Business View Magazine | November 2019

121 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 WEBERLANE MANUFACTUR ING INC . western Canada. About 25 percent of its output is farm equipment, but because they are more expensive units, they make up about 55 percent of the company’s revenue. Frey explains, “A large grain and forage, or silage dumper will retail from $50-60 thousand, whereas a number of trailers in the highway line, utility trailers, you’re looking at $2,000.” Regarding the competition, Frey says that many of Weberlane’s competitors in the farm equipment line are smaller, mom-and-pop shops, like his company was 30 years ago. “They have a competitive edge because of lower overhead costs,” he admits. “However, often they just don’t have the manufacturing capabilities and the market power to get out there to the dealers. Farmers want to deal with their farm equipment dealer and see what they’re getting. We have a vast North American dealer network, with dealers who recognize our quality products and appreciate the personal interaction. Also, we have the advantage of being able to manufacture more efficiently, with larger newer facilities. And we have the ability, handle that production, but also that we have the employee power to make it happen.” Frey says that with the jump in production capacity, the company will be increasing its staff levels from the current count of 60. “We’ll have significant employee hiring,” he says. “The good part about this area is that we’ve been very fortunate with employee staffing and we already have people lined up to fill positions that have not opened up yet. We aim for a low stress workplace, promote family and friend connections, and pay competitive wages with full health benefit packages. Occasional advertising for new employees is required, but a high percentage of the time, openings are filled by word-of-mouth, or friends and family members of other current employees. And we have always put our basis into training the people that we have, in-house, so we have not had a difficulty in staffing.” Weberlane sells about 70 percent of its trailers in Ontario; 15 percent in the rest of Eastern Canada, mostly along the seaboard provinces and Quebec; with the balance scattered throughout the U.S. and