8
SEPTEMBER 2019
MID ISLAND CABINETS RESOLVING STAFF SHORTAGES ROBOTICALLY Family Business Will Invest 1.5 Million in Automation
P
ARKSVILLE – Mid Island Cabinets has come up with an innovative way of addressing a shortage of skilled workers: Robots. After 27 years in business, a shortage of skilled trades, combined with surging demand from clients has convinced the familyowned company to enlist the services of robots to get the job done, by investing almost $1.5 million in automation over the next few years. Starting with an IM A edge bander, which will be the first one installed in BC, the automated machine will allow the business to produce seamless-edge banding that eliminates glue lines and gives cabinet doors a water-resistant, sealed finish. Plus, unlike a human worker, an automated edge bander doesn’t need a place to live in the island’s overheated real estate market. Company founder and owner Guy Lussier lists the factors that have made it difficult for his shop, and every similar industry on the island, to attract and retain staff: Young people are leaving island communities, driven away in part by unaffordable real estate and high rents. Higher accommodation costs also put pressure on wages, while the company must keep costs in line to remain competitive within the market. Daughter Kathy Hatcher, who also helps manage the company, sees career change and people choosing to take time off work as additional factors that make it difficult to find and retain workers. The company considered bringing in foreign workers, but the bureaucracy and ongoing support requirements were too extensive for a smaller firm. Enter the ‘robot’ solution. It is labour that does not need to keep pace with the cost of living, make alternate career plans or find an apartment.
Sabo Jang & Co. Ltd.
Congratulations to Mid Island Cabinets on your th 20 Anniversary! 118 McMillan Street S., Parksville Phone: 250.951.2000 Email: frontdesk@sabojang.com www.sabojang.com
The Mid Island Cabinets crew outside the company’s retail outlet and 30,000 square foot production shop in Parksville “We have to compensate for not being able to find people,� Hatcher explains, adding the company is starting with one machine and plans to add two more in the next few years. W hen M id Island Cabinets started almost three decades ago, the work landscape was very different. It was a family run, homebased business in Errington. Hatcher started working for Mid Island Cabinets at 16 but remembers helping in the shop as a child, adding bumpers and knobs to cabinet doors, bringing tools to her dad, and picking up nails. Her mother, Francine Lussier, kept a busy schedule between home-schooling the children and working on the bookkeeping side of the business. Hatcher, like her father, understands all aspects of the business and has witnessed its steady growth from a small home-based workshop to its current success. The company has retail outlets in Parksville and Nanaimo, with plans pending to open near Victoria. The production shop is now in Parksville and has expanded to a 30,000 square foot manufacturing centre. The new
An example of texturing using different materials and colours is seen in this dramatic kitchen layout
“We have to compensate for not being able to find people.� KATHY HATCHER MID ISLAND CABINETS
&RQJUDWXODWLRQV WR
0LG ,VODQG &DELQHWV RQ \RXU
WK $QQLYHUVDU\ &$//
ZZZ SDWHUVRQFRXQWHUWRSV FRP
Kathy Hatcher with husband Mike and their children, the second and potentially third generation of cabinet makers for Mid Island Cabinets. The company was established by Kathy’s parents Guy and Francine Lussier in 1992 production space, which doubled the company’s shop, was opened in 2017. “It’s already beginning to feel a bit small,� Hatcher notes. Between the retail outlets and production shop, the company
employs approximately 50 people. Demand for housing cabinetry is high, with Mid Island Cabi nets completi ng more tha n 400 installations annually. The SEE MID ISLAND CABINETS | PAGE 9