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Two Sudbury entrepreneurs step into local hall of fame

It was a strong head for business and perhaps his silver tongue which pulled Don Rastall down from the telephone poles of the North to become the leader in supplying the region with fasteners.
Rastall1
Don Rastall

It was a strong head for business and perhaps his silver tongue which pulled Don Rastall down from the telephone poles of the North to become the leader in supplying the region with fasteners.
Having grown up in Huntsville, the founder of the Rastall Corp. was hired as a construction worker by Bell Telephone at 17, following the untimely passing of his father.
His gift of gab soon caught the attention of his superiors who gave him a sales position, marketing training and a territory reaching from Huntsville to Fort Frances.
"They realized I was a better talker than a pole climber," said Rastall at a recent ceremony inducting him and Robert Lipic, president and CEO of Mining Technologies International Inc., into the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA)'s Hall of Fame.
After moving to Sudbury, he married Jackie Helpert in 1960 and went to work for her father, Charlie, at Helpert's Supply for 15 years.
After observing that 12-inch adjustable wrenches were regularly being tweaked to open wider to meet miners' demands, Rastall launched his own business in 1975 to create and sell a unique modified adjustable wrench. These wrenches, once packaged at home as a husband-and-wife team, are now manufactured and sold all over the world.
In time, the business has expanded to include the sale of fasteners which have been adopted by the mining, forestry and construction sectors in Sudbury and across the globe.
In all his many years as an entrepreneur, Rastall has obtained a long-term perspective on recessions and the dangers of knee-jerk quick-fixes as a result of fear.
He cautioned against buying into this fear through "information overload," which often leads to sacrificing the heart of one's workforce as a panicked reaction to the sudden plunge in the market.
These same people would be needed once more when the markets improve, as "the sun will shine again."
Instead, he argued, companies need to closely scrutinize their books as most have excess fat to trim before putting the knife to their people.
Rastall spoke of a prior recession where his accounting staff found that the company was spending $37,000 annually on prizes for staff sports tournaments. By cutting this unnecessary expenditure, he could keep one other job afloat, meaning one more person could continue to walk into the shop with a smile on their face.
This has led to such strong dedication amongst staff that when a fire incinerated its Lorne St. location in 2000, Rastall and his people banded together. Within 48 hours, temporary warehousing was secured and the business was up and running again.
"We want to cut our costs, not our throats," said Rastall. "People are the most important thing."
This kind of selective caution was also advised by Lipic, who heads up one of Canada's largest manufacturers and suppliers of mining equipment, employing more than 300 people across North Bay and Sudbury.
"There are more than a few cracks in the crystal ball," he says. "[At September's MINExpo] in Vegas, we were all very, very optimistic. Of course, there was a lot of change just eight weeks later."
Beginning his career in Falconbridge's Strathcona Mine after graduating from the Haileybury School of Mines more than 40 years ago, it wasn't long before he was hired by Smith International to test new mineral exploration drilling equipment.
When the company chose to step out of the mining industry in 1984, Lipic bought the Canadian operations. Over time, the company grew and morphed through further expansions, consolidations and mergers to become the powerhouse it is today.
In that time, numerous organizations have showered praise on Lipic, who most recently has been nominated for the Premier's Award for Ontario College Graduates.
His company was also given a Northern Ontario Business Award for Company of the Year 51+ Employees in 1994, while Lipic himself was recognized with a Northern Ontario Business Award for Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006.
SAMSSA president Jeff Fuller emphasized the importance of the how this year's inductees were selected not by the executive board, but by popular vote amongst the membership.
"It's very prestigious because these Hall of Fame nominees are done by committee," said Fuller. "It's done by the members here, so it's a selection by our peers, which makes it all that much more special."


www.rastallcorp.com
www.mti.ca
www.samssa.ca