Jane, Mark and Art Bell.
Art and Jane Bell and Their ‘Top Gun’ Son Fabricate a Dream No job is too big or too small.
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By Mark Kandborg
hen abel contracting corp. co-founder and president Art Bell picked up his first pair of tin snips at the age of 16 and put them to work, he had no idea what that simple act would one day mean for him, or for his future family. It didn’t take him long to realize he was onto a good thing. “My brother-in-law got me into it,” he says, “and pretty soon I was making $1.25 an hour. That’s $50 a week, less taxes.” Doesn’t seem like so much now, but that was darn good money in the early ‘70s. Good enough to allow a hard-working young man to buy his dream car, a 1972 Cougar convertible. He loved that car so much that he only recently upgraded to a 1973 Cougar XR-7 convertible. The man clearly knows what he likes.
He drove that car to business administration classes at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and then to work as a field coordinator for a big company where he was responsible for the work of 75 employees. “They were making three mistakes a day, each,” he says, shaking his head. “It got to the point where the phone would ring and he would shake,” Art’s ex-wife, business partner and best friend, Jane, explains. They both knew that the stress-tobenefit ratio of coordinating someone else’s employees just wasn’t working for them. It was time to start working for themselves. So, on a warm August night 20 years ago, abel contracting corp. Corp. was born.
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“We started with a half-ton, a pair of snips and four customers,” she says. The couple paid cash for all their supplies, which they stored in the family garage next to Art’s beloved convertible. Living the business and doing exceptional work quickly paid off for Art and Jane. It wasn’t long before the garage was full. It was time to expand. Art and Jane rented a space in Nisku, but it also “got too full too fast,” Jane says. So in the late ‘90s, abel contracting corp. set up shop at their present location in southeast Edmonton at 436082nd Ave. “We started here with one bay. But...” You guessed it. They quickly outgrew that. “We added a big Quonset hut out back,” she says. Four years ago, they added yet another bay. Clearly, Art and Jane are doing something right. “Our work is done to a very high standard,” Jane explains. “It has to look good, and it has to work good. If something’s not right, we go back and make it right. As competitive as this industry is, that’s the only thing that gets you the job.” Art couldn’t agree more. “Whatever it takes. Sometimes it costs you money, but that’s the way we do it.” No ‘three mistakes a day’ here. “It’s nice to drive around town and say, ‘oh, we did that project’,” Jane says with a smile. “There’s a pride.” While extremely high standards, pride in workmanship and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done may be keys to abel contracting corp.’s success, there’s something else as well. A not-so-secret weapon, you could say – their son, Mark. Mark Reinhardt, site supervisor and now co-owner of his parents’ company, has a gift for working with sheet metal. Some might even consider him a kind of prodigy. Jane and Art certainly do. You can see it in their faces when they talk about the level of quality he brings to the table. “Mark does an amazing job with everything he touches,” Jane says. “And I’m not just saying that.” Jane’s pride in her son is well founded. Mark graduated from high school with enough hours to work with sheet metal, and by the age of 20 he had won the Silver Hammer provincial skills
Congratulations to abel contracting corp. on 20 years of Success.
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ATB ductwork
Exposed SS oval duct at ATB’s flagship branch
competition twice (by all accounts he would have managed a three-peat, but the competition is only open to apprentices under 21). The annual competition is invitation only, pitting the best of the very best from NAIT and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) against each other, ‘top gun’ style. The participants weld, fabricate and assemble to demanding specifications. No tool marks. Spotless. And that’s the level of workmanship customers can count on from this master fabricator and his abel contracting corp. team. “When I started,” Mark says, “it was all about getting through school, getting a paycheque and getting a car.” Sound familiar? “Now there’s a lot of thinking, planning and troubleshooting. I really enjoy being on the tools and on the job site. I love seeing a job through from start to finish.” “I miss that,” Art says, a little wistfully. “Being on the tools.” “I think they like playing with the cranes,” Jane says. She knows her boys.
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Happy Happycrew. crew.Finished Finishedininone oneday. day.
Father and son share a sheepish look. “Everyone loves crane day,” Art says. It so happens that Art and Jane were blessed five times. They have four other sons, two of whom have mastered multiple trades and two who now have companies of their own, but they all worked together during abel contracting corp.’s early days. One thing is for certain – this family loves what they do. “If it moves air, it’s part of our trade,” Jane says, “but it’s not something you usually see or think about. People put in showers with all these jets, but then they put in this tiny fan. You don’t think about it until you need it. No one says ‘look at our beautiful furnace’.” “They’ll think about it if it’s not working, though,” Art says. It’s ironic that when Art, Jane, Mark and the rest of the folks at abel contracting corp. have done their jobs, no one will think of them at all. They’re okay with that, because it means they’re continuing to do it right. “Our customers think of us when it’s time to do renovations or build other locations, though,” Jane says. “That’s our affirmation.”
Crane day at SODCL new corporate office
So what does the future hold for this not-so-little little company that just keeps getting bigger? “I think it will keep changing,” Art says. “We’ve been doing small jobs for larger and larger companies, and now we’re doing larger and larger jobs for them. Our ultimate goal is to have our own building.”
Peter Faiazza
Professional Corporation Certified General Accountant
Congratulations on your 20th anniversary. Gemco is proud to be a part of your success, we are looking forward to the next 20 years!
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Congratulations abel contracting corp. on 20 years! Phone: 780.929.8114 • Fax: 780.929.8048 5202 - 50th Avenue Beaumont, Alberta T4X 1E3
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Perhaps no one is as surprised, or as pleased, with how far abel contracting corp. has come as Art himself. “I started this to earn a living for my family,” he says. “Now we’re a part of helping others earn a living for theirs.” So here’s to Art, Jane, Mark and the rest of the abel contracting corp. family who continue to work tirelessly, expertly and flawlessly in the background for the next 20 years, getting the job done right.
Top Gun leading the crew in Red Deer.
“We’re bursting at the seams here,” Mark says, with some amazement. Jane, too, is a little astonished at how much the family business has grown over the past 20 years. “From a truck and snips,” as she puts it, “to specs that run 790 pages.”
Congrats to abel contracting corp. o n y o u r 2 0 th a n n i v e r s a r y !
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4360 82 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6B 2S4 (780) 490-5861 www.abelcontracting.com
From Our Family to Yours Beaumont Credit Union is proud to congratulate abel contracting corp. on 20 years of growth and prosperity. We look forward to celebrating your continued success for years to come.
www.actualmechanical.com
Congratulations to abel contracting corp. on your 20th Anniversary! We are proud to be a part of your success.
20310 - 107 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5S 1W9 Phone: (780)447-3400 • Fax: (780)447-4313 schendel@schendel.ca • www.schendel.ca
780.929.8561 www.beaumontcu.com
5007 – 50 Avenue Beaumont, Alberta
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