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.

The post Rigged for Growth<p class="company">Ben-Mor</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Based in northeast Edmonton, Alberta, QPP is a 100 percent Canadian-owned manufacturer of polyurethane pipeline pigs and pigging accessories. Its product range spans sizes from compact-diameter water and chemical lines right up to the large-diameter transmission pipelines that cross North America. The company serves customers in oil and gas, mining, water and wastewater, and industrial process sectors. And since 2016, it has operated as a subsidiary of Suncast Polytech Inc., a strategic acquisition that changed the scope of what QPP is capable of, and what it aspires to be.

What’s in a name?
The name raises eyebrows in boardrooms and on job sites alike. Tim Canete, President of Quality Polly Pig Ltd., is used to the question. “A pipeline pig is essentially a device that travels inside a pipeline, pushed along by the flowing product or by water or air, to do a job,” he says. “The main function is cleaning the inside of the pipe during new construction, for ongoing maintenance, and for prepping lines ahead of inspection.”

Beyond cleaning, pigs serve two other primary roles. Batching pigs separate different products travelling through the same pipeline so a transmission operator can move bitumen down the line one day and switch to a different fluid the next, with a pig acting as a physical buffer between the two. Foam swabs, meanwhile, are used to dewater newly constructed lines before they enter service.

QPP manufactures its pigs exclusively in polyurethane (PUR), in both solid-cast and medium-density foam configurations. The choice of material is deliberate—polyurethane is a family of materials whose properties can be tuned by adjusting prepolymers, curatives, and processing conditions.

QPP engineers select and blend formulations to suit specific duties including harder compositions for aggressive mechanical scraping, softer ones for sealing inside slightly out-of-round pipe, more chemically resistant grades for refined product lines, and highly abrasion-resistant versions for slurry applications in mining.

“Polyurethane provides the combination of properties that pigging demands,” Canete says. “It needs to be soft and flexible enough to conform to the pipe yet tough and durable enough to clean the pipe.”

Partners in success
QPP began operations in 1996. For its first two decades it operated as a focused pig manufacturer, building a reputation for quality across the Canadian oil and gas sector. The transformative moment came in 2016, when Suncast Polytech Inc., an Edmonton-based manufacturer of large-scale polyurethane wear parts for mining, oil sands, industrial, construction, and forestry applications, acquired QPP and brought it under its roof.

Suncast itself had been founded in 1998, driven by a technology it developed in-house, ReCast™. The premise of ReCast is straightforward in concept and technically demanding in execution. New polyurethane is bonded directly to worn, cured polyurethane, rebuilding the original part to its design specifications. The result is a restored component that performs like new. Suncast spent years perfecting this process in some of the harshest industrial environments on the planet, including the oil sands operations of northern Alberta.

“Suncast has been doing ReCast since around 2000,” Canete says. “Initially it was focused on pipeline pig components for Suncor, then it expanded into larger wear parts. The 2016 acquisition of QPP was really about spreading that technology into the broader pigging world.”

Today, QPP and Suncast share a single 22,000-square-foot facility on 3.3 acres in northeast Edmonton. Under one roof sit five automated pour machines, multiple curing ovens, lathes, a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), and a large-format 3D printer added in recent years for rapid prototyping. The combined team numbers around 15 people, small by industrial standards, but deep in expertise.

What the acquisition gave QPP was access to Suncast’s accumulated materials science. Where QPP once operated with a handful of polyurethane formulations, the combined operation now works with approximately 30 distinct recipes, each developed through years of real-world application.

“We’ve gone from a three-recipe company to 30-plus recipes,” Canete says. “All of that knowledge in materials, processing, and parts design, goes into every QPP product.”

The role of ReCast™
In most industrial contexts, a worn polyurethane part follows a familiar path: removal, disposal, replacement. A pig cup that begins its working life with a sharp, precisely dimensioned sealing edge gradually rounds with use. Traditionally, the logical endpoint is the landfill.

ReCast interrupts that cycle. The worn component becomes a core onto which new PUR is cast, creating a permanent bond between the new and cured material. The rebuilt part is restored to full specification dimensions and, based on more than two decades of oil sands service history, performs equivalently to a new component.

The numbers behind the program are significant. Suncast has processed more than 3.5 million pounds of polyurethane since 2000, with nearly half of that volume accounted for by ReCast rebuilds. The program has, by the company’s calculation, kept over one million pounds of polyurethane out of landfill, and ReCast parts cost approximately 30 percent less than new equivalents.

Until recently, however, ReCast remained largely unknown outside of the oil sands sector. “We have a proven rebuilding technology with decades of empirical evidence behind it in one of the toughest industrial environments in the world,” Canete says. “Sustainability is moving from a talking point to an actual procurement criterion in a lot of sectors. ReCast is well positioned for that shift, and we want to get the message out.”

The timing appears right. Canete observes that pipeline operators are increasingly incorporating lifecycle emissions, recycled content, and end-of-life material handling into supplier evaluations. What was once a value-add is becoming a differentiator that procurement teams actively seek.

Home-grown expertise
One of the less visible dimensions of what QPP and Suncast have built is the depth of manufacturing knowledge held within their team and the degree to which that knowledge had to be developed from scratch.

Polyurethane manufacturing for industrial wear applications is a niche with no formal training pathway. There are no degrees in pipeline pig formulation, no certification programs for oil sands-grade PUR wear parts. Everything QPP and Suncast know about the craft—every formulation, every processing technique—has been developed internally over nearly three decades. “There aren’t schools you can pull from. It’s all on-the-job development, and some of our people have been processing urethane parts for more than 20 years,” Canete says.

That institutional depth has a practical consequence and QPP now operates as a recognized engineering house, not merely a manufacturer. Its team uses advanced 3D modelling software for part and mould design and can either develop custom engineered solutions independently or collaborate directly with customer engineering teams. The large-format 3D printer added in recent years compresses the prototyping cycle significantly; where custom pig development once took months of design iteration, the team can now have prototypes in hand within a day in some cases.

The quality assurance program reflects the same discipline. QPP maintains strict vetting criteria for material suppliers, recognizing that formulation consistency starts at the raw ingredient level. Every finished part is inspected against customer specification before it leaves the facility.

The 3.3-acre Edmonton site sits on the CANAMEX trade corridor, with direct rail access via CN’s intermodal yard to the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, connecting QPP and Suncast to Asia-Pacific markets. The corridor runs south to the U.S. border, giving the operation efficient access to its largest export market.

Canete frames the location in terms of what it makes possible with raw materials arriving from global suppliers and finished and rebuilt PUR parts moving out to customers across Canada, the United States, and international markets. The facility, which QPP and Suncast moved into in 2023, expanded the combined manufacturing footprint and production capacity at a time of growing demand.

The proximity to the oil sands region of northern Alberta, particularly the Municipality of Wood Buffalo, is equally deliberate. Suncast has supplied Suncor and other oil sands producers as an OEM polyurethane supplier for over two decades, and QPP, for its part, manufactures approximately 12,000 pipeline pigs and components annually, most of which are deployed within Alberta’s pipeline network.

For Canadian operators, the 100 percent Canadian ownership of QPP and Suncast carries supply chain implications that have become more salient in recent years. For U.S. and international customers, it represents a stable, allied-jurisdiction supplier with no cross-border complexity.

An industry in transition
The pipeline industry is in the middle of a period of convergence as aging municipal infrastructure is reaching design-life limits, smart pig technology is generating new demand for clean lines ahead of inline inspection, and emerging applications including hydrogen pipelines and CO₂ transport for carbon capture are creating requirements that no established pig formulation was designed to meet. Canete sees all of these as QPP and Suncast territory. “Companies that own their materials capability will be able to respond quickly. That’s exactly where we sit,” he says.

On the product side, QPP manufactures a complete range of solid-cast pigs including Utradisc, Powerdisc, Ball pig, Bell-cup, Dyna-flex, Multi-cup, and Pig-valve configurations; foam pigs including balls, squeegees, and swabs; component pigs for batching, bidirectional, construction, and brush-cleaning applications; and a full accessories program covering brushes, magnets, pigging poles, and transmitters. The intent is that a pipeline operator can source a complete pigging package from a single supplier.

