relied on organic growth during that time. Today, it boasts an integrated sales team and a head office as the central hub for its management and operational teams.
A custom, standardized enterprise resource planning (ERP) system ensures synergy across all Ben-Mor’s facilities and processes. One outcome of this investment is product consistency across all its facilities, and this enables Ben-Mor to fulfill large orders by leveraging its full fabrication power while remaining responsive to customer expectations and requirements. This creates a winning system—orders are completed faster while all teams actively contribute to customers’ success.
It is not only customers who benefit from this lateral approach to business, however. Deeply committed to investing in its people, Ben-Mor’s leadership is excited to staff its Indiana footprint with locals who are a cultural fit. “Yes, we have products. But everyone can sell chain slings. [For us] it’s about the quality, the service, and yes, the people, the culture, and the values we want to bring to the U.S.,” Frappier explains.
Maintaining unity among its teams across North America remains a key priority, and as part of this mission, leaders aim to visit their facilities regularly. Online gatherings further maintain synergy. Frappier describes her team as high achievers who do not overdo things but rather maintain a healthy work-life balance. “I like that we have that balance, but that we are still able to achieve great things together,” she adds. “Most of them are very ambitious. They see a solution to every challenge. They’re goal-oriented. I love them all. I could talk about them all day,” she laughs.
This genuine care is evident across the organization. With a number of female leaders, Frappier is proud of the fresh perspectives they contribute to the organization. Committed to the development of its nimble and adaptable team, Ben-Mor offers advancement from within while providing a human-centric work environment where people and their personal and professional advancement really matter.
While the company is now admittedly large, being privately held translates into expedited decision-making, and this makes for a highly motivated, results-driven team with a warm, personal touch. Frappier is full of praise for the team’s fine sense of organization and their agility that lends to operational efficiency. “The last acquisition we did in March. We… integrated this company in 90 days. It’s incredible,” she continues, highlighting the phenomenal speed the team works at. “We make decisions fast because we can. It’s our company,” she says with a smile.
While Frappier is open about Ben-Mor’s position as a premium supplier, she confirms that its long-term prosperity is vested in improving customers’ businesses and bottom lines through quality service and cost savings. “We partner with our customers to grow their businesses,” she says.
To this end, maintaining close customer relationships helps keep the Ben-Mor team in stride with every process and order throughout its lifecycle. With an IT team of 12, the company is in the process of upscaling its capabilities. As part of that mission, it is building an in-house AI system. “We’re continuously investing so that we automate our processes. It’s not necessarily always with AI, but if it is the best solution, then we invest in AI as well,” Frappier shares.
Ben-Mor’s next big goal is doubling its size over the next five years. Continuing to further cultivate a winning acquisition model, the company is set to perpetuate its North American expansions. Alongside this growth, it will advance its abilities to provide administrative and other support to each new outfit it integrates into its ranks.
For Frappier, a favourite aspect of this sustained growth will always remain the opportunities Ben-Mor provides its employees, and which in turn enable families to enjoy a good living. And so the company continues to build on Benoit Frappier’s fine legacy by maintaining his benchmarks, remarkable standards, and efficiency, all while providing customers with a range of cable technologies—from those used in the fitness industry to high-performance wire ropes designed for cranes and heavy-duty applications, and everything in between.
