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OC NEWS FEATURE

OC NEWS FEATURE

By Debby Belding
September, 2005

Impressive. It\’s the best word to describe what the people at Dayson Industrial Services Inc. do for a living. Dayson is a full service sandblasting, painting and lining applicator offering protection systems for both concrete and steel. These experts in their field – all members of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades – focus one hundred percent on industrial contracting and their projects are as varied as the industries they serve. These painters have unique canvasses – structural bridges and decks, water towers, petroleum and refinery tanks, blast furnaces, ore bridges and other mammoth pieces of equipment in the steel mills, to name just a few of the items that are privy to their work.

Impressive. It\’s the best word to describe what the people at Dayson Industrial Services Inc. do for a living.

Dayson is a full service sandblasting, painting and lining applicator offering protection systems for both concrete and steel. These experts in their field – all members of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades – focus one hundred percent on industrial contracting and their projects are as varied as the industries they serve. These painters have unique canvasses – structural bridges and decks, water towers, petroleum and refinery tanks, blast furnaces, ore bridges and other mammoth pieces of equipment in the steel mills, to name just a few of the items that are privy to their work.

\”We de-scale metal products by all means and methods and then we coat them for protection,\” explains Jeffry Butcher, President. \”We do applications of all conventional protective coatings, fireproofing, pumped and sprayed aggregate filled epoxy linings, elastomerics, urethanes, glass systems of epoxy, vinyl esters (FRP) guniting, etc. for both new and existing concrete and steel surfaces.\”

Jeff, who now heads up the family business that his grandfather Bert Butcher founded in 1923, is a graduate of Appleby College and Mohawk College\’s Architectural Technology program. He worked for an engineering firm after college and then in 1975 joined what was then H.H. Butcher & Son, with his father Herb Butcher at the helm. At that time, business in the Brantford company was slowing so on a tip from his long-time associate Calvin Edgar who served with him on the Ontario Painting Contractors Association, Herb purchased Day and Sons, located in Hamilton.

\”I was brought down in 1977 to work with the previous owner and learn the ropes. I was put in the driver\’s seat at the time and have never looked back,\” says Jeff noting that he served as Chief Estimator to General Manager to Vice President, right up to President, before purchasing the company outright in 1992.

Today, Dayson Industrial Services Inc. operates according to the same strong work ethics that have been passed on down through the generations. Honesty and integrity are not just family values, but strong business principles that have earned Dayson Industrial respect in the industry and long standing relationships with many of its customers.

They service an impressive list of clients, in a variety of industries, all across Ontario, including Dofasco, Petro Canada, The Ministry of the Environment, Seaway Marine Transport, Dupont, C.P. Rail, Quono, Irving Oil, Albright and Wilson, Stelco, Inco, Esso, Ontario Hydro, The Ministry of Transportation and the St. Lawrence Seaway, among others.

There were some lean times over the years, but Dayson Industrial\’s strong commitment to meeting its customer\’s stringent production schedules has helped the company thrive and prosper. Consider one of their recently completed projects. They had just five days to clean, wash, prime and paint twenty-five bays in a steel mill.

\”We worked around the clock and had eighteen guns operaating and used over 2,000 gallons of paint. But we did it,\” says Jeff proudly. \”You have to meet these schedules, every single hour, or else you\’re going to get behind. I have never not done it,\” he says emphasizing the importance of coordinating equipment and manpower to meet each project schedule. \”Our men are totally trained and well qualified for this work. The fact that we have a very quick turnaround on jobs like that is what sets our company apart from others in the industry. I figure if I can\’t do it, there\’s nobody in the province that can do it.\”

When asked what he attributes the success of his company to to-date, Jeff does not hesitate in answering: \”honesty, quality of work and I\’ve always been able to look everybody directly in the eyes. You can\’t cheat – if you do, you\’ll get caught and then you\’re done.\”

Another major contributing factor, according to Jeff, is the fact that he makes the money \”and then I re-invest it back into the business. This past year, I\’ve re-invested about $200,000 to update all of our sand blasting equipment.\” Solid financial planning goes hand-in-hand with sound business strategies such as keeping up-to-date on the latest technology and maintaining an extensive equipment fleet.