Longer-term priorities include broadening the ReCast program to cover a wider range of pig components, expanding into water and wastewater applications where aging municipal infrastructure is generating increasing maintenance activity, and continuing to invest in the Edmonton facility as both product demand and technology capabilities evolve.

When Canete is asked what he most wants readers to take away from QPP’s story, he steers away from the product and toward the foundation underneath it. “When you buy a QPP pig, you are tapping into 30 years of urethane materials science, an Edmonton-based engineering team that solves real-world wear problems, and a sustainability story, through ReCast, that costs less and wastes less than the alternative. We are not trying to be the biggest pig company in the world. We are the company you call when the challenge is difficult.”

It is a precise articulation of a deliberately focused position. QPP and Suncast occupy a narrow slice of the industrial world—Canadian-owned, built on materials expertise accumulated over three decades without a textbook in sight. The pipeline operators, mining companies, and municipal water authorities that rely on QPP’s products are betting, ultimately, on the depth of knowledge behind each pig that leaves that 22,000-square-foot facility. By most measures, it is a solid bet.

The post Pigs, Polyurethane, and Purpose<p class="company">Quality Polly Pig Ltd.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

As a modern, future-focused operation, Altro comprises three packaging-related companies as part of a single group of family businesses: Altro Labels, CanCorr, and Norlands Box Company. While the company is still relatively young, this works in its advantage as it embraces cutting-edge technologies, making this team faster and more nimble than many of its competitors.

Taking change in its stride, the global economic fluctuations of the past decade have served the group well. As the sudden rise in demand for paper packaging during the e-commerce boom in the pandemic years fueled tremendous growth, it became the company’s most lucrative period to date—one that contributed to long-term fiscal stability.

The team at Altro has always kept a close eye on its market, and with its early years providing sufficient opportunity to thoroughly study the pre-pandemic market, it quickly became clear that what was needed in the local area was corrugated paper packaging products and reliable supply chain processes. Requiring a significant investment, Altro Industries Inc. responded to the market gap with state-of-the-art corrugator equipment, establishing a sheet feeder facility that became CanCorr. CanCorr’s 100,000-square-foot facility was completed in 2022.

The new company went into operation with full velocity, bringing novel offerings to market, which garnered it the loyal following of many smaller companies needing smaller packaging batches. “In six months, we filled up one capacity. Now, we’re sitting at about 80 percent capacity at CanCorr, running in three shifts,” says Baha Naemi, Co-founder and Managing Partner.

But this was just the beginning. Based in Surrey, British Columbia, the Naemi family’s next outfit, Norlands Box Company, followed in quick succession. Complete with an in- and outbound sales team, this company turns CanCorr’s corrugated paper into boxes. It helped the group go from humble beginnings to employing more than 150 team members in a total of 300,000 square feet. In the process, the company’s team has truly become a family.

As a result, Naemi is open about the realities of needing trustworthy people. “The only reason we were able to grow was because of our employees and being able to identify similar-minded people who are looking at growth, especially in a country and in an industry that’s not known to be very aggressively growth-minded,” he says.

Thanks to this future-forward approach, Altro’s integrated team and strategic investments enabled the company to meet the paper packaging market at the right angle at the right time—when many large corporations in the industry lacked service delivery and diversity. In meeting this need, the group also changed the overall landscape of corrugated paper packaging in Canada for the better.

As the country is considered a comparatively small market on a global scale, super-sized North American paper mills traditionally divided the local geography. In the process, their Canadian clientele was roughly divided into East and West North America, requiring large orders to be considered for product and service partnerships with them.

Altro changed all that when it started serving regional box converters and independent Canadian businesses with paper packaging products in smaller quantities to suit their business demands, serving everyone from manufacturers to supermarkets. The success of the approach is evident in its output.

As an operator that runs only full trucks from its facilities, Altro dispatches around 50 containers of paper packaging in a given 24-hour cycle, supporting Canadian businesses all the way. “We utilize local distribution, and we try to use as many Canadian trades and Canadian partners as possible as well as a Canadian supply chain,” Naemi tells us.

While lucrative, this trade is not without its challenges. Paper mills are one of them. As a result of having no paper mill in Western Canada, Altro is pursuing the possibility of investing in such infrastructure once its operations are ready to handle the addition of another facility, either fully or partially.

Beyond the paper mill challenge, however, future markets look promising. With as many as 70 percent of the brands it supplies demanding fully recycled paper packaging, the industry is alive and well—a trend set to continue. Based on the well-managed balance Canada strikes between deforestation and reforestation, Naemi’s forecast is positive.

“Quite honestly, environmentally, [recycled paper packaging] makes more sense than plastics or anything else that they’re coming up with as alternatives to plastics, because wood is not going anywhere,” he confirms. It is this dynamic that made the industry a worthy investment opportunity for the Naemi family in the first place.

Looking at how the industry is unfolding and evolving today, this visionary leader sees artificial intelligence (AI) as a game changer for the corrugated paper packaging industry. His take on the fear of workforce replacement is perhaps best described as pragmatic. “If you’re worried about AI replacing you, then you have to be the one who is a proponent of AI in your own department, no matter what you do,” he says. “What that does is it gives you the knowledge base of what you can do to improve your own scope of activities,” he highlights, advising staff members to turn AI into a tool to enhance their performance rather than replace them. This strategy, he advises, creates an environment wherein a company’s leadership is unable to replace proactive individuals with technology.

As a result, such technologies are employed to improve overall efficiency by streamlining logistics, scheduling, machine learning, and other functions. To fine-tune its approach, the company is partnering with university departments to develop custom algorithms to refine its processes.

Naemi is a big proponent of family businesses—especially around midlife when maturity makes it easier to put things into perspective while improving people’s natural ability to lead. This appears to be a strategy leveraged by many successful businesses. “Not many people know that more than 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies are still family-controlled. And that means there’s huge potential in running a family business,” he says.

Naemi ascribes the success of family businesses to common goals, shared visions, and highly functional leadership processes that stand in stark contrast to those often found in standard corporate environments, where it is not uncommon for members to lose sight of their common goals. For him, running a firm alongside siblings means streamlined, integrated decision-making and better-controlled bottom lines. Both are considered imperative aspects of any successful manufacturing operation.

While the group continues exporting 50 percent of its products to the United States, recent geopolitical shifts have turned local market psychology toward renewed economic expansion. As a result, the corrugated paper industry has also shifted. Altro is proof that recently implemented tariffs have strengthened how Canadians view locally manufactured goods and services, and Naemi reports that this dynamic has brought entrepreneurs together in new ways to develop improved economic outcomes with a long-term vision.

Considering British Columbia and Alberta’s comparatively small economies, these leaders know that simply placing value on numbers is no good if their businesses are to remain in stride with the market. Therefore, the company considers the greater economic climate of its own ecosystem of companies in relation to their abilities and resources. The approach has allowed Altro to develop uncanny agility within its market, adapting at impressive speed to its customers’ needs and demands.

At Altro, the renewed growth mindset of the nation is further reflected and supported by its staff, many of whom are immigrants like its owners, who moved to Canada from Iran nearly three decades ago. Canada’s potential has always been a motivating force behind the family’s and the team’s aspirations to create a better future for all, and this sense of altruism appears to naturally attract employees who share a similar mindset. For that reason, the company supports its people in finding and securing good housing and schools, ensuring that the families connected to it are well established and cared for.

Moreover, team members receive generous incentives for pursuing personal growth and furthering their education. By ensuring that its employees, systems, and facilities perform at optimal efficiency and by removing the complexities and cost of American imports, Altro provides its Canadian partners with stability and predictability alongside top-quality corrugated paper packaging they can count on.

