Fab-Rite expansion complete

Fab-Rite Services’ new, 10,000-square-foot shop in Sparwood is up and running

1 of 2Fab-Rite Services has a new shop in Sparwood, B.C. — Robert Hawkins photo

2 of 2This is one of the first pieces of equipment to be worked on at Fab-Rite Services' new shop in Sparwood, B.C. — Robert Hawkins photo

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The first few times I saw the "World’s Biggest Truck," parked outside the shopping mall in Sparwood, B.C., I actually assumed it was a mascot-type representation—like the giant Ukrainian Easter egg outside Vegreville, Alberta. When I stood beside the truck, the idea of this monster being driven by a single, puny person was simply beyond my belief system.

Layers of industry

It turns out this behemoth is very real, and there’s a whole industry devoted to building and maintaining it and other super-sized equipment used in resource extraction, which drives much of the economy in Western Canada.

Fab-Rite Services Ltd., founded in 1982, is part of that industry. Fab-Rite is based in Cranbrook, B.C., and has just finished building a second shop, this one in Sparwood.

“We do a lot of work in Sparwood, and it was time to build a shop there,” said Mike Kozinuk, owner of Fab-Rite. “We wanted to become a permanent part of the community, because we’ve been working there for the past 31 years. Some of the jobs we do are too large to bring back to Cranbrook, so the new shop in Sparwood enables us to do our job more efficiently and quickly.”

Kozinuk said that it’s taken about a year to build the new, 10,000-square-foot facility, and the first haul-truck box was being worked on in the shop while the finishing touches were being put on the shop itself.

Better for the workforce

Fab-Rite’s employees will appreciate having a field office in close proximity to their work sites. The new facility provides work space for fabrication and repairs of large pieces of equipment, and it will also stock tools and gear for the company’s tradespeople, resulting in improved efficiencies and decreased travel time.

“This shop will provide a base for the field people who go to the plants every day,” said Kozinuk. “We’re hiring right now, for both Cranbrook and Sparwood, and it’s good to have a base in both centres. This may result in a number of our out-of-area tradespeople moving to Sparwood to live permanently."