Profile: Arva Industries ... Conquering the Impossible

By Susan Regier

Imagine, being asked to bid on a project before you’re open for business. No marketing involved just luck – or maybe it’s a dream come true. It sounds impossible, but that’s how it began for Arva Industries Inc.

It was back in 1980 when Ontario Hydro first approached Fred Smith, who they knew had recently left another business in the crane industry. They needed a "Tower Lifter" to raise their hydro towers straight up in the air while still "hot," meaning that the power was to be left connected. Once raised, a base would be situated underneath the tower so they could increase the line capacity.

Smith went to his long time friend and former associate, Vern Eck, and together they came up with a bid, even though they did not have a plant to build the heavy hydraulic equipment. After taking their prospects to lunch and a visit to their home office they completed the designs and were awarded the contract. Less than seven months later, they had fulfilled their end of the deal, which successfully launched Arva Industries.

Today, many large corporations and government departments throughout North America come to Arva Industries for unique solutions to their specialized equipment needs. "Customers come to us with a specific need for equipment. We work together to design the equipment that will solve that need," explained Smith. They design, engineer, and manufacture a wide range of custom-built equipment.

"I always believed the business would take off and it did, but it took a lot of money," admits Smith. "If we were interested in making money early, we would have gone into the repetitive market right away – but it would have been boring." Most of their heavy equipment sales are a one-time basis only.

Located in St. Thomas, their plant has over 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space plus more than 6,000 square feet devoted to engineers. Arva Industries employs thirty people, five of them engineers who design and develop the equipment. The experts, Smith and Eck, however, are instrumental in the initial stages of planning and concept developing.

They have built cranes for the Canadian Coast Guard, snow blowers for the Toronto Transit subway system, and specialized equipment for the Canadian Navy, and the U.S. Air Force. "We’ve built a lot of equipment for the Department of National Defense in the past," said Smith, "but because of the nature of changes at the National Defense Department over the last six to seven years, they’ve adopted polices that have virtually cut off supplies from small businesses."

They are currently working on the "Big Dig," which will be able to carry and install 30,000 pound ceiling tiles, setting them precisely in place to finish a suspended tunnel ceiling in Boston. This machine will be highly productive and cost-effective; doing the work that would normally take three pieces of equipment to complete. The Big Dig is to be delivered mid May.

Arva Industries does not advertise their business but relies on word of mouth to promote new sales. They issue press releases as new equipment is completed, which publicizes the latest innovations of their company. In the case of the Big Dig, they landed the contract in part because of a recommendation from the largest manufacturer of hydraulic cranes in the world, who has seen the results that they’re capable of.

With a solid customer background, Arva Industries has seen excellent growth over the past two decades. From their start up to the innovative solutions that they design and manufacture, they truly do conquer what others would believe to be impossible.

Susan Regier is the publisher/editor of Networking Today and owner of Vantage One Writing, a professional writing service for businesses. (519) 471-8726 E-mail: regiers@vantageone.ca Web site: www.vantageone.ca Published in Networking Today, May 2000.