For the same reason, the group considers itself a respectful competitor to legitimate Canadian businesses in the same market. “We are very respectful of genuine businesses that are not owned by private equity firms in the market just making some quick money and passing it on to the next private equity,” Naemi points out. “Any business that is looking at building an actual long-term business in British Columbia, we are very cordial with,” he continues. The reason is simple: many of Altro’s competitors are also its customers, making for a genuinely amicable business environment where healthy competition and mutual support help create a vibrant trade environment.

Proud of what the company has achieved in a market where prices of everything from commodities to real estate are currently inflated, competition is rife, and human resources are sparse, Altro Industries Inc. is a shining example of what is possible when a company commits to long-term success with resilience and watertight economic contingency plans. Now, its strategy for continued success includes further growing its presence in the Western Canadian paper packaging sector to secure its future plans over the next two to three decades.

Maintaining its loyalty to local communities, the company aims to expand its presence, particularly in British Columbia and Alberta, while cultivating its market share in the United States. In the process, it is exploring possibilities in procuring the services of a local paper mill, either as part of its own portfolio or through partnership, as most of the paper pulp produced in Western Canada is still exported. In establishing its own operations, Altro’s goal would be to keep pulp in the country for its own use. As Naemi says, “That will give us assurance that the business can stay for a long time to come.”

The post Agility, Speed, Capability: Paper Packaging on the Move<p class="company">Altro</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Relatively small, especially compared to its competitors, Mallard Creek Polymers continues to grow its size and presence by prioritizing innovation and relationships, both of which serve to advance the performance, the culture, and the output of the company in the best interests of its customers, its people, and the environment.

Innovative at its core
Innovation is the continued implementation of new ideas, approaches, and products that serve to institute practical improvements and tangible benefits, and it is at the core of how Mallard Creek Polymers operates as a customer-centric partner that specializes in customization.

“Because we are so close to customers, we get a lot of opportunities to work on innovation and having more than one chemistry just creates an even deeper customer relationship, a more intense customer relationship, because they can come to us for different needs,” Markus Bieber, Director of Sales and Marketing, says of the company’s innovation strategy, which always starts with the customer and their needs.

As the company’s website states, “From small custom batches to large-scale orders, we design our processes around your requirements. Whether you’re seeking a novel formulation or refining a product line, we deliver with agility and precision.” This means wherever the polymer plays, so too does Mallard Creek, across numerous sectors. From construction, nonwovens, and adhesives to textiles, printing and packaging, paper, paints and coatings, it is remarkable how far reaching the work of the company is and the impacts it has on the everyday commodities we take for granted.

Growing its footprint and impact
With the ability to sustain such a broad range of products and applications, Mallard Creek Polymers seeks to understand the application inherently in order to provide the best possible solution for the customer. Through continued investment, an empowering culture, and expanded capabilities, the company’s customer-centric approach yields quality and sustainability, all while raising the bar for performance and what it means to be a true market leader in a sector that is undergoing transformational change.

As it stands, the polymer market is experiencing consolidation and pullbacks as larger operators are reducing their global footprints due to overcapacity. Mallard Creek Polymers, however, is doing the opposite: it is actively growing and doubling down on its commitment to sustainability.

“Closing locations, shutting down plants—they’re not able to run at the capacities they need to operate efficiently, or they have other market challenges that they simply can’t support, so from our standpoint, we view this as an opportunity,” explains Bieber.

Given the history and evolution of Mallard Creek Polymers, there is an inherent advantage in the fact that throughout its growth it has absorbed the trade secrets and intellectual property of five serious players in the market, expanding the knowledge base, technology, and expertise customers have come to rely on.

First established as a manufacturing facility by Drake Chemical Company in Charlotte, North Carolina, ownership changed hands several times before it took its current iteration in 1995 as a privately held company under the ownership of Parekh Capital Group. Renamed for the road on which it is located, the company’s specialty included the manufacture and sale of styrene-butadiene emulsion polymers, though it has since expanded into styrene acrylic and acrylic markets.

In 2018, the purchase of Ecronova Polymer GmbH in Germany, which was then established as a wholly owned subsidiary, MCP Europe GmbH, solidified the company’s presence in Europe, a strategic acquisition that has strengthened its global market position. And, further to working with partners in Europe and Asia to expand its capacity internationally, major investments have been made on the domestic front in a large warehouse distribution center as well as other strategic investments in capacity to increase volumes and output in key markets and chemistries.

Bieber notes of the Charlotte investment, “We added additional capacity which allows us to produce much larger volumes of acrylics than what we had previously been able to do. That is a focus market for us because acrylics is the largest portion of the overall polymer market that we service.”

Added capacity, added value
As a chemical manufacturer, both quality and performance start with safety, which includes people and the environment both in terms of the products manufactured and the processes employed. From research and developing to testing, the team works closely with its customers every step of the way to produce water-based polymers that satisfy the application and do so with the best interests of people and the planet at heart.

“If you look at our chemistry, we are providing water-based chemistry to the industry, and water-based polymers inherently are more sustainable than solvent-based polymers,” explains CEO, Konrad Wernthaler.

From Bieber’s perspective, “We are very much focused on being a high value supplier to our customers. If you’re supplying a commodity item that they can get from four different places, then it all just comes down to price and that’s not an area that we really want to play in because we don’t feel like we’re adding any value there.”

Instead, the goal is always to “do more,” and nowhere is this more evident than in the company’s work in Europe, where regulations are forcing customers to adopt more sustainable products and practices, which is where Mallard Creek Polymers comes in.

“We’re working on incorporating raw materials that come from nature—not oil or gas-based, but natural. I see that as a good strategy for us to continue to grow because we see demand for this in Europe. Customers are looking for it and we’d like to have more sustainable content in the product as much as we can at a decent price,” says Wernthaler of the ability to meet this goal without compromising quality and performance.

A better way forward
From the chemistries it devises to the processes it employs, Mallard Creek Polymers is a company that people want to work with and work for. The team is proud of both the performance of the products, but also the positive impact they have on the market and the environment. As Wernthaler notes, “Every employee knows why they’re here and every employee knows what they contribute, and that leads to an intrinsic motivation where people just show up,” he says.

“You feel like you’re needed; because of that, you’re motivated and because of that, you want to do your job and do a good job. It’s kind of a circle of value that you as a person bring and you immediately have the feedback that you’re bringing value,” he adds of the reinforcing cycle that the company continues to foster.

Achieving this level of success is not without its challenges, regardless of how easy Mallard Creek Polymers makes it seem. Not immune from the impacts of geopolitics and market forces beyond its control such as the pandemic, tariffs, and the ongoing war with Iran, the company’s market position and continued investment will insulate it from the storm.

While the market shifts, Mallard Creek Polymers will remain steadfast in its goals, which include remaining customer-centric, elevating its performance, and maintaining its commitment to sustainability to establish new benchmarks for the industry and for the world.

“There’s a lot more to be done,” comments Wernthaler. “We want to participate and contribute, and we do know that Mallard Creek alone will not solve all the problems.” But this company continues to do its part to be the change it hopes to see in the world, one chemistry at a time.

The post Innovation for Performance, People, and the Environment<p class="company">Mallard Creek Polymers</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

As an industry leader with over four decades of expertise, there is nothing box standard about Flint Packaging Products, Ltd. or its services. The company offers customers “the full package.” Known for its tight lead times, Flint has established a gutsy service niche for itself, serving markets ranging from e-commerce and vitamins to building materials and food. Part of the company’s appeal is a standard lead time of two to three days on fabrication and 24 to 48 hours on ready inventory delivery, offerings which have significantly increased its market presence over the past 11 years.

The company’s well-planned, strategic growth period, spanning from the time the current owner took over from his father in 1999, has brought the company to six times its initial size. During this scaling, it also grew from one to seven managers. Naturally, there are many moving parts to any expansion and, as any business owner knows only too well, scaling in increments comes with a range of unique challenges, especially when moving between facilities. The Flint team handled this time with characteristic fortitude while its management ensured that everyone had the training they needed to flourish.

