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25 years of growth, one step at a time |
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Written by Adam Freill
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Page 1 of 4
In 1980 Larry Shipway took a chance. Starting out on his own in Millgrove,
Ont., he opened shop as Shipway Stairs. Twenty-five years later, the
company has grown into one of Canada’s largest manufacturers of wood
stairs and railings. In the beginning, Shipway, who had about five
years of experience building stairs and railings prior to starting his
own company, linked up with a local builder and went to work as a
one-man operation in a small garage.
“I worked out of there for nine months and then took on a
brother as a partner,” said the company president during a recent interview. That brother, Dale, is now one of the company’s vice-presidents. A third partner in the company is Carman Morris, Larry’s brother in-law. Morris serves as vice-president of sales. In the time since opening in that small garage north of Hamilton, the three have expanded Ship-way Stairs into a corporation of 130 employees operating out of 50,000 square feet of space, split between two buildings in Burlington, Ont. Specializing in new residential construction for large subdivisions, Shipway Stairs now manufactures and installs staircases in some 7,000 houses each year, along with 5,000 railings. “Stairs and railings...it’s all we do; it’s all we want to do,” says Shipway.
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