The Best Seats
In The House

Named after a dear friend of school founder Ed King, Father Michael Goetz Secondary School (FMGSS) first opened the doors to its current location in 1990. Originally located in Etobicoke, the current location is situated in Mississauga and currently serves upwards of 1,300 students.

As part of some renovations scheduled to take place over the summer of 2018, our team was contacted by members of the Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board to discuss the possibility of replacing some outdated seating located in the gymnasium of FMGSS.

Overlooking Lake Nipissing in northern Ontario is Nipissing University, a primarily undergraduate university recognized for smaller class sizes, unbeatable student living conditions and accessible support from faculty members.

Located in North Bay, the school reached out to us in late 2017 as they were in some preliminary discussions regarding the design of a new bleacher seating system and press box. Known for their athletic prowess in soccer, basketball and hockey (among others), the school’s athletic pride is green and black representing the Nipissing Lakes across the province.

It was the early 1970s in King Township, just north of Toronto. The local government decided it was time to shut down the country schools in outlying areas, promising to bus local primary students to one of the newer regional public elementary schools.

At the time, parents of children enrolled in country schools were skeptical of the larger institution’s ability to create the warmth and commitment they had grown accustomed to in smaller country schools.

So these parents formed a coalition that would determine the feasibility of opening a co-ed private school for students in grades 1-8 in King Township. After the research was completed, the decision was made to begin preparations to complete what would soon become known as The Country Day School – opening in the fall of 1972.

Nestled on the Canadian east coast lies the historic island of Newfoundland. With one of North America’s oldest European settlements dating from the early 16^thcentury, the island is marred with a colourful history that is still visible today.

Heading southwest from the province’s capital of St. John’s lies the quaint city of Mount Pearl – a suburb of the nearby capital city. As the second most populous city on the island, Mount Pearl shares much of the rich history with its neighbouring city and today the region serves as one of the most popular tourist destinations on Canada’s eastern seaboard.

With campuses in both Vancouver and Kelowna, the University of British Columbia (UBC) is the province’s oldest and most established post-secondary institution. With a strong background in scientific advancements, the Vancouver campus is located a mere 10km from downtown and is home to roughly 65,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students across its two campuses.

In addition to housing the world’s largest cyclotron in the school’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, it is also home to the Thunderbirds, representing UBC’s student athletes, with teams in football, basketball, soccer, rugby, swimming and baseball. As part of a complete redesign to the Thunderbirds’ baseball park, our team was enlisted through our partners at RecTec Industries to lend a hand with the seating and customized padding for the stadium.

Located in eastern Nebraska lies the small town of Columbus, an area rich with history and located close to Omaha, the state’s largest city.

Much like Omaha, Columbus was originally a pioneer town, offering early settlers excellent land for crops and access to the Loup and Platte rivers. Today, Columbus is a tight-knit community of roughly 22,000 residents that boasts over 20 city parks and public facilities offering residents the very best the area has to offer.

As part of some upgrades to one of the city’s largest parks, municipal officials reached out to our team through our partners at Crouch Recreation in Nebraska. Dubbed the “picnic capital of Nebraska,” Pawnee Park boasts over 150 acres of space along the Loup River that has become a favourite family location among visitors and residents alike.

When it comes to planning seating in a gymnasium, available space is the first question that is asked in the process. While most schools and other facilities would love to pack the sidelines of any volleyball or basketball game with cheering fans, it often boils down to what exactly the gymnasium in question can handle.

While many gymnasiums are relatively similar in nature, there are those that are outside of the typical (84’ long and 50’ wide) gymnasium sizes. For those that are larger in nature, larger telescopic bleacher seating is the typical solution. For those that are smaller than standard gymnasiums, however, are met with a few additional challenges. When planning seating structures with limited space, it can become challenging, despite the highly-customizable capabilities our products have.

A little over a year ago, we were enlisted by the Anglophone South District School Board to outfit three of the board’s schools with innovative and customized retractable bleachers. As with many outdated retractable bleacher systems, the existing units were made of wood and were quickly becoming unsafe for both operators and spectators.

As part of the agreement, our team was contracted to remove and dispose of the existing bleachers and replace them with state-of-the-art units, complete with custom colouring and lettering.

As an extension of that project, we were again contacted by the school board to replace some existing bleachers that were approaching the end of their lifecycle.

Let’s face it, as a business owner, purchaser or facility operator, it’s hard not to notice the increase in the cost of doing business. While many of these rising costs are the direct reflection of a strong and working economy, they do require those in purchasing positions to strategically plan and spend their budgets accordingly.

One such cost that has risen dramatically over the past decade or so is that of shipping. With the rise of online shopping and e-commerce, goods are being shipped at a record pace across the US and Canada. Pair that with volatile oil and gas prices and you have a perfect storm for rising costs associated with shipping by sea, ground and air.

When it comes to our business, traditionally, we do the majority of our shipping on the ground, depending on the location the goods are to be delivered to. While we explore alternative shipping options when shipping overseas, to the Middle East or to the Caribbean, here in North America, we mainly ship the old-fashioned way: by ground.

Known as an on-island suburb, the small town of Montreal West is a picturesque community that is comprised largely of young families. With a bustling downtown core business area spanning Westminster Avenue between Milner and Cruzon, Montreal West’s downtown is still dominated by small, locally-owned businesses.

Having worked closely with the primarily English-speaking community over the past number of years, we were once again called upon by their parks and recreation department. Dominated by family-oriented activities, Montreal West is home to a number of community operated sports fields. As part of the updating process that many communities go through over the course of history, we were once again tapped to supply some bleacher seating for use at one of the community’s sports fields.