The outcome has been high-level efficiency out of a recently opened 150,000-square-foot facility in Toronto. In a company where cross-training is essential to success, quick turnaround times and daily deliveries upon request enable customers to save on storage space while still opting for quality packaging that arrives on time and within budget, and this efficiency was achieved by refining processes and workflows, employing the right people, and investing in relevant technology—not to mention a can-do attitude.

All considered, it isn’t surprising to hear that Flint Packaging Products is considered a trusted business partner known for running an outstanding outfit. After 40 years in packaging, General Manager Rick Carlson knows every aspect of the industry and the business. He ascribes the company’s high customer retention rate to its relentless focus on excellence. “We’ve very ethically supported all of our clients. We look at them as business partners—making them successful is our goal,” he says.

As all good news does, word of the company’s commitment spreads so fast that new clients tend to find the company through the grapevine. Naturally, none of Flint’s success would be possible without the people behind the scenes who make the company the leader it has become. “We’re very proud of our team. They’re very focused and invested in what we’re doing,” Carlson continues.

The company focuses on more than just its business success, however. As part of its commitment to its staff members and local communities, Flint Packaging Products has supported charities championing the fight against cancer as well as other causes over the years.

Ever the solutions provider, the company provides its customers with a selection of possibilities, with products ranging from traditional, slotted cardboard boxes to custom die cuts that enable it to provide custom, multi-shaped packaging inserts for holding products in place within larger paper containers.

This point of difference is well-considered; while larger firms with bigger facilities are impossible to compete with on price alone, their lack of nimbleness due to their size leaves a significant gap in the market for an efficient company that honours its word, especially in high-pressure, high-stakes situations. This would not be possible to achieve without the considerable amount of heart and commitment this team puts into helping customers thrive.

While many firms offer stock and release inventory services, it is the precision with which Flint Packaging runs its customers’ packaging flows that takes its offering to the next level—particularly for busy food suppliers with limited spaces, for whom a range of variables makes adaptability and regular delivery crucial. “That’s where our reliability of on-time delivery is exceptional,” says Carlson.

Moreover, the company mitigates the high-pressure aspects of what, admittedly, can be a challenging business model at times with outstanding processes and efficiencies. Any system or process issues are treated judiciously and effectively by deploying teams of dedicated problem solvers, following tried-and-tested protocols, preventing issues from escalating, and maintaining process flow.

All activities are supported by custom technologies integrated with a standard software package. To this end, the company plans on continuous investments in technology. Once the essential aspects of the programming process are sufficiently established to ensure seamless scaling of the business, AI will be rolled out to further develop its systems and support operations.

As a result, compared to standard plants of a similar size, Flint is well established in process technology and automation. One example is a recently acquired robotic arm used in the automation of large box fabrication and stacking. Other new technologies enable processes like automated feeding, alongside other functions. Flint Packaging Products also goes to great lengths to maintain environmental integrity. This is achieved by respecting resources, recycling, and reusing wherever possible, including baling paper production waste for repulping at the mills of origin.

At home in its new, much larger facility, two large machines now do the team proud, making the battle to achieve this growth phase all worth the effort. “Everybody here is extremely committed to our end goals and our vision. Everybody here holds each other accountable. We know how to disagree,” says Carlson, underscoring the team’s commitment to pursuing the same results in a positive manner.

Through this focus on maintaining a healthy environment while also maintaining targets, continuous personal and professional development drives real benefits, such as strong staff retention and good morale. Together with solid, knowledgeable management, these assets are supporting Flint Packaging’s next big goal: to double its most recent figures over the next three and a half years. To achieve this gargantuan task, the company’s commitment to assisting its customers in working smarter and becoming more efficient while outperforming competitors is now more focused than ever.

Flint also remains acutely cognizant of economic markets, the challenges these pose to its customers, and the role it can play in helping them grow while maintaining equilibrium. As it serves multiple markets, the company is well hedged against inevitable economic fluctuations and other industry curveballs.

Therefore, as property prices soar across Canada, making expansion prohibitively expensive for many businesses, the demand for Flint’s services only continues to rise. And so, Flint remains committed to its mission, as Carlson confirms. “I believe that supporting businesses with reliable on-time solutions that will allow them to run their business without having an exorbitant amount of inventory certainly helps,” he says.

This customer-first philosophy, combined with strategic investments in technology, operational excellence, and a highly engaged workforce, has positioned Flint as far more than a packaging supplier. As manufacturers and distributors face increasing pressure to operate efficiently in a rapidly evolving marketplace, Flint continues to serve as a trusted partner, delivering the reliability, flexibility, and expertise its customers need to succeed. With ambitious growth plans, a strong foundation, and an unwavering commitment to service, the company is well equipped to build on its legacy of success for decades to come.

The post Turning the Tables on Packaging Timelines<p class="company">FLiNT Packaging Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

As Canway Equipment marks its 40^th anniversary, the milestone offers a moment to reflect not only on where the company has been, but on how it continues to adapt and innovate in an increasingly complex manufacturing landscape.

“The company was started in 1986 by two gentlemen, Paul De Vries and Adrian Hovestad, and when they started, they were primarily involved in hand trucks and ladders; that was their main focus,” says Roland Verhey, Director of Sales and Operations at Canway Equipment.

What began in a small facility has since grown into a modern manufacturing operation powered by advanced automation, precision engineering, and a deeply embedded culture of safety, quality, and customer responsiveness.

In its earliest years, the company operated from a modest location, producing equipment in small batches, often building “ones and twos” to meet immediate customer needs. By the 1990s, increasing demand and expanding product lines prompted a move to the company’s current facility, a shift that laid the groundwork for decades of sustained growth.

A significant turning point came in 2001, when the business was acquired by its current owners. The transition brought new strategic direction and operational focus, enabling the company to scale its capabilities while preserving its core values of craftsmanship and reliability.

Verhey, who joined the company five years ago, has had a front-row seat to Canway’s latest phase of expansion. He credits much of the company’s evolution to continuous improvement across both design and production. “As the volume increased, it gave us opportunity to improve on the design of many of the different components and find efficiencies,” he explains. “Once you start building 50 at a time, you can do things quite a bit more efficiently.”

This mindset, that growth should unlock smarter processes rather than simply more output, has driven many of Canway’s most transformative investments. Among the most impactful upgrades in recent years was the installation of a fully integrated powder coating line, which fundamentally reshaped Canway’s production flow.

Before the upgrade, the company relied on a wet-based enamel paint system that required large drying areas and careful handling to prevent surface damage. Products often spent up to 24 hours drying, tying up valuable floor space and introducing environmental and safety challenges. The new powder coating line changed everything. “More or less, the ladders would be hung on the line, they would get washed and rinsed and dried, painted and cured within about two hours,” Verhey says. “As the products would come off the line, we could then assemble with wheels and casters, package it up, and roll it onto a truck.”

Beyond dramatically shortening production cycles, the new line improved coating durability and reduced environmental impact. It also pushed design teams to rethink product geometry to accommodate hanging, drainage, and curing processes, a shift that elevated engineering precision across the board.

The result: a leaner, faster, safer, and more sustainable manufacturing workflow that positioned Canway for its next decade of growth.

If the powder coating line represented operational evolution, the pandemic-era supply chain crisis triggered a manufacturing revolution. Historically, Canway produced perforated ladder treads in-house, while diamond channel grating, a key ladder component, was sourced from China. When global shipping delays stretched lead times beyond a year, production bottlenecks forced leadership to rethink their dependency on offshore suppliers.

“We had containers of treads floating off the coast, waiting for availability at the port,” Verhey recalls. “During that time, it really forced us to rethink our process of importing these treads.”

The solution came in the form of a fully automated step manufacturing line, installed in 2024. The new system allows the company to produce both perforated and diamond channel treads entirely in-house, using locally sourced steel coils.

This strategic shift delivered multiple benefits: shorter lead times, improved quality control, supply chain resilience, and reduced exposure to global disruptions. It also marked a major technological leap, introducing advanced automation into a process previously dominated by aging equipment.

