(With files from Jayne Foster)
The arrival of Leading Manufacturing Group Inc. at their new location at 601- 18th St. in Battleford is another example of growth in the Battlefords, according to town officials.
The new fabrication plant held its grand opening Friday at an event attended by civic officials including Mayor Derek Mahon. A tour of the facility took place, along with a ribbon cutting, and up to 125 people were on hand.
For Battleford, construction of the new facility is seen as good news in a year in which building permits have topped $26 million.
According to the company’s website, LMG specializes in providing shop-fabricated heavy-oil steel storage tanks to the energy sector, ranging from 50-barrel to 3,000-barrel capacity.
The company was founded in 2010 and its operations include an administrative office in Nisku, Alta., a sales office in Calgary, Alta., and a large manufacturing facility located in Vermilion, Alta.
The new Battleford facility will add to their manufacturing capacity in building storage tanks.
The company has been busy filling jobs at the new facility. In October, LMG held a job fair in Battleford and had advertised for welders, labourers, shippers/receivers, painters, blasters, insulators, a QT inspector, a crane operator and maintenance personnel for the new facility.
According to Debbie Hudson, the company’s administration manager, about 25 workers are hired at this point and they hope to have about 65 when the plant is in production.
She notes the company’s president Lee Gottschlich credited the town for being able to quickly clear the way for their arrival.
“One of the things he said in his speech was that Battleford was so wonderful to deal with,” said Hudson, in terms of “buying the land, getting the approval to build, they were so good to work with and really quick. If it was Edmonton or Nisku we would still be jumping through hoops to get the approvals.”
At town council Monday, mayor Mahon confirmed those sentiments.
He said the “folks at LMG spoke very highly of the relationship they had with the Town over the past number of months during construction of this facility, and one of the comments was ‘if this was in a larger municipality it probably would have taken two years longer.’”
He noted Gottschlich had said he doesn’t do a lot of public speaking, but he definitely had a lot to say about the relationship and how things are going. Gottschlich mentioned that oil prices had dropped, but they did have contracts into 2015.
Councillor David George said he also had a good conversation with Gottschlich at the grand opening.
He noted his own company had actually built GLM Equipment Services Ltd., a predecessor company Gottschlich established in 1977, which has been in Battleford since 1980.
George noted Gottschlich had that company, now known as GLM Industries, about a decade ago and was really excited to be back in the Battlefords.
