Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/607779
38 | DECEMBER 2015 Architectural Woodwork In Western Canada, similar sentiments are expressed by Tom Morin, owner of Morinwood Manufacturing Inc. "In terms of revenue and opportunities, 2015 has been terrific, and although we're not completely sold out for the next two years, we're close to it," he says. Morinwood, which is celebrated for its work on the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion (where, for the sake of maintaining quality and speed of output, Morin built a robotic assembly line with an adapted German-built Kuka robotic arm) and more recently for the millwork and acoustics for the Surrey Memorial Hospital, is now heavily involved in fitting out the Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver. The facility is a $360-million Arthur Erickson-designed hotel and residence that will feature 147 guest rooms, 217 luxury residences above the hotel, 15,000 square feet of meeting and event space, and the acclaimed Chinese restaurant Mott 32. It is scheduled for completion next summer. "We're supplying all of the wall panel- ling in the hotel, residences and lobby, so it's an enormous job for us," says Morin. "We're also working on a residential tower at the University of British Columbia and a prison in the Okanagan – the latter being especially interesting, since linear and decorative wood is being used as an esthetically pleasing element for the staff areas and offices." Morin actively maintains the quality of his work in several ways, one of them being not to spread his 45-member staff too thinly, geographically speaking. All of his jobs are located in B.C. Morinwood has also evolved its business model to deliver a design-assist service to clients, which Morin says is especially useful in public-private partnership proj- ects, including the current BC Children's and BC Women's Hospital redevelopment project. "Clients are very responsive to design-assist because it's a rare service that provides them with the finishes they need for the budget they have, instead of going the hard bid route," he explains. "It allows us to have more influence by participating in a project during the budgeting phase. We're hoping to extend our design-assist service to other types of construction delivery methods in the near future." While adjusting one's business model to provide added value is always a smart strategy to consider, government initiatives can play a role in boosting the fortunes of woodworking firms – at least in B.C. Companies such as Towne Millwork Ltd. of Abbotsford are perpetually busy, and Towne president Greg Hesketh has credited this partly to the provincial government's ongoing promotion of the Wood First Initiative, which continues to encourage developers to use wood products. CAC's Zhang suggests that the choice of hardware is crucial in delivering quality cabinets and other products to clients, and too often, due to budget, fine woodwork- ing can be undermined by cheap plastic components whose performance does not withstand prolonged usage. Enter Blum Canada Limited. This wholly owned subsidiary of Julius Blum GmbH of Austria produces some of the best functional cabinet hardware on the market. Plus, the function of Blum's innovative products such as Aventos lift systems for upper cabinets, and Tandem and Movento for wood drawers, are enhanced with motion technologies like Servo-Drive, and Tip-On Blumotion – the latter of which, highlighted at the Interzum 2015 exhibition in Cologne, make handle-less drawers open and close with a feather-light glide. Zhang echoes the sentiments of many woodworking companies striving to main- tain their reputation for quality when she says it's difficult to find young replace- ments for her extremely skilled craftspeople; many of whom are in their 50s and 60s. "It's a tough business in that it becomes more physically challenging the older you get, and we also have to contend with the younger generation preferring easier professions," says Zhang. "However, we've had some success in finding new people who have talent and are willing to spend six or so years being taught by the masters. We hope this will continue." A The celebrated work of Morinwood Manufacturing Inc. at the Vancouver Convention Centre. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY MORINWOOD MANUFACTURING INC. Millwork Ltd.indd 1 14-11-12 4:15 PM Flynn Canada.indd 1 14-11-07 3:20