Heritage of Resilience PROFILE: Bloos
Wood Products, Kitchener, Ont.
If you are old enough to have had Bauer skates with a wood skate guard, that guard came from Kitchener, Ont.,-based Bloos Wood Products. Ed Bloos, the current proprietor, remembers back to being “in charge” of outputting the springs that held the halves of the guards together. He was nine, and recalls working next to his grandmother, who was cutting out guards on a bandsaw, his grandfather and his parents. It really was, Bloos says, a family business. The Bloos family emigrated from Romania, where Ed’s grandfather was trained in cabinetmaking. Bloos muses that he has close family living in the U.S., and some living in Australia. “They didn’t know anything about where they were going,” Bloos says. “They saw place names on a list and didn’t know New York from Montreal. Once in Canada, Bloos’s grandfather focused on working in cabinet shops while the rest of the family found work where they could. Ed’s dad tried his hand working in tobacco country around Tilsonburg, but soon discovered he was critically allergic to tobacco – it causing a painful rash – and he needed to find something better. INDUSTRY SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 2020 16 WOOD INDUSTRY
Along came Bauer, Bloos says. Bauer needed a reliable supply of skate guards, the deal was made and in 1952, Bloos Wood Products was born. Bloos likes to show the outside of the facility, explaining how the roofline describes the history. On the left, in aged white, is the original shop. Later, as the business expanded, additions were added, angled out from the original, once, and then once more. An office was nestled in the angle, but the door from the office into the shop is an exterior door as evidence of its coming late to the party. The Bauer guard business died as plastics replaced the traditional skate guards in the ‘60s, but the ball was rolling and Bloos Wood Products landed another customer — this one requiring a move into sheet goods and laminates to make student desks — and then more customers as the business moved into edgebanding, boring and finishing to meet the needs of its market. Like most family businesses, Bloos relies heavily on its employees. The core family has largely moved on, Bloos says, his father is 81 and spry, but no longer has any involvement in the day-to-day. His sister is part owner, but
