Elias Woodwork is celebrating their milestone 40th anniversary.
It was forty ago when Ron Elias and brothers John and Ralph Fehr purchased Elias Woodwork, which was conceived as a one-man cabinet shop by Mr. Peters Elias who worked out of a small garage on his side yard.
Since those humble beginnings, the company has produced superior quality products and services of exceptional value, and delivered on time that the company has doubled its manufacturing capacity and sales every four years. This is large in part due to Ralph Fehr’s leadership who has a background in engineering and a passion for technology and machinery.
Even though Elias is now seen as one of the most automated wood processing factories in North America, each piece of equipment installed has resulted in more employment, never less. Their commitment to never cut costs close to the customer results in real live human beings answering the phone for customer orders and service, packaging that is sure to get the products to your location in the condition they left our factory, with a fit and finish second to none.
At Elias, their customer’s name is attached to every work piece going through the shop and the company says they are fortunate to be located in a community where employees take pride in knowing their customers and how they like their details handled. That work ethic and pride in workmanship is in every finished piece leaving for their customer’s job site. “It’s been a lot of hard work over these 40 years… but when you love what you’re doing, you don’t feel like you’ve had to work a day in your life.
Elias Woodwork was incorporated in 1983 while working in a 2,000 sq. ft. building on Centennial Ave. in Winkler, Manitoba. They began building their main facility, along with a maintenance room in 1986, after purchasing their first lot. They worked hard during this time, even constructing overhead dust holding tanks to load trucks.
Elias Woodwork's plant today.
In 1994, the company raised the capital needed to start building the rough mill/molding shop and also began painting using a small hand spray booth. Five years later, a steadily growing customer base required another significant expansion. Their company added a large extension to its main shop and shipping area and invested in a new Cefla paint line, requiring its first million-dollar plus bank loan. They also ventured into a vinyl pressing business in partnership with Triple E. In 2008, they leased the front half of the old Morden Tupperware plant where they immediately set out to build another paint room. In 2013, they expanded their leased space in the Morden plant in order to use it for their AOS cabinet box construction. They then negotiated the purchase of the entire Morden site a short time later.
By 2017, Elias Woodwork purchased the vinyl pressing company and moved that company’s production into the remaining vacant space at the Morden plant. Also that year, they added an annex to the Winkler site for an additional molder and a drawer box cell.
In 2020, Elias Woodwork began preparing yet another lot in Winkler finished construction there in 2022 and are now moving the AOS cabinet box manufacturing from the Mordent plant.
The Elias Woodwork Ownership group is extremely grateful for the hard work and efforts made by their staff, acknowledging all their contributions to their growth and success these past 40 years.
“We have been so blessed to be located in the Winkler/Morden area because of the hard working multi skilled populating the area.”
Elias Woodwork’s 40th anniversary celebration Sept 16, and included food trucks, exciting inflatables, face painting, a Country Princess, live bands, and a fireworks display to conclude the night.
“This milestone is really a testament to the ambitions of the people in this entire area… and we’d like to say Thank You!”