Today, one operator can oversee the fully automated line, producing large volumes of precision-formed treads with remarkable consistency, a powerful example of how necessity can fuel innovation.

At the heart of Canway’s business lies its core product: rolling steel ladders, which account for roughly 70 percent of production. While ladders may appear simple, Canway’s engineering approach reveals a sophisticated blend of durability and ergonomic design.

One key differentiator is the company’s fully welded construction method. Unlike bolted systems that loosen over time, Canway ladders are welded into rigid, integrated structures that arrive fully assembled. “The main thing that differentiates us in the ladder world is that we feature all welded construction,” says Verhey. “Over time, it’s a more durable ladder because there’s not all these fasteners that will slowly loosen. It’s sturdier, more rigid, and easier to install.” This design philosophy reduces on-site assembly and delivers a safer experience for end users, many of whom rely on Canway’s ladders in demanding industrial environments.

Some of Canway’s most successful products were not born in design labs, but in direct response to customer challenges. One standout example is the Safeguard Ladder, developed after a customer requested a safer platform solution that eliminated fall risk at the top of the ladder. Traditional chains and barriers proved cumbersome, so Canway engineered a double-gate system that automatically closes behind the user.

“Once you walk through the gate, it self-closes behind you. When you’re on the top platform, you’re safe, you can’t fall down the ladder section,” explains Verhey.

Originally created for a single client, the product quickly gained traction across multiple industries, ultimately becoming a full product line, a testament to the company’s customer-driven development model.

Indeed, customization lies at the core of Canway’s value proposition. Rather than forcing customers to adapt to standard equipment, the company engineers solutions around spatial constraints and safety requirements.

Cantilever ladders are a prime example. Designed for environments where obstructions prevent standard ladder placement, these models feature extended platforms balanced by counterweights at the base, enabling safe access beyond the ladder’s footprint.

Beyond ladders, Canway’s customization expertise extends into material handling solutions, including lift baskets, engineered bins, service carts, and specialty platforms. These products, too, often emerge from customer requests that reveal broader market needs, and the company’s in-house engineering and fabrication capabilities allow it to respond quickly and deliver highly tailored solutions without compromising quality or lead time.

For Canway, quality assurance is not an isolated checkpoint; it is embedded throughout the manufacturing process. Each ladder passes through multiple inspection stages, from component assembly to final packaging. Operators review parts at every station, while dedicated QA checks occur both before painting and after final assembly.

“A ladder must ensure the safety of its user,” Verhey emphasizes. “If there’s a missing weld and a tread fails, that could be catastrophic. We take quality in that sense very, very seriously.”

This rigorous approach ensures that every product leaving the facility meets stringent safety and durability standards, a non-negotiable expectation for customers in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, construction, and energy.

Canway’s success is anchored in its people. With a workforce of approximately 40 employees, 30 in manufacturing and the remainder in engineering, sales, and administration, the company operates on a culture of transparency and long-term development. Rather than simply filling positions, Canway invests in career pathways, aiming to cultivate today’s operators into tomorrow’s leaders.

“We’re always looking at skilled labour and hiring for the future,” says Verhey. “The people we hire today, someday we want them to be lead hands and eventually leaders.” This philosophy extends into training programs and skills development, ensuring employees understand both current expectations and long-term opportunities.

As manufacturing technology evolves, Canway is embracing automation strategically—not to replace people, but to enhance efficiency and consistency. The automated step line marked a major leap forward, and future investments are already underway. Robotic welding stands out as the company’s next major frontier, offering opportunities to increase throughput while reducing physical strain on skilled welders.

In parallel, plant safety upgrades, including modern shears and press brakes equipped with light curtains, reflect Canway’s commitment to protecting its workforce through intelligent engineering. These investments signal a forward-looking mindset, positioning Canway to compete effectively in an increasingly automated global manufacturing environment.

Of course, distribution plays a pivotal role in Canway’s business model. With ladders that are large and costly to ship, the company relies on a trusted distributor network to provide nationwide reach and logistical efficiency. Rather than competing with its distributors through direct sales, Canway operates exclusively through these partnerships, a strategy rooted in trust and shared success.

Through distributor feedback, Canway also gains invaluable insights into customer needs and industry trends in real-world environments, which directly inform design improvements and product innovation.

Looking forward, Canway sees strong opportunity in expanding its material handling portfolio, particularly in service carts, dollies, and retail equipment, sectors where quality and customization remain in high demand. By leveraging its engineering capabilities and manufacturing expertise, the company aims to fill market gaps with domestically produced, high-quality solutions that outperform imported alternatives. At the same time, ongoing investments in automation and robotics will continue to enhance operational efficiency, enabling Canway to scale without sacrificing craftsmanship.

After 40 years, Canway Equipment Mfg. Inc. stands as a testament to what sustained innovation and operational discipline can achieve. From its origins in hand trucks and ladders to its present role as a technologically advanced manufacturer serving industries across Canada, the company’s journey reflects a deeper commitment to safety, quality, and solving real-world challenges.

As Canway enters its fifth decade, the mission remains unchanged: build better products and continuously raise the standard for what Canadian manufacturing can deliver.

The post Engineering the Future<p class="company">Canway Equipment</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“We build trailers for people who work hard. That’s our mission. That’s who we design for, that’s who we respect,” says Francis Wieler, head of Marketing.

Regardless of the industry served, the company’s trailers are used by “working professionals who rely on this equipment daily,” he adds.

Products of the highest standard
RawMaxx has recently launched a variety of new trailers as well as an advanced solution called 3D Configurator. The latter enables prospective customers to create digital trailer designs on a computer screen based on their input, while the new trailers include the G7X Series, GDX Knight, DTX Deckover Tilt, and SGX models. Wieler describes the G7X Series as “an evolution of our GTX Series.” While the GTX trailer is 102 inches wide, the G7X is narrower, at 83 inches. As such, the new G7X Series represents a more affordable option for clients looking for a trailer that is both maneuverable and compact.

Trailers in the G7X Series include the versatile Bumper Pull model, which is available in 20, 22, and 24-foot lengths and comes with a front toolbox, powder coat finish, and a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,000 pounds (the measure of the total weight of a fully-loaded trailer).

The G7X Gooseneck trailer is another model in the new G7X Series, also available in 20, 22, and 24-foot lengths with a 14,000-pound gross vehicle weight rating and front toolbox. The G7X Gooseneck trailer offers exceptional stability and is well-suited for heavy loads.

The company’s GDX lineup consists of general duty dump trailers, a category popular with contractors. The new GDX Knight trailer features 10-cubic-yard capacity, 41-degree tilt angle, and a manual tarp system. The trailer offers durability and efficiency, and loading and unloading is a cinch. The GDX Knight is designed “for crews who consistently push heavier materials or higher volumes. It has structurally reinforced walls and increased capacity,” says Wieler.

The DTX Deckover Tilt is also designed for handling heavy loads, with a GVWR of 14,000 pounds. This model boasts 17-degree tilt angle and a hoist-lift system fitted with a 5×16” cylinder for speedy and efficient loading and unloading. An upgraded version offers a gross vehicle weight rating of 20,000 pounds.

The SGX trailer, meanwhile, has a gravity-tilt design, an 8,000-pound gross vehicle weight rating, and is suitable for moving boom lifts, scissor lifts, and cherry pickers.

Some of these trailers feature the Milwaukee PACKOUT system, an innovative, modular storage setup comprising various chests, boxes, and cooler units for heavy-duty storage. Milwaukee PACKOUT “gives operators an organized space and secured tool storage placement under the trailer directly,” Wieler explains.

Quality from the start
RawMaxx was founded in Mexico in 2017 with a focus from the start on manufacturing heavy-duty steel trailers. “While the product line has expanded significantly, the core mission has remained the same: build strong, dependable trailers,” says Wieler.

