Lakehead Ironworks Staff Work Far Afield
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
When the work for your business is not there you could sit back and worry or go out and get some elsewhere in the world.Uwe Quast, President of Lakehead Ironworks did just that, recently completing large projects in the Grand Cayman Islands and Barbados.
“ Last week we sent out 84,000 pounds of steel products in containers to Grand Cayman, for a Tom Jones Construction project. On the previous project in the Grand Caymans there were four of us who stayed there for 3 months from December to March erecting the project,” smiles the upbeat Uwe Quast. “ It was a decorative roof of steel required because of the hurricane potential there. The whole project was covered with decking. We also have worked on the US Embassy in the Barbados which had a lot of stainless steel polished etc to give a beautiful look.”
Uwe Quast has been doing work for the company for 34 years starting at age 14. He started with handrailings and steel stairs for apartment buildings with his father. “My father retired in 1990 and I continued on, I had nothing better to do,” laughed Quast. “We started behind a flooring company in the northward, went to Alloy Place and needed more space so we moved to our current location at 835 N. Vickers where we have 9000 square feet.”
Quast has recently joined forces with Andy Locke who is Vice president, has a part time administrator with 14 other staff at peak periods. “ My previous company, A&T Precision Grinding had reached all we could do in this economy and so I decided to merge with Uwe who was very busy. I think we have a good skill set together. I am a machinist by trade, was always self employed and worked out of the same location,” noted Andy Locke. “ I’ve gone from micrometer to the tape measure, mms to inches. We will construct anything that is made out of steel. That’s our product. Lakehead Ironworks will take a raw product in 20 foot lengths and can scroll it bend it, fold it, twist it or whatever we need. We can go from
ornate handrailings to 3 storey buildings. You order the steel from Algoma Steel or a retail outlet and build it, cut it to size, paint it and erect it. It is somewhat like a big lego set.”
“ You need to be hands on to estimate a project, create shop drawings and do the fabrication and erection of the work. It’s best to be hands on,” said Quast. “ We would like to increase our shop size but seem to not qualify for any fundings. There is a peak of
construction in Thunder Bay recently but the years before were not that good. We tendered the project in Grand Cayman and beat other companies in Miami only 150 miles form the work. Tom Jones know we thrive on doing a quality job on time and time is money there. We had
to learn about doing business from the ground up. If the the wood industry thrives Thunder Bay thrives, but when things are slow here there is a lot of work in other locations around the world.”