\”Our equipment is all mobile – we take it on site,\” states Jeff commenting that the company owns all of its equipment – from portable blasting units, (including ice Co2 blasting, soda blasting, steel grit and a host of other types), after coolers, compressors and a multitude of spray equipment, both conventional and airless; to service trucks, floats, forklifts, spiders and other access equipment. \”We also own a lot of safety apparatus and specialized equipment like dust collectors, containments for elevated water towers and a hydro-cat plural pump. We use the hydro cat plural component, where the product mix is right at the gun, because the product can set up in five minutes. That kind of technology is great for a lot of industries. In the refineries, for instance, they used to do internal tank floors with an F.R.P. liner, which was a long process, and would take about seven days to cure and set up for service. Now, we can go in there with 100 per cent solid coatings, blast and coat a total tank in a few days and it can go back into service the following day. The owners certainly appreciate the quick turnaround. If you don\’t keep up with the best technology to do your work, you\’re going to be in trouble – either with the client or the Ministry of the Environment or the Ministry of Labour. Technology helps us go faster and do better work – there\’s no question about it.\”

Dayson are approved applicators of numerous manufacturers and regularly partner with producers to develop new lining materials. Butcher\’s foresight to assess new markets enables Dayson Industrial to stay a few steps ahead of the competition.

\”I can usually establish my path and it takes them about a year to catch up with the technology. That\’s when the prices will drop and I\’ll move on again. We want to be the forerunners of new technology.\”

If there\’s one challenge facing Dayson Industrial – and indeed the entire industry today – it\’s the \”shortage of skilled trades, making sure we\’ve got workforce coming along for the future.\”

Jeff\’s son Ryan who has worked \”in the field\” with Dayson for two years and is currently training in quality assurance and estimating, says, \”It\’s a tough business to learn and there\’s no new people coming into the trade. That\’s a concern and something I\’ll probably be worrying about in the future.\”

Jeff agrees and is doing something about it. He is working with other industrial contractors to re-invent the O.P.C.A\’s Industrial Committee and work with the union to recruit new members and get them trained before they get out on the job site. His son Brendan is currently serving his apprenticeship and working his way to achieve a journeyman position with the union. One of Jeff\’s other concerns is that almost all paining contractors are brushed with the same stroke and not really recognized as professional people.

That\’s hardly the case and Dayson and their crews who are all members of NACE, SSPC, OPCA and many of whom have written numerous technical papers and manuals and been published in industry magazines. They have also given presentations on materials performance. Jeff himself has served as President of the Ontario Painters Contractors Association and President of the Hamilton Federation.

\”There are only about five companies in all of Ontario who can perform the quality of work that we do.\”

The experience and expertise of the Dayson team has enabled them to tackle some very demanding projects.

\”Every job we do is different and each one presents a different challenge,\” says Jeff emphasizing that their work has to be performed with quality assurance. \”When we\’re blasting steel, for example, we have to meet a specific surface profile depending on the thickness of the coating. We have the gauges to check surface profile, painting thickness wet and dry per coat, humidity readings, etc. to ensure that we meet the specifications. Everything is covered by a written specification and we follow it like the Bible.\”

Although there are no guarantees for what the future will bring, Jeff is optimistic about the industry and his company\’s role in it.

\”I\’m hoping the government will spend some money on bridge infrastructure and that the water tower business will pick up. I can\’t predict what will happen in private manufacturing – we just have to be ready to react. I\’d like to be proactive in my business, but I can\’t force anybody to do painting. One thing is certain though, we\’ve never failed a customer yet.\”

Brantford Expositor: Butcher Family local success story

Brantford Expositor: Butcher Family local success story

Butcher Family local success story

by John Merriman April 4, 1979

Grand River Avenue and a couple of little \’tributary\’ streets running off the Avenue, such as Hilda Street and Spring Lane, is a small area of Brantford which, for nigh onto 66 years has been the \’home\’ of the Butcher family of \’painters and decorators\’.

Although there is nothing earth-shaking about the above statement, it is a fact nevertheless that a small business – but one with potential – was started in the area by an Englishman, Bert Butcher, in the early 1920s and his son and grandson have successfully carried on the business, under the name Butcher & Son Ltd., since the death of H.H. \’Bert\’ Butcher in 1967.

Furthermore, not only has the Brantford firm become recognized as one of \’the best in the business\’ locally and elsewhere in Ontario, but early last year the Butchers bought out Dayson Sandblasting & Coatings Ltd., Hamilton, Ont., and immediately made the former owner, Jim Day, general manager of the firm.

EARLY HISTORY

With the foregoing synopsis, one must now turn back the clock and see just how the firm got started and how it has obviously become successful. In other words, it has \’achieved its potential\’.

I found out all about this firm\’s history and its growth from President Herbert D. \’Herb\’ Butcher, with a few succinct interjections from his wife, Jewell, who is the capable secretary-treasurer of the company.

So, the company was started in a small way by Herbert Harry Butcher, born and educated in Dover, Kent, England. He served his apprenticeship there and came to Canada in 1912, settling in Brantford, and quite naturally in the area of Grand River Avenue.
However, Bert Butcher was employed as general foreman by R. Chave & Co., which firm did both painting and glazing. Bert went overseas with the \’125th\’ and served from 1914 to 1918 before returning to Brantford to resume his work with Dick Chave.