Manufacturing and design work is all performed in-house aside from a few components such as axles and hydraulic systems, which are obtained from trusted outside suppliers. The company uses CNC laser cutters, press brakes, plasma cutters, and other machinery to self-perform its engineering, fabrication, welding, assembly, and finishing. “We maintain control over our production process to ensure consistency in quality,” says Wieler.

The company sells its products through an extensive dealer network—most based in the United States, with a few in Canada. While clients cannot buy directly, Wieler sees this as an advantage.

“We do not sell to end users,” he says. “This allows us to focus on manufacturing products and development. It also helps keep the price lower, because we can sell a full load to a dealer, which ensures that the customer is going to get a better price. If somebody from New York buys a trailer from us directly, the cost of shipping that one trailer is going to be more than if we ship seven or eight trailers on one load.”

People-powered service
At present, the company employs 600 people, an increase of about 40 from this time last year. The spike in personnel can be attributed to increased demand for the products in the United States.

When it comes to new hires, RawMaxx looks for people with a strong work ethic, a willingness to learn, a team mindset, a sense of accountability, and an alignment with the company’s values of integrity, hard work, expertise, innovation, and adaptability. “The culture overall here is blue collar, performance-driven, with a focus on continuous improvement and respect for the craft,” Wieler says.

The company prides itself on being “non-corporate,” he adds. There is no rigid company bureaucracy; issues are dealt with right away, and do not require months of meetings, memos, and analysis to address.

Customer support is offered via the company’s nationwide dealer network, and to this end, RawMaxx offers spare parts, replacement parts, service guidance, technical assistance, product updates, and warranties including five years for axles, three years for structural issues, and one year for paint. “If a customer has an issue, we work directly with the dealer to ensure that it’s resolved quickly and properly,” says Wieler.

In addition to its customers, the company believes in supporting charities and its workforce, with charitable endeavors including funding for a local orphanage and an overarching commitment to its nearby communities. And the RawMaxx team is happy to help fellow staff members through rough patches with financial aid or other forms of assistance. Staff members “will always stand together and support each other in times of need or when surrounding communities are in need. The entire team will rally and organize food, clothing, and financial drives. It’s part of the culture here at RawMaxx,” says Wieler.

Safety, of course, is also central to the company culture. Workers receive comprehensive safety training with established protocols in case of accidents or mishaps. Personal protective equipment including helmets, work boots, and googles, are mandatory and paid for by the company.

Making customization easy
RawMaxx has also forged a partnership with prominent automotive celebrity Dave ‘Heavy D’ Sparks, who co-starred on the reality show Diesel Brothers on the Discovery Channel. Heavy D shouts out the company’s innovative design, superior components, focus on safety, excellent customer service, wide array of products, customization, and heavy-duty construction in his glowing testimonial on the company website. Heavy D also participated in the launch of 3D Configurator at the North American Trailer Dealers Association (NATDA) 2025 show in Nashville, Tennessee and praises the solution in a company YouTube video.

3D Configurator, as mentioned, allows potential customers to view digital trailer models based on their selections regarding size, specifications, options, colors, and models. Customer input is used to add or remove details, and the ensuing image can be viewed from multiple angles, giving clients a clear sense of what they are buying. Customers “can see where every dollar is going. They can see visually what the trailer is going to look like,” states Wieler, adding that the 3D Configurator “is a tool to give as much confidence to the buyer as possible.”

The solution has earned the company industry kudos and took first place in a competition for ‘Best in Show for Services & Software’ at last year’s NATDA conference.

Facing challenges
While optimistic, Wieler is well aware of certain challenges facing the company, including volatility in the trailer sector. Underlying this volatility are rising material costs, supply chain changes, and regulatory developments. RawMaxx addresses these issues “through strong dealer and supplier relationships, in-house manufacturing control, operational efficiency, and strategic pricing adjustments. We focus on stability and long-term relationships rather than short-term reaction,” says Wieler.

Going forward, the company has plenty of new ideas, enhancements, and product concepts in the pipeline. “There’s always new stuff that comes out. We have a few engineers who consistently look at the market, look at what the needs are out there and what people are asking for. It can take months or years to refine something before we do release a new type of trailer.”

Over the next few years, Wieler also hopes to see the company strengthen its dealer network even further, continue to innovate on the digital front, and maintain its reputation for durability and integrity.

“Our goal is sustainable growth, while protecting product quality and brand reputation. That’s very important. There are a lot of people who depend on RawMaxx to make a living, whether it’s the people building the trailers or the people who depend on them to get their job done,” Wieler states. RawMaxx plans to be there, serving all of these people with quality, innovation, and integrity, for the long haul.

The post New Products, New Partnerships, and New High-Tech Solutions<p class="company">RawMaxx</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Sustainability remains at the forefront of its daily operations. “Wood is the only significant construction material that is both natural and renewable,” says CEO Shawn Hicks, who, with partner COO Dan Dunkley, strives to ensure the company’s green message is upheld throughout all of its operations. “Our business can demonstrate the chain of custody from forest to customer, and our main suppliers hold certification from the FSC,” he says.

Buying from FSC-certified forests that use the world’s best management practices allows for the protection of wildlife while ensuring reforestation of the land after harvest to help supply lumber for generations to come.

“Trees and lumber utilization are a huge part of the carbon cycle story,” Hicks tells us. “CPS buys salvaged lumber from the lumber mills—essentially leftover materials from the construction industry. We cut out the bad portions, areas where the lumber didn’t make construction grade, and upgrade the rest in shorter lengths to make our customer quality products.” CPS then shreds the waste and sells it to the farming community for animal bedding, and in turn, the chicken farmers sell their waste to mushroom farms to fully ensure the utilization of the lowest quality of lumber from the sawmills.

As for the company’s pallets and crates, they yield a net 1.1 pounds of carbon trapped per board foot of lumber sold up to 1,000 miles from its factories.

“We have the greenest packaging product available, and we fully utilize every piece of material,” explains Hicks. “For our waste outside of lumber, we send near zero waste to landfill—one 40-yard bin per month.”

CPS also prides itself on its excellent relationships, both with its 500 employees and its numerous clients, who are treated like members of the CPS family and viewed as partners. “One of the cornerstones of CPS is our vendors,” Hicks stresses. “We couldn’t do what we do without them. For 40 years, the key area of our success has been taking care of suppliers well.”

This means paying on time, taking discounts if offered, and ensuring the company is the lumber mills’ first choice to sell to. Rail siding is key here, as CPS can accept lumber directly from the mill to its yards in both Cobourg and Martin, Tennessee. Boasting industrial-grade materials, CPS is the only customer of most mills with direct access to receive lumber by rail. “We work very hard to be the first-choice customer for our supply base,” Hicks says.

Another vital aspect of the company’s ongoing success is its dedication to automated operations, with its cut line being state-of-the-art and a key differentiator between CPS and its competition, resulting in the lowest cost of material ready for final assembly. “Our ongoing investment includes a $3 million assembly machine due to arrive in June of this year,” adds Hicks.

Utilizing new technology such as machine/robotic pallet assembly lines and high-volume output using industrial-grade automation—alongside new staff working on AI adaptation and implementation in the office and on the production floor—results in standardized quality across pallet and crate construction, and ensures CPS’s position at the top of the industry.

Sustainability also means addressing the company’s own carbon footprint. “Due to the cost of electricity in Ontario for many years now, our procurement team is always looking for ways to reduce energy costs across all locations,” says Hicks. “Our forklifts have been converted from propane to electric on 75 percent of our fleet, along with a 1.305 GWH annual solar panel system installed in Cobourg.” Renovations of CPS offices have also allowed the company to upgrade to efficient heat pumps as well as improved Insulation R-values, he adds.

This ongoing commitment to environmentalism and sustainability stems from an understanding of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), a strategic framework for identifying, evaluating, and addressing organizational goals and activities, a company’s carbon footprint and sustainability commitment, workplace culture, diversity and inclusion commitment, and overall ethos regarding corporate risks and practices. This organizational concept has grown in significance, particularly for socially conscious investors who wish to put money into businesses that share these same values.

