Laying the groundwork for growth at A10

As a true job shop, A10 Fabrication does a wide variety of work, such as bulk components like those being worked on in this photo. A10 Fabrication

A10 Fabrication owner Marc Benoit is in an enviable position right now—he is being asked to do more work than his shop can currently handle. It’s good to feel wanted, but of course not as good as actually fulfilling orders. That’s why he’s keen to get the 6,000-sq.-ft. expansion to his operations up and running later this year.

His efforts so far to grow his business and engage with the industry have already garnered local recognition. With the expansion will come not only new space to work in, but new capabilities for the shop, and a significant growth in staff numbers.

Building Through Struggle

A10 was founded in 2013 by Benoit’s brother and two other partners.

“My brother and I are both Red Seal certified tradespeople and always felt we wanted to start a business together. But at the time I’d just bought my first house, so he went ahead with establishing the business, and I worked my way into the company, eventually taking on the responsibilities of general manager,” said Benoit.

By 2019, however, he was ready to invest and ended up buying all the partners out.

“At that point, my brother had started working part-time at Cambrian and found a real love for teaching,” said Benoit. “He decided to have me buy him out as well.”

The pandemic, however, made Benoit’s start as an owner more challenging.

“We didn’t lay anyone off,” he said. “We have a good team of eight people and I believe in taking care of your team. We didn’t want to lose anyone by letting them go.”

Instead, Benoit filled some of the spare time his team had building fire pits.

“We had always built fire pits, but usually they were to donate to charity golf tournaments or similar types of events,” he explained. “But we got a number of contracts that way, and when business slowed down and we got more requests for these, it seemed like a good opportunity. This year, as of early August, we’ve built around 260 of them.”

“Being a job shop, there’s very little work we’d turn away, but much of what we do is in the mining industry, building components and bucket repair work,” Benoit explained.

If the pandemic taught Benoit anything, it was the fact that home comforts are important to people, and he hopes to expand his reach into that market.

“We’ve got a lot of highway frontage and a good deal of traffic with people going to their cottages,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of related work—docks, trailers, etc.—that we could build on for our own product lines. We’re currently redesigning our website so that people can order firepits through the site, and you can expect to see many more products there soon.”

Benoit is a keen inventor as well, and he hopes that a few related ideas of his find their way onto the company’s website.

Core Competencies

As a job shop, though, home recreation items are not the company’s main earner.

“Being a job shop, there’s very little work we’d turn away, but much of what we do is in the mining industry, building components and bucket repair work,” Benoit explained. “We’re set up with a plasma table, a 350-ton and 150-ton press brake, an ironworker, a plate roller—pretty much everything you’d expect in a general fab shop.”

Once work picked up again, it really hasn’t slowed.

“We’ve built very good relationships with our customers over the nine years the company has been in business,” said Benoit. “Many have been with us from the beginning, and once they were able to get back up to speed again, they called on us right away. I’ve also been planting seeds for when our new facility is ready, letting people know that once we’re up to speed we are ready to take them on. Right now, it’s most important to keep our existing customers happy, receiving quality parts on time.”

Expansion Plans

The new 6,000-sq.-ft. building that A10 will have up and running in November will create more space for the company’s existing equipment and make room for bigger projects and new processes.

“We have never had an overhead crane, and the new building will have the height to accommodate that,” said Benoit. “This will allow for through-traffic on larger projects.”

The new building will essentially be used for all fab and welding work. Another new addition to that space will be an 8- by 24-ft. combination plasma/oxyfuel cutting table from Machitech. With the oxyfuel capabilities, the shop will be able to cut plate up to 6.5 in. It will be equipped with a Hypertherm Powermax 350 plasma power source.

The company also does large and small ductwork, custom chutes and hoppers, and much more.

“We’ve had a very good relationship with Linde (formerly Praxair) right from the beginning, so we work with the products that they supply as often as we can. And I like working with the Hypertherm power source as well,” said Benoit. “I look forward to having that extended cutting capability with the oxyfuel also.”

The current shop space, meanwhile, will be geared to include a blast and paint booth and manage any machining work required.

“We plan on hiring around five or six new people for the shop, as well as relaunching our fieldwork crew,” said Benoit. “We did more of that kind of work before COVID, and still take on occasional jobs. For instance, we just did some structural reinforcement work at Algonquin Public School in Sudbury. However, we plan to do much more.”

Team Building

Like every other company these days, maintaining a good team is a big concern for Benoit. Creating a pipeline for new talent is key as well.

One way A10 has addressed the latter concern has been to create strong connections with Cambrian College. Beyond having his brother there as part of the staff, Benoit has created a strong relationship with the college’s outreach programs by hosting its mobile trades training trailer next door. A10 sits on a 42-acre property that Benoit plans to turn into an industrial park. Housing the Cambrian trailer there had created an opportunity to host training programs in the A10 shop. In fact, Benoit has hired two employees right out of the program. The hope is that Cambrian will expand and create a more permanent presence where the trailer currently resides. But most importantly, it creates an opportunity for Benoit to meet new talent, and have that talent get an introduction to what A10 is all about.

Keeping talent is another challenge altogether, of course. For Benoit, the key is to treat everyone as an individual.

“I like to give my team free rein to learn on the shop floor, and learn through mistakes, if necessary,” he said. “I want to give everyone an opportunity to grow. If we get a new project in and someone wants to take ownership of that, and can show their capabilities, I aim to encourage that.”

A testament to the success of this approach was well demonstrated when Benoit had to be away from the office for almost eight months to care for his wife after she was struck by a vehicle.

“Family comes first of course, and the team really pulled together to keep the shop working successfully when I was home caring for my wife,” said Benoit. “If there’s one thing I’d put down as the reason for the success of the business, and our ability to work in a shop that is too small for all we want to do, it’s communication. We communicate well and help each other out as necessary, in the shop and beyond.”

Local Recognition

A10 was recognized earlier this year as Small Enterprise of the Year by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.

With the upcoming expansion, A10 will equip itself with a paint booth, which will allow it to finish jobs like this fully in-house.

Asked what the recognition meant to him, Benoit said: “I find it fun to get out there and meet new people, which was made easy through being the son of a veteran. That career had our family moving almost every year or two, until settling in Lively, Ont., to be closer to both my parent’s families after my dad was injured at work. Being out there and meeting people is a passion of mine and I’m blessed to have such an amazing team at A10 to allow us to be recognized for such awards.”

What is obvious is that this is just the start of Benoit, and A10’s, journey.

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at rcolman@canadianfabweld.com.

A10 Fabrication, a10fabrication.com

An example of one of the firepits created at A10.