A growing surge of interest is driving a number of expansion projects at the 5th Wheel Training Institute in New Liskeard, Haileybury and possibly beyond.
Having purchased a former prison in Haileybury in July 2006, the transport and heavy equipment training school is spending upwards of $2 million to renovate the site and convert it to a new general headquarters.
The 18,000-square-foot, two-storey building currently accommodates 20 staff, allowing the company to coordinate its two campuses -- New Liskeard and Warwick -- from a single, separate site. Although Popkie acknowledges that the building is quite roomy for its relatively small number of site staff, he says the extra space will not go to waste.
“We’re not utilizing the building even close to its capacity for now, but we have big lofty goals to continue to grow,” says Ed Popkie, managing director, 5th Wheel Training Centre.
“At some point in the near future, we will be using the building at a much better level of efficiency.”
Rather than hiring general contractors, the school is using its own staff to oversee the project and maintain a series of local sub-contractors such as Liskeard Carpentry, Campsall’s Electric and Fitzgerald Roofing.
Through the summer months, work targeted the interior, which was gutted and reconstructed. In the next eight to 12 weeks, workers will begin renovation of the building’s exterior though staff have settled into their new space.
The move has transplanted fromer New Liskeard staff from several sectors such as educational services, sales and marketing, accounting and finance as well as management.
The company is also looking to develop construction plans for the New Liskeard campus, which recently increased its area holdings from 14 acres to 28 acres. This marks the first property increase at the site since 2000, when it made the jump from seven acres to 14.
“Between our staff and our students, it’s absolutely packed out there right now,” Popkie says. “Many courses we ran through 2007 were literally using our facilities at 100 per cent capacity, and that’s not healthy even though most managers and shareholders like to hear that number. It’s not a sustainable place to be.”
Over the course of the next four to eight weeks, 5th Wheel is clearing as much overburden as possible before the ground freezes. Once work is completed in the spring, the company will begin to prepare the land for infrastructure, such as hydro-electric services.
Though no firm plans have yet been developed, new repair and maintenance facilities may be built to accommodate the site’s continued growth, with a potential cost of nearly $1 million.
The additional space will also allow the company to expand its program offerings and introduce more educational programs to its roster. While Popkie is hesitant to release details, he says these new programs will allow 5th Wheel to move beyond its current offerings and into such realms as forestry as well as service, repairs and maintenance.
Located outside of London, the company’s two-year-old Warwick facility has also seen a strong level of growth, jumping from 160 students in its first year to its current total of 250.
As the 22,000-square-foot, 13-acre facility is already up to 85 per cent use, leading to the consideration of building a new training facility between the school’s two existing sites. Although no exact locations have been examined as of yet, Popkie says it will likely be in southern Ontario, within a three- to five-hour drive of its headquarters.
However, Popkie says 5th Wheel Training’s aggressive approach to expansion may well take the company outside of Ontario and onto the national stage within the space of two years.
“We’re not just looking in southern Ontario or Northern Ontario. We have the ability to grow, and we want to be able to bring our innovative and creative approach to learning to other provinces in the near future.”