The three main pillars of ESG include environmental commitment, which covers all aspects of a business’s dedication to sustainability and its effects on the environment, such as waste, energy use, carbon emissions and footprint, and environmental responsibility; social commitment, meaning the internal working culture of an organization, employee retention, diversity, satisfaction, and health and safety; and corporate governance, which includes compliance, internal corporate culture, pay ratios, business ethos, and leadership responsibility and openness as part of a corporation’s commitment to corporate governance. Companies acknowledging a dedication to justice and equality in the workplace and the ability to adapt to changing laws and regulations are always of interest to investors, according to CIO.com.

As the effects of climate change worsen, companies’ environmental initiatives will only become more crucial, and it is anticipated that businesses that use resources such as water, coal, oil, and power more wisely will do better in the future when those resources become scarce in some places. Additionally, a firm dedication to appropriate governance and compliance will be essential for maintaining a business’s operations as more rules and regulations pertaining to technology, most notably General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), come into effect.

CPS’s commitment to sustainability and forest stewardship (the company also offers pallet recycle programs and repair programs) are just a few aspects that help set it apart, along with its rail siding on site, which lowers the cost of inbound materials, and state-of-the-art operations that allow staff to fully cut, resaw, notch, and stack over a railcar of lumber per shift.

“Our assembly lines are the best in the world and procured from all over the world,” adds Hicks. “This results in customers placing an order and then not worrying about it because we deliver on time, every time, at a consistent quality that our customers expect.”

Recent challenges for the company have included lumber and duty prices, which are “very much” top of mind in all of the lumber industry right now; duties and tariffs went up to 45 percent last August, and at the time, lumber costs in the U.S. were very low. “It was an easy pivot to just buy U.S. material in the U.S. and Canadian material in Canada,” Hicks shares. “At the moment, the U.S. material costs are rising so fast that they’re ahead of the cost of the Canadian material, and it’s causing a lot of pivots.”

The marketplace in general is being heavily impacted by tariffs, but CPS has operations and assets on both sides of the border, providing the company with a buffer that helps protect its clients as well, remaining “very well equipped” to supply customers regardless of tariffs.

Looking forward, CPS’s commitment to the utilization of all materials will remain at the forefront. “We’re literally selling $50,000 a month in animal bedding waste, where many companies are just giving that away or paying to get rid of it,” Hicks explains. “We have an asset there that we’re utilizing, but it’s really just the automation. The railcar access and the automation give us the lowest cost of material ready for assembly versus every competitor in North America. That puts our customers in a good position from a cost perspective, but also puts us in a pole position on being able to compete.”

In terms of retaining customers, CPS offers several customized programs, such as looking at clients’ schedules and plans and supplying their needs proactively. “For our largest two customers, we operate in a replenishment of inventory scenario, not a purchase order. Traditionally, they look at what they need and place an order,” Hicks says. “We go outside the box on that one, and we take care of them. Sometimes they don’t know how we know their demand so well.”

This level of quality of care is absolutely a priority for the company, Hicks stresses, along with embracing growth and maintaining a true devotion to sustainability. “We have always been committed to [sustainability] and will continue to further reduce our carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions,” he assures, whether that’s zero waste to landfill or maintaining an ethical supply chain through forest stewardship.

Social factors for CPS will focus on its workplace culture, diversity, community engagement, and human rights, as well as fostering a collective experience to keep longstanding employees satisfied and foster employee development.

Whether it’s supporting community service and philanthropy or assisting customers with a wide range of issues and logistics that need solving to keep their business running smoothly, CPS’s longstanding experience, knowledge, and skill can handle it all, Hicks says.

“We find an issue that needs solving, and we solve it.”

The post Into the Woods: Sustainable Packaging through Forest Stewardship<p class="company">CPS Wood Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Throughout its 50-plus years in business, Great Northern Cabinetry has worked with leading kitchen designers to offer an extensive product line with numerous personalized options and attention to detail that is second to none. Working with an array of premium materials, the company creates one-of-a-kind cabinets tailored to each client’s needs and tastes.

Now, after successfully weathering a particularly challenging year, GNC has emerged ready for the year ahead and many more to come. “The reality is the cabinet industry has gone through a tremendous amount of turmoil in the last six months, given all of the challenges around housing and housing-related products and categories,” says owner Tim Ford. “There have been several significant cabinet companies that have folded their tent and closed up shop, but we’re still here, fighting and managing through it.”

Despite these extraordinary challenges, Ford considers present success in three ways: one, how is GNC performing commercially; second, how is it performing operationally; and third, how is it performing financially?

“Commercially, a year ago, we had a limited sales force,” he says. “Our sales manager had retired, we had a new sales leader, and over the past year, we’ve almost completely changed out our sales team, bringing on new sales reps who are very deeply ingrained in the industry.”

This means well-connected reps who have a deep network of customers that they’ve worked with previously. “From a commercial perspective, we’re in a really good place to grow our business, and in fact, we’re starting to see the fruits of that,” Ford shares. “In the fourth quarter alone, we had several dozen new dealers sign up and join our dealer network, and we’re beginning to see that turn into new business.”

Knowing you’re starting the new year with a “bit more wind in your sails” than a year ago when the future looked unclear feels good, he adds. “The tale of last year was that it started with a great deal of enthusiasm, but the uncertainty regarding tariffs and other related activities caused a degree of question and concern, and then people pulled back. But as interest rates have started to come down and things are starting to thaw a bit, it’s starting to feel similar to the start of last year from an enthusiasm standpoint.”

As GNC anticipates significant growth in 2026, a material delivery system implemented last year will enable the company to more efficiently manage material flow, material consumption, and inventory. With sales expected to grow more than 20 percent, inventory should increase less quickly and doesn’t need to grow at the same rate as sales, Ford explains. “We feel really good about the kind of activities we’ve undertaken in the processes we’ve put in place over the past 15 to 18 months to make sure that as the business grows, we can leverage that base level of inventory that any business has to carry,” he adds.

While the total amount of raw material on hand isn’t significantly different than before implementing the new system, the ability to leverage what GNC does have is completely different than what it was a year and a half ago. A critical part of the new system is the company’s implementation of its material planning process, called “Plan for Every Part,” or PFEP.

“It sounds simple, but in my experience, most manufacturing businesses don’t have a plan for every part they use,” says Ford. “We’ve implemented this SKU-by-SKU plan, which includes a minimum inventory level, the average daily consumption during a planning period, lead times and replenishment cycles from each vendor, and so on.”

The PFEP and material system have brought a fundamental change to the way GNC manages inventory and delivers materials. Like most companies, GNC would previously order material, and if three departments use the same material, it would be split up, with each receiving one-third of the lot; one department would inevitably run out. This would lead to needing more material and putting in an order for more while the other two departments still had plenty.

In addition to the PFEP, the company now employs a supermarket concept, with raw material centrally housed in one location and delivered to the team members as needed, rather than being spread out throughout the plant. “We’d end up with more in aggregate, so what we’ve done is pull it all back,” Ford explains. “Instead of having that material in three locations, it’s now housed in one central location, and we deliver it to the operator. That puts much more control in our hands,” he says.

“We’ve created what I would characterize as a surgeon/nurse concept where the surgeons are our operators, and the nurse is our material delivery system that brings enough material to each operator for them to work productively for the next two hours. They are replenished at the right time with the right quantity of material,” says Ford. “This system allows us to manage material flow and inventory much more deeply and closely. While we have a minimum level of raw material we have to carry, we are much more dialed in on how much we actually need to have on hand. As we grow the business, the amount we need to carry will go up at a much slower rate than sales will.”

One side effect of this change is improved employee satisfaction and morale thanks to a smoother process. “It’s not just the inventory level that matters; it’s the overall productivity in the plant and employee satisfaction, which are a little bit less obvious in terms of numbers, and a little bit harder to measure, but very clearly, those have a big impact on what we’re doing.”

