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Luc Bouchard can recall the various responses he received when he decided to leave a full-time position at a bank to open up a business that specializes in roof trusses.
“People said that I was crazy and that I didn't know what I was doing,” said Bouchard, owner of Northern Truss in Moonbeam Township. “But I took the risk, and it was a big risk.”
Bouchard, only 25 years old at the time, had three children under the age of three, and needed to mortgage his home in order to secure the finances to start the company.
But the inspiration to go out and take big risks came from his father, who had done something similar when Bouchard was young.
His dad was a Kapuskasing contractor who ran his own business for more than 30 years.
“Seeing my dad doing that for his business, that he was always his own boss, was big for me,” said Bouchard. “I wanted to be the one who decided my future. I didn't want to rely on anybody.”
In the quarter century since establishing the roof truss manufacturer, Bouchard has been able to make a successful living, and even drafted his own son, Mathieu, into the business six years ago.
During construction season, Northern Truss employs 12 to 15 employees, but over the course of the winter, the number drops to four.
Now Bouchard has decided to expand, and he views this decision as big, if not bigger, than his initial decision to start the company.
“That's the biggest investment in the history of Northern Truss,” said Bouchard of the $800,000 project. “We were idling for a bit and we needed to do something.”
The company is in midst of constructing a 6,000-square-foot addition which will be used to manufacture prefabricated wall panels, a product that will soon be made available to customers.
“It's conventional walls, but prefab in a shop,” said Bouchard. “But this isn't new to me, because I was always in construction. It was like I was born with a hammer in my hands.”
New equipment includes a computerized wall panel machine, with several air guns and a crane.
Bouchard is also looking at moving his floor truss machine from his main building to the new addition to take advantage of the space.
“We are going to use lumber to produce more floors too,” said Bouchard. “Most of my floor is metal, but we will look to go the other way with lumber.”
Bouchard said the deciding factor is the low price of lumber, versus the high price of steel.
“At this moment, I'm not well installed to produce wood floor trusses,” he said. “But in my new building, I'll be able to produce them very easily with the new machinery.
“But I'll still have the option to produce metal as well.”
Overall, he said he would like to see 90 per cent of the floors produced in lumber.
Bouchard would also like to see his company get into pressure-treated wood foundations in the near future.
“If everything goes well, and with these new additions, I'm looking to get my numbers up,” he said. “One of the reasons I did expand, was because of where we live. The economy in our market is very good. I have never seen the economy going that good.”
While he declined to divulge production numbers, Northern Truss' service area covers the Highway 11 communities of Cochrane, Hearst and south to Timmins.
Bouchard said he would like to see more work in Kirkland Lake as well, but plans to avoid major centres such as Sudbury or North Bay.
“That's not where I want to go,” he said. “I want to keep to my market, and do what I do best there. Those places already have people there, and the transportation cost would be too high.”
With the expansion, Bouchard hopes that he can boost his number of employees during his peak season to 20.
A big reason for the expansion was also due to the the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), which has given money to help with the new additions.
“That's another big reason I went through the expansion,” he said. “The NOHFC really helped us, and were really easy to work with.”
As for the future of the company, Bouchard said he is uncertain of what direction it will go and he has no plans to retire anytime soon.
“I will always be involved with the business, always,” he said. “I just can't let it go because I built it from scratch. I started with absolutely nothing, so I'll never let it go.”
