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Sudbury Pipe Fabrication and Lining Firm Growing

Walk through any part of Sudbury's Fuller Industrial and before long, you'll find charts.

Whether it's the shop floor where pipes are being measured and cut for transportation overseas or the picturesque lakeside office of president, Jeff Fuller, charts, of all kinds, are everywhere.

Pumped out as regularly as the pipes and rubber lining that have made the company an ever-growing success, the graphs illustrate anything from daily production to efficiency targets.

Jeff Fuller says they're a sign of the company's embrace of an accountability-based management system due to a philosophy of continuous improvement. Fuller swears by the system and the results don't lie: his sales have doubled year over year, with staff levels tripling since 2008, a location in western Canada and an eye on further expansion.

"I didn't invent it; we're just taking that philosophy and we're going into markets where we know they're growth markets and not declining markets," says Fuller.

"We're applying this strategy. We have been successful and we will continue to be successful."

Fuller has business in his blood. In 1979, his father, Bill Fuller, founded Abraflex Ltd., a Sudbury-based fabrication, machining and rubber lining company.

It was this history that lent Fuller the confidence to strike out on his own in 2004, with a vision of growing beyond the Sudbury basin and a belief he could take things "to the next level."

It's something Fuller says he's now achieving, with a $10-million Madagascar project completed last year, as well as a project with Consolidated Thompson's Bloom Lake Iron Ore project in northern Quebec, to name just two. Other mining-related work currently on the books for the new year include projects in the Dominican Republic and the Yukon.

"There's a lot of opportunity if you want to go get it, and I think that's the bottom line."

While mining remains the backbone of his business, as it has since it began, Fuller is also finding explosive success from branching out into other markets. These include oil and gas, power, water and wastewater treatment and with the potential for even entering nuclear markets.

To take even further advantage of these opportunities, Fuller Industrial has diversified beyond just pipe fabrication and rubber lining into a variety of specialty pipe coatings such as powders, ceramic lining and fireproofing.

"We fill a transport and a half every day. A year ago, we would have had trouble filling a transport in two weeks."

His ambition also led him to set up Fuller Western, a 36,000-square-foot shop in Edmonton, in September 2008 through a joint venture with regional partners he's since bought out, making him the sole owner. With a staff of 25, it caters largely to western Canada and the chemical, gas and oil sands industries in particular.

With various large-scale industrial developments on horizon for eastern Canada, Fuller is also turning his eye towards potentially setting up shop in Quebec. The strong downturn in the United States may also offer some opportunities to establish a plant in that country as well, he says.

The next step in the company's evolution remains to be seen, but Fuller muses it may involve moving towards front-end processes with engineering work, or even the other end, with the installation of the things they produce.

To accommodate these changes while continuing to prepare for the future, Fuller has built up a strong team, from the welders on the shop floor to the executives at the top.

"I'll put my crew up against any other in the world," says Fuller with a broad smile.

This rapid, measured growth has also meant beefing up staff levels. The Sudbury office alone has tripled to 85 employees over the space of just one year.

This shift has also required the addition of high-profile people like Ken Passmore, formerly the senior trade advisor for Trade Northern Ontario, and vice-president of General Motors' export subsidiary in Canada and the United States. Passmore, who Fuller refers to as "an absolute dynamo," now serves as executive vice-president of business development and marketing at Fuller Industrial.

Some of the company's overall success can be traced back to its association with former Essar Steel CEO Denis Turcotte, who acts as an independent consultant with the company.

Initially connected through Jim Noble, formerly of the Northern Ontario Enterprise Gateway, Fuller unexpectedly found himself having to prove himself worthy of Turcotte's attention.

"He's here, and I think I'm interviewing him because I know he charges a long dollar, but he's interviewing me, because he doesn't want to screw around with someone who's going to waste his time," says Fuller, laughing.

The partnership has resulted in a more streamlined business, with the former CEO helping to identify and iron out organizational flaws, with enhanced sales and productivity.

"God bless Denis Turcotte," chuckles Fuller.