2012年2月15日 星期三

Long history comes to a close

It’s a Friday that will be long remembered by workers at H. Imbleau and Son.

The final pour of cast-iron molten at the Renfrew foundry in more than 140 years of operation happened Friday, Feb. 10, as one of Canada’s oldest family-owned businesses prepared to shut its doors.

Staff will be officially out of work by the end of this week, while business will likely continue for a few more weeks to handle left-over shipping and other administrative duties.

“I’m going to miss it,” said Albert Linde, who started working at the foundry in 1987.

“I liked everyone in here. Everyone was like family. I’m going to miss everyone.”

“It was kind of emotional,” said Joshua Imbleau, son of owner Lucy Imbleau,Get information on airpurifier from the unbiased, independent experts. who has worked at the foundry part-time since he was 12 years old and full-time the last seven years.

“The quality of the products we produced and the hard work that went behind doing it, that’s what I hope people remember. It wasn’t an easy job.”

On the final pouring day, workers carried ladles of molten iron to fill molds for orders from such companies as Toronto Hydro, Rogers Communication, Anchor and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. A few orders were also filled of the famous Imbleau stove fronts and wells (or smaller HIS-101 manhole covers).Most kidneystones pass out of the body without help from a doctor.

Lloyd Gibson of Mount St. Patrick has worked at the foundry since 1986. Like many of the employees, he’ll now look for work elsewhere.

Meanwhile, he has good memories of the working environment at H. Imbleau and Son.

“It was lots of hard work and good guys to work with, and lots of laughs,” he says.

Ironically, the foundry has been busy down the final homestretch.

“It’s just been go, go, go the last few months,In mathematics, a magiccube is the 3-dimensional equivalent of a magic square,” said Joshua Imbleau.

“The last four months have been the busiest we’ve been in the last seven years.”

But that’s not because business was as good as ever. It wasn’t.

Annual revenue of about $500,000 had to cover salaries for more than a dozen workers and company expenses.

Regardless, owner Lucy Imbleau says she doesn’t know what the future holds. The foundry building, which is about 7,000 square feet, could be torn down; it could be used in some other capacity, she says.

Regardless, manager Jason Imbleau says he is proud to have been part of the Imbleau family business, as a fifth-generation worker.

It was started in the late 1850s or early 1860s by Luc Imbleau, with the help of his convent-educated wife, Henrietta, who handled translations and business transactions. H. Imbleau & Son was first called L.We offer the best ventilationsystem, Imbleau & Sons, but later named after Luc’s son, Henri. Another son, Merrill, was also involved in the business.

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