Photo: Contributed
Mandeep ‘Sunny’ Gharial and his father Bhupinder (Bob) Gharial.
Metro Doors and Woodworking has been manufacturing the highest quality thermoplastic MDF cabinet doors and kitchen accessories for 24 years and Mandeep ‘Sunny’ Gharial and his sister Sonia Gharial, say it is an honour to continue the family business started by his father.“My father - Bhupinder (Bob), came to Canada in 1986, where he married my mother, who had already been in Canada for many years. And I was born one year later.
Gharial says his father began his business ventures in Canada with a tool and die shop.
“That was the first company he started, but after a few years he saw that there was a shift towards outsourcing more of that work offshore, so he began looking for something else.
“And that’s when he discovered thermofoil doors and in 2000, he started Metro Doors in Mississauga in a rented unit close to his tool and die shop.”
Of course managing two companies simultaneously was a lot of work, but Gharial says his dad was never afraid to work hard.
Not an easy or cheap way to startUnlike many other woodworking businesses, which can start out in a garage with a table saw and some basic tools, Gharial’s dad had to make a significant investment before he could get started manufacturing thermofoil doors.
“He had to buy a CNC and a quality laminator,” he says. That’s a big investment, but he was able to do that because he had his tool and die business and some cash flow, so he was able to make that investment. And what also helped was that he started into a bit of a niche market. At that time there were just a handful of people who did that kind of work.”
Gharial says his father had a mechanical engineering diploma from India and when he came to Canada he upgraded his knowledge at Humber College with a CNC Programming Certificate. So he knew how to operate machinery, or at least he could figure it out.
“My father is the technical mind behind all of it,” says Gharial.
“He understands the technical side and he did everything himself and taught himself anything he didn’t know.
It was a lot of work and dedication, but he figured it all out and made it work.
“He always told me too that it is important to learn and understand how every machine in the shop works. It’s the only way to know if you are efficient and if not, how to improve it. It allows you to be better.”
Learning on the jobGharial has worked with his father ever since he was young, after school and on weekends, he was always helping out and learning as he went. At that time it was all hands on deck, “and I worked in either shop, wherever I was needed.”
Gharial says he decided to go into mechanical engineering studies at Waterloo, because that field always interested him right from an early age and because of his exposure to it from working with his father.
“And because we had all those machines, I thought this would be important for me to learn.” Between classes my dad taught me how to run the shop and by the age of 20, I could handle the shop without supervision.
When he took on those responsibilities in 2006, Metro Doors was roughly 8,000 sq. ft. with six employees and today that company has grown to 30,000 sq. ft. with 25 employees and is a leader in its field, because they focused on quality.
For a time, thermofoil had a mixed reputation because it wouldn’t last. But Gharial says they have proven that if you use the right machinery, the right glue and the right foil and process then it is a great product.
“And we give a five-year warranty, so we stand behind our product.”
In 2014, in order to diversify and be able to offer more to their customers, they started another company, Metro Cabinets and Components.”
“These are two separate companies, but we are producing from the same facility to take advantage of efficiencies,” Gavial says.
“The idea was to become a sort of one-stop-shop for our customers and to be able to offer them more.”
“And we are always adding to our product line to keep up with trends.”
They’ve also started to offer painted doors.
“We used to sell unfinished HDF doors to our customers and now we’ve also added finishing for them. So other than solid wood, you can purchase any kind of door from us.”
Gharial says their companies don’t deal with the public directly and they don’t have any dealers. They only sell to contractors, kitchen companies and homebuilders.
“All of our customers are repeats or through word of mouth. We offer a great product and word keeps spreading about it. So we don’t have to do any marketing at all, in fact we never have, it’s all through word of mouth.”
Gharial says they also offer different lines for their clients. So their customers can get a basic melamine kitchen with regular non soft-close hinges for the builder industry, or they can upgrade to higher end, more custom, using domestic plywood or solid birch and dovetail drawers and so on.
“We offer the whole line of Blum products so you can upgrade as much as you want. Like I said, as long as you don’t need wood doors, we can build you anything you want.”
Gharial says they are doing all of this because they don’t want to get caught standing still. Thermofoil had become sort of like a Tim Hortons.
“There was a company selling thermofoil at every corner and we wanted to stay competitive so we added painted doors, cabinetry and components through the new company.
“There is still a strong market for thermofoil, especially for builder grade and basement kitchens and such, but we now see a trend towards other things, which is why we added new product lines as we keep adapting to the market and changing customer demand. To be honest thermo foil is a great product as long as you use the highest quality procedures and material you can make thermofoil mimic a painted door.”
Most of their business is straight ship-to-customers.
“They send us drawings and we build it for them and then they use their own branding and install it. None of what we manufacture is branded,” Gharial says.
“We found this service allowed our customers, during the time of COVID when finding employees were scarce or when rent rates went so high it was unaffordable, to maintain a shop, to come to us to build them a kitchen and they could just install it. Our customers were able to save overhead costs and just concentrate on taking on more clients rather than worrying about producing a kitchen. I like to think we take on the burden of manufacturing for our clients.
“We also have a small showroom so customers can bring their clients to that showroom and show them samples and educate them about what they may or may not want and need for their new kitchen.
Gavial’s dad is still very involved, “basically he supervises us, he makes sure we don’t burn down the shop,” he says with a laugh.
Working hard“When it all started, Gharial’s mother (Gurinder) worked three job in order to provide an additional income for the two companies,” Sonal says.
“It really resonated with me when I heard the stories about his parents working so hard to make it all happen.
“Since his mom worked day and night at other jobs, it was up to his dad to go from company to company to program machines and run production, while at the same time dealing with customers and picking up the kids after school.
“And then when the kids were home, his mom went back to that role of cooking and cleaning and looking after the kids. So really, she had three jobs working around the clock.
“We always remember those stories when we have a bad day today because that shows us that it is nowhere near as challenging as what his parents were dealing with for so many years when they were building these companies.”
“Yes. It really makes you appreciate what they have done,”
Gharial says. “What they did in that time literally established everything. And everything I know I learned from my dad.
From accounting to programming machines and running production, he taught me everything.”
And because of their success, they’ve nearly outgrown their current space and are considering another move to an even larger facility.
“I remember when we first walked into this space saying to my dad that we will never have to move again, and yet, here we are. We are also looking into adding a material handling and storage system at our next facility,” Gharial says.
It would help us here, but the amount of reconfiguring we would have to do to accommodate that here is not viable, so it has to wait a bit.
The best thing about working in your own company is that you have your destiny in your hands and you are the one who controls it. We can make it better or worse, it’s up to you and that is just great.
“Another thing that sets us apart is that everything we sell is Canadian made and we use only the best in machinery to produce the best quality,” Sonal says.
“Our name may not go on somebody’s kitchen, but we want to make sure that they are getting the best product.”
Of course they’ve had customers leave to seek out cheaper products, but they usually come back and say, “your product is the best and that’s what they want.”
“Instead of going for price, we went for quality and it’s the best thing we ever did.”
“People forget how fast you did a job, they just remember how well you did it.”
