STAMCO SPECIALTY TOOL & MANUFACTURING COMPANY A father passes the STAMCO torch, burning brighter than ever after 65 years
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By Mark Kandborg
onsider the making of things. Our gift for it is what separates us from all other animals on the planet. In our distant past, those who mastered this mysterious art were by far the most important members of the group. Without the tools they made, the tribe was defenseless and sentenced to eat only what could be grasped with bare hands, which often wasn’t much. Blessed are the toolmakers, it could have been said, for they shall inherit the earth. And we have. Today, the numbers and types of manufactured items are literally incalculable; but ironically, the manufacturers in our midst have become so adept at what they do that we rarely give them a second thought. We should. If they were to disappear, the gears of our economy would grind to a screeching halt, never to move again. STAMCO Specialty Tool & Manufacturing Company has been helping to keep those economic gears turning for 65 years. Today, STAMCO provides production and repair, incorporating design and prototyping for a wide spectrum of industries including oil and gas, aerospace, construction, mining, forestry, automotive, medical, petrochemical, telecommunications and power. It all started in 1949 when Edmonton Bulletin owner Charles E. Campbell decided to set up a machine shop and put his son Ed in charge. The shop was designed to repair his father’s printing presses, but Ed had worked as a mechanical engineer during the war and began to take on additional work for other companies – and STAMCO was born. By the mid-1960s, the company had diversified significantly, although a small shop, it was servicing Alberta’s burgeoning oil, gas and heavy industry sectors. At about the same time, but a world away, an equally ambitious young man named Giuseppe (Joe) Franco was beginning to build a future of his own. Joe had just completed his apprenticeship and worked seven years as a tool maker in Milan, the economic heart of Italy, and was working at the Pirelli tire manufacturing plant when he got the news he’d been waiting for. His request for a Canadian visa had been accepted. Soon, he was on an Alitalia DC-8 and headed for a new life in Edmonton. After three years at Northwest Industries, he was working for Ed Campbell, a tremendous mentor, at STAMCO. What happened next was the entrepreneurial version of winning the lottery. “Ed proposed to the three of us who were the most senior to buy him out,” Joe explains. Now, there’s an offer a machinist doesn’t hear every day. Joe and his two co-workers had earned it. “For quite a while before that, he would spend
Mario Portillo, leader of metals production; Michelle Portillo, leader of finance; Giuseppe (Joe) Franco, president and CEO and David Franco, design coordinator.
five months a year in Phoenix and leave us in charge. We talked to customers and set up jobs. We had a secretary who would take the money to the bank. He allowed us to pretty much run the company, so he said, ‘I’ve been watching over you guys and you’re quite capable. I’m sure you’ll be successful’.” Ed was right. The year was 1979. A year later, Joe and his new partners moved STAMCO from its 3,000 square foot location by the downtown rail yards (there were downtown rail yards then) to a single 8,500 square foot bay in the very building you’ll find them in today. One bay couldn’t contain them for long, however. Joe and his partners started buying more equipment and hiring more employees to run them, which allowed them to diversify further and brought them more business yet. STAMCO expanded to include the middle bay, but that didn’t hold them for long, either. They needed more space. Then, something pretty wonderful happened. The whole building came up for sale. So they bought it. Joe Franco and Ed Wisniewski were the last partners standing by this time, having bought out the third member of the team a few years earlier. After 25 years of a successful partnership, the two men evaluated both the business and the building and came up with a novel idea: Joe would take sole ownership of the first and Wisniewski would take over the second. Joe likes to joke that his new landlord now has the easier job. “Especially when the tenants pay,” he says, laughing. Joe had good reasons
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to choose STAMCO. Two of his children and his son-in-law are part of the business. “I knew from very young that dad worked hard all his life, and I knew that he wanted it to become a family business,” says his daughter Michelle. So when STAMCO’s bookkeeper retired, she left her banking job and joined her father. “It was a great opportunity,” she says. She has since earned her CGA and is now STAMCO’s leader of finance. “And then I brought my husband Mario in.” Mario Portillo, like his wife, quickly became one of STAMCO’s valuable assets. His background was in administration and sales, but he wanted to learn the business from the floor up. “I never knew, honestly, what a punch press was, or a lathe. It was a different world to me,” he says. “When they put me into the tool crib, it was supposed to be a transition for me. I got excited about it because it was something I didn’t know about.” He soon moved on to shipping/receiving, apprenticed and worked as a journeyman machinist and then moved into quality control. As Joe says, his son-in-law “was really wearing a lot of gloves.” Now, Mario is leader of metals production for the company. David Franco began working for his father during the summers while going to school. “I wanted to keep him away from the mall,” Joe says, probably only half-kidding. “The only way I could not worry was to have him next to me.” Apparently, there was nothing to worry about. Today, David is STAMCO’s design coordinator. “I studied architectural design in school and interned at an architecture firm. When my dad offered me a job, I accepted and worked six years before expanding my knowledge at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering technology,” he says. “I really like the diversity here with all the different types of work. It’s great for a designer to have that experience and exposure. It’s been very interesting work and I really enjoy it. I have had a lot of exposure to personality theory and I’m using that knowledge to help me engage with others and manage the design depart-
Top: Work done in the Metals Division. Bottom: Work done in the Plastics Division.
ment. It’s been a great experience and an honour to work with all these great people at STAMCO, my family included.” “There are so many different cultures here, from all over the world,” Mario says. “Most speak at least two languages, and yet they all work together to do the job. I think that having the
Congratulations to STAMCO on its accomplishments in the last 65 years!
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STAMCO | 65 Years | Page 2
openness to take everybody’s input has contributed a lot to how much STAMCO’s grown. These are really skillful people, and they’re the foundation of the place. No matter what the economy is, it doesn’t matter, because these guys will drive it.” Joe agrees. “We really appreciate the long-standing employees who’ve stood by us and we’ve stepped it up in the last couple of years by having an advisory board and Dave Abbott as our general manager now, which makes our company more professional, more strategic, and helps us to be further successful.” “This has always seemed like a family business to me,” Michelle says, because I used to go to company parties as a kid, and a lot of those people are still here. But what I’m really excited about is that we all really believe in the successful future of STAMCO.” Nothing could make her father happier. “My kids are here, so what better retirement is there for me? I come in when I want to, I have a hobby for life and I get to see my kids every day, so there is no better way, for me. I want them to carry on. I have two grandkids already. I look at them and I think, hopefully, they’d like to come in later on. There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing your legacy carried on. I like to think I’ve left a legacy to my family.” If it could be said that tools lend substance to the dreams of man, there can be no doubt they’ve lent substance to the dreams
of Joe Franco. “Since I went into business, it changed my life for the best. I started to come to work without effort. I wanted to get up early and be here before everybody else and go home after everybody else. I always looked to the future.” Looking to the future may be what has brought STAMCO to where it is today, but this month Joe has reason to look back and be proud of what they’ve accomplished. “Today when I come in here and look around, to me it’s an enjoyment to see what they’re doing on the floor and how they do it. We have a great name in the industry, and we built that for many, many years so that you can benefit now,” he says, turning to his kids. “I think this is a good thing, and I do believe that this is a future for all of you.” Michelle seems to speak for the entire family when she says, “And we hope we can take it and run with it.” “You can.” Congratulations, STAMCO, and here’s to the next 65 years. There are grandkids, after all.
6048 97 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 3J4 (780) 436-2647 • www.stamcotool.com
Congratulations to STAMCO on its 65th anniversary! We wish them continued success!
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Congratulations to STAMCO on 65 years of business in Edmonton. We are are proud to be a part of your success.
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