A nuts-and-bolts business

Ridgeline Fasteners supplies a range of commercial fasteners to a variety of industries

Garett Pugh is the owner of Ridgeline Fasteners Ltd., which has its administrative centre in Creston, B.C., and its distribution centre in Calgary, Alberta. — Photo courtesy Garett Pugh

Garett Pugh of Ridgeline Fasteners Ltd. has been selling commercial fasteners for a lot of years, but he learned an important lesson quite recently.

“In 2008 almost all of my clients were in the oil and gas industry,” Pugh said, “and my sales dropped by 60 per cent. I swore never, ever again to be that dependent on a single field.”

Before launching Ridgeline in 2010, Pugh worked for a Saskatoon-based commercial fastener company for about 10 years. In 2005 he moved to Creston, located in the East Kootenay region of B.C., to build a client base in British Columbia for his employer; eventually he decided to go into business for himself.

Based in two places

“When I decided to open Ridgeline, I made Creston our administrative centre because we wanted our kids to continue to grow up here, and my wife had built up her own business here,” Pugh said.

It made financial sense to situate the distribution centre in Calgary, though, given the cost of transportation from the East Kootenay and the fact that most of Ridgeline’s clients are in Alberta as well as B.C.

“Another reason we stayed in Creston is that we need good jobs around here, and we hope to create more administrative positions with Ridgeline,” said Pugh. “I have one employee in Creston and two in Calgary at present. Eventually I’d like to open a smaller distribution centre here, to try to cover the Kootenays and the Okanagan. If we can do that, then we will be able to hire more staff.”

Ridgeline has customers in agriculture, electronics, oil and gas, and mining. They all need nuts and bolts—from tiny ones in the electronics field to larger ones for agriculture to gigantic ones for mining.

Plans for the future

“We do have ambitions to expand,” Pugh said. “Our customer base goes north as far as Prince George (B.C.) and as far east as Winnipeg. I’m focused more on the growth opportunities in B.C. and Alberta. We started with 2,700 square feet in our warehouse, and now have 6,500 square feet. Our inventory has grown sixfold since 2010.”

Those are figures Pugh can take to the bank.