Company morale is a matter GNC takes to heart, even when it comes to the sometimes necessary business of reducing employee hours during downtimes. “Like a lot of companies, last fall we had to cut back hours, so people who were working 40-plus hours a week were working less than 40 hours a week over the last three to five months of the year, because demand was down,” says Ford. While normally that would create a great deal of anxiety and trepidation, GNC was transparent with its workforce about what it was doing and asked for management hours to be cut back as well. “We didn’t need to do that financially, necessarily, but it was the right message to send to the hourly folks that we’re all in this together.”

The show of solidarity was greatly appreciated, he adds. “We’re trying to create a culture of teamwork, one where we win together and we lose together. It’s been that kind of behavior that has been particularly well received.” Now, when management needs to make changes and implement new processes, there’s a level of trust that has been built with the understanding that everyone is rowing in the same direction.

Ford’s commitment to GNC’s culture and future success means always trying to look forward, he stresses. “I’m the eternal optimist,” he says. “In some ways, you’ve got to be a realist in the moment, but you want to have optimism as well. As I think about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going, I’ve been in the business for five years, and I feel like I’m just now getting to the starting line.”

For his first couple of years, there was a “wild swing” of demand that went through the roof, he says. Material costs were tremendously high, and the industry saw a pullback in the last couple of years. Ford learned a lot in the initial phase, particularly when there was a rapid ramp-up of demand in 2021 and 2022. “Had we not experienced that significant increase in demand during that time, I might not have fully appreciated how much work needed to be done to be able to set the company up for growth,” Ford says. GNC has worked very hard over the past three years to build scalability into its operations so that when growth comes, the company is prepared for it. And in fact, GNC is in a much better position today to handle growth than it was during the past five years.

“What gives me optimism is the fact that we’ve done that hard work,” Ford says. “We’re still here fighting the fight, and we’ve got all of these opportunities to prove our capability with the revitalized sales force and the new dealers we’re bringing on. I’m optimistic about 2026 and where I think things will go, and all we need is a little wind in our sails—not a gale force wind, but a little bit of wind in our sails—and we’ll be in a good place for this year.”

The post Creating a Culture of Teamwork<p class="company">Great Northern Cabinetry</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Starting off as a local supplier of crane parts, the company today is a respected manufacturer of overhead cranes and crane hoists. Along with offering crane parts, G.W. Becker is also known for its crane services and maintenance, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections, training, preventative maintenance, field repairs, and engineering.

“Our core business is in heavy manufacturing, steel processing and steel manufacturing, fabrication, aeronautical, and warehousing, just to name a few,” says the company’s Sales Manager, Ron Piso.

Cranes for every need
No two sectors are the same, which is why G.W. Becker sells and services industry-specific crane solutions ranging from 1/8 ton jib cranes—ideal for local lifting—to massive, 110-ton overhead ladle cranes used in steel mills to transport and pour molten metal. From the smallest overhead cranes to the largest, all are designed, engineered, and manufactured in-house and tailor-made for specific applications and workflow requirements.

“We can build up to a 150-foot span,” comments Piso, “and are only limited to what we can lift in our shop and what we can get out the overhead doors. If there is value to us or the customer with, we can figure out if there is a way to do it.”

To meet customer demands, G.W. Becker offers overhead lifting solutions for all needs and budgets. Some, like single girder cranes, are ideal for light to moderate use. Able to handle 1 to 15 tons, these cranes are suitable for spans up to 70 feet and lifts of 15 to 50 feet. Others, such as hazardous duty cranes, are ideal for overhead material handing in explosive environments. Often used by customers in the oil & gas sector, these cranes typically have manual hoists and trolleys and spark-resistant components. For all applications, cranes meet specific safety standards.

Much more than an overhead crane manufacturer, G.W. Becker works with customers at every step of the way, from initial design to turnkey installation, all managed with the utmost professionalism. Taking on single-source responsibility means clients will see their cranes manufactured, delivered, installed, and operational on time and on budget.

“We are a soup-to-nuts company in the crane industry,” explains Piso of the company. Its fully staffed engineering department handles design while an experienced service department has technicians available to install, repair, inspect “and upgrade any crane that’s out there now,” Piso explains. “I like to say we are as vertically integrated as we can be short of owning a steel mill to have access to our raw materials. We install 98 to 99 percent of our own product, the cranes that we build. We are a manufacturer and an OEM distributor of all crane parts.”

To date, the company’s cranes can be found across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. According to Piso, G.W. Becker is not limited to geography. “North America is our limitation,” he says. “Other than that, we will go anywhere, literally from Maine to California to Washington to Florida. We have cranes, not in every state, but we are trying to get there.” Alabama and South Carolina have hundreds of G.W. Becker cranes in operation.

Family values and industry engagement
Decades after it was established by founder George Becker, the company remains family-owned and operated, which is a point of pride for both staff members and customers. Celebrating its 45^th anniversary in March 2025, the business remains focused on growing to meet demand. Unlike some larger manufacturers, family ownership helps G.W. Becker remain far more agile, able to provide fast, personalized service where clients get answers in hours, not days.

Today, George remains founder and CEO, while his son Chris, representing G.W. Becker’s second generation, serves as President. “It’s not just family ownership that’s a benefit to our customers,” says Piso. “Chris, our President, is a leader on different industry boards,” including the Lawrence Mercer Manufacturers Coalition (LMMC). Based in Youngstown, Ohio, the LMMC is described as “an industry-led organization determined to attract, retain, and upskill the manufacturing workforce our members collectively need to thrive and grow.”

Along with the LMMC, G.W. Becker’s industry memberships and affiliations include the Material Handling Industry of America (MHI), the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST), executive membership in the Crane Manufacturers Association of America, Inc. (CMAA), and the Penn-Northwest Development Corporation.

In addition, the company has forged many long-term relationships with suppliers of everything from advanced wireless control solutions to electrification systems, load-handling attachments, controls, hoists, lifting mechanisms, and other parts. These include Columbus McKinnon, ACCO® – WRIGHT® LOUDEN®, Bushman Equipment, Caldwell Lifting Solutions, Control Chief Wireless Solutions, and R&M Materials Handling, to name just a few.

At G.W. Becker, the company’s many successful years in business and long-held partnerships with customers speak for themselves. “George Becker, Chris’s father and our owner, has been in business 46 years,” comments Piso. “He has a great reputation around the country, and Chris has only enhanced that with his leadership and visibility within the industry and affiliated organizations. Relationships have been built, held, and initiated by George when the company was founded, and Chris even more so, and it all trickles down through me, our Regional Sales Managers, Service Techs, and our engineers. So our reputation is very solid. We are not top-heavy, so we are able to be out in the field and communicating more than corporations.”

Investing in people and machinery
In just the past few years, G.W. Becker has made significant investments in the business, including a complete upgrade of its machine shop and new machine tools. This remains a source of pride for the company’s owners since it allows the business to serve its many customers to the best of its abilities. “We have equipped ourselves to be pretty efficient in our production and fabrication, and will continue doing so,” says Piso. “We continue to invest in the company to make ourselves more efficient in our production and our fabrication.” Now, along with machinery, the company has expanded its engineering department to its largest headcount to date.

G.W. Becker’s information-rich website features products, detailed descriptions, and a list of services, as well as a comprehensive Resource Center featuring completed products, brochures, a blog, and more. In May, the company will have a booth at AISTech 2026. Held in Pittsburgh, AISTech remains the premier event for the world’s steel industry and a venue in which professionals can meet, learn about industry developments, and network with experts.

Now in its 46^th year, G.W. Becker continues to expand, adding to the team as needed. “Our future sales plan is to continue growing at the pace we’ve been growing for the last eight years, which has been substantial,” Piso says. “We are certainly in growth mode, trying to close every order that’s out there on the street and bring new business in every day. We have a bright forecast for the future, and it’s supported by all of the industry information available in manufacturing and the steel industry. Manufacturing in the United States is going to continue growing; we are along for the ride and expect growth in the same fashion.”

The post Built to Lift. Made to Last.<p class="company">G.W. Becker, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.