STAMCO SPECIALTY TOOL & MANUFACTURING COMPANY A father passes the STAMCO torch, burning brighter than ever after 65 years
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By Mark Kandborg
onsider the making of things. Our gift for it is what separates us from all other animals on the planet. In our distant past, those who mastered this mysterious art were by far the most important members of the group. Without the tools they made, the tribe was defenseless and sentenced to eat only what could be grasped with bare hands, which often wasn’t much. Blessed are the toolmakers, it could have been said, for they shall inherit the earth. And we have. Today, the numbers and types of manufactured items are literally incalculable; but ironically, the manufacturers in our midst have become so adept at what they do that we rarely give them a second thought. We should. If they were to disappear, the gears of our economy would grind to a screeching halt, never to move again. STAMCO Specialty Tool & Manufacturing Company has been helping to keep those economic gears turning for 65 years. Today, STAMCO provides production and repair, incorporating design and prototyping for a wide spectrum of industries including oil and gas, aerospace, construction, mining, forestry, automotive, medical, petrochemical, telecommunications and power. It all started in 1949 when Edmonton Bulletin owner Charles E. Campbell decided to set up a machine shop and put his son Ed in charge. The shop was designed to repair his father’s printing presses, but Ed had worked as a mechanical engineer during the war and began to take on additional work for other companies – and STAMCO was born. By the mid-1960s, the company had diversified significantly, although a small shop, it was servicing Alberta’s burgeoning oil, gas and heavy industry sectors. At about the same time, but a world away, an equally ambitious young man named Giuseppe (Joe) Franco was beginning to build a future of his own. Joe had just completed his apprenticeship and worked seven years as a tool maker in Milan, the economic heart of Italy, and was working at the Pirelli tire manufacturing plant when he got the news he’d been waiting for. His request for a Canadian visa had been accepted. Soon, he was on an Alitalia DC-8 and headed for a new life in Edmonton. After three years at Northwest Industries, he was working for Ed Campbell, a tremendous mentor, at STAMCO. What happened next was the entrepreneurial version of winning the lottery. “Ed proposed to the three of us who were the most senior to buy him out,” Joe explains. Now, there’s an offer a machinist doesn’t hear every day. Joe and his two co-workers had earned it. “For quite a while before that, he would spend
Mario Portillo, leader of metals production; Michelle Portillo, leader of finance; Giuseppe (Joe) Franco, president and CEO and David Franco, design coordinator.
five months a year in Phoenix and leave us in charge. We talked to customers and set up jobs. We had a secretary who would take the money to the bank. He allowed us to pretty much run the company, so he said, ‘I’ve been watching over you guys and you’re quite capable. I’m sure you’ll be successful’.” Ed was right. The year was 1979. A year later, Joe and his new partners moved STAMCO from its 3,000 square foot location by the downtown rail yards (there were downtown rail yards then) to a single 8,500 square foot bay in the very building you’ll find them in today. One bay couldn’t contain them for long, however. Joe and his partners started buying more equipment and hiring more employees to run them, which allowed them to diversify further and brought them more business yet. STAMCO expanded to include the middle bay, but that didn’t hold them for long, either. They needed more space. Then, something pretty wonderful happened. The whole building came up for sale. So they bought it. Joe Franco and Ed Wisniewski were the last partners standing by this time, having bought out the third member of the team a few years earlier. After 25 years of a successful partnership, the two men evaluated both the business and the building and came up with a novel idea: Joe would take sole ownership of the first and Wisniewski would take over the second. Joe likes to joke that his new landlord now has the easier job. “Especially when the tenants pay,” he says, laughing. Joe had good reasons
STAMCO | 65 Years | Page 1