Did you know that building transportation-related equipment contributes nearly $28 billion annually to Canada's gross domestic product?
The article focused on companies that manufacture components for trains, planes and automobiles (and ships and spacecraft too). Here is an excerpt from the Samuel story: "Even though rail is one of the most established industries in North America, the market for new railcars is highly cyclical. At a factory in Cambridge, Ontario, two dozen employees of Samuel, Son & Co.’s Roll Form Group are manufacturing about 100 steel doors a week for boxcars. The group’s president, Lou Sartor, says this is a good year for boxcars—about 4,000 will be produced in North America. In a bad year, he says, “it can be zero.”
"(Samuel) Roll Form Group makes several boxcar parts, including floors, uncoupling levers and roofs. But it can shift quickly to producing parts for other types of railcars, including auto racks and hoppers. It then ships those components to railcar manufacturers, including National Steel Car in Hamilton and a handful of U.S. giants. The key to remaining profitable, Sartor says, is to fulfill specific needs. That means not just producing generic steel, but to keep “moving downstream to add more value.”
Samuel is featured in Globe & Mail article: We Built That
Mississauga, ON,
Samuel was one of five companies featured in a recent Globe & Mail "Report on Business" magazine article entitled "We Built That" - part of an ongoing series on Canada's homegrown manufacturing sector.