REALIZED AMBITIONS

But H.H. \’Bert\’ Butcher had ambition. In fact he had two all-consuming ambitions.

One was to get married, which he did in 1920 at Grace Anglican Church. He was 28 at the time. The other ambition was to open his own painting and related business. Three years after his marriage, young Bert realized his second ambition. And he never looked back because before his death in Sept., 1967, at the age of 75, Mr. Butcher saw his son heading up a successful business and his grandson being readied for the business, too.

Mind you, the enterprise was a modest one with business done at the back of the house at 104 Grand River Ave. Hard work and the determination to establish a reputation for integrity and sound business practice paid dividends for this English craftsman.

In 1939 he built a house at 7 Hilda St., a little \’tributary\’ street off Grand River Ave., and operated his business from a garage.

All throughout the Second World War years the business continued to grow. In those days, it must never be forgotten, a painter had to be skilled at related trades and Bert Butcher, profiting from his apprenticeship and working with Dick Chave, commenced doing a mixture of residential and commercial work in the Brantford area. He bid and secured contracts for painting, glazing and the finishing of hardwood floors.

Soon space in which to operate was at a premium, so the premises at 7 Spring Lane, another little \’tributary\’ street running off Grand River Ave., was built in 1946. The war years had been busy ones, but the post-war era turned out to be busier still for the young company.

Remember, in those days there was no such thing as wall-to-wall carpeting. People in most homes were proud of their grained, finished and polished hard-wood floors and the Butchers were only too pleased to keep their customers happy.

\”One could not hazard a guess as to how many miles of hardwood flooring the firm has finished. Nowadays it’s a different story. Carpeting is laid right over the cement floors, especially in apartment houses,\” Herb Butcher told me in a recent interview, adding: \”I know father and his small staff were kept busy on the floors, perhaps more so than on the actual paintwork and paperhanging. However, I still say there was no better painter in the business than my father,\” he declared.

RELIABILITY, INTEGRITY RECOGNIZED

According to Herb Butcher, \”We have decorated most of the larger homes in Brantford, and in some cases several times. The Scarfe mansion when built was finished by us, and we worked on the house on several occasions later on. The same applies to the former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario\’s estate. The Hon. Harry Cockshutt had only good words to say about dad\’s workmanship.\”

In addition, many educational institutions, schools and so on, and industrial buildings have had the Butcher firm refurbish them at one time or another. And still do, for that matter.

That the reliability of the company was without question can be noted by the fact the contractors with whom the Butchers, father and son, worked were the best in the business too. These included firms such as Schultz Construction, Cromar Construction, Jese Bartle and the Second firm.

Butcher & Sons Ltd. has not confined its business activities solely to Brantford and surrounding area. The firm soon became well known throughout Ontario. Some examples are in order:

It did the glazing work on the Ontario Hospital at Woodstock when it was built; the reformatory at Guelph and International Nickel buildings at Port Colborne. And don\’t forget that when the Woodstock job was done in 1930, the firm had only been in business for seven years. During WWII, Butcher & Son did a thorough job on No. 20, CATC, just off East Colborne St. at Mohawk Park.

At this juncture, one should mention Herb Butcher\’s brother, Jack, who was in the business before joining up on the outbreak of WWII. He was in the RCAF and was killed in 1943. Herb himself joined up when he was only 18 and rejoined the family business after his discharge from the army. Of his brother, Herb said:

\”My brother was quite a hockey player and played for a team which was coached here by the well-known Tommy Ivan. The team won the OHA championship in 1939-40. Jack was killed Dec. 26, 1943, and is buried at Chester, England,\” he concluded.

BUSINESS EXPANDED

Following WWII, with Herb Butcher \’back on the job,\’ the business grew considerably. The firm was incorporated as Butcher & Son Ltd. in 1961.

A store downtown was also a new acquisition. Scarfe\’s paints were sold along with wallpaper, rugs and draperies. \”However,\” Herb said, \”this operation was a bit out of our line, so we sold the business after five years in the retailing game.\”

While space does not permit a listing of most of the Butcher contracts, it can be recorded that the largest contract thus far undertaken by the firm was in 1976. The Ontario Police College at Alymer, Ont., was completely refurbished, inside and out.

\”This job took us 18 months of steady work and we had up to 30 men on the job,\” Herb told me, adding: \”Locally, when new schools were built and/or refurbished, we were successful in securing the contracts. These included the Lansdowne and Queen Elizabeth School; the B.C.I.; Bell Telephone building; Brantford Golf & Country Club; City Hall; Aquatic Centre; Grace Anglican Church (three times); Zion United Church, Harding Carpets Ltd., both in Brantford and Collingwood.

Out of town contracts successfully completed include the 500-bed Mental Hospital in Woodstock in 1950 and the Woodstock General Hospital. Also in Cambridge the firm has successfully bid on contracts for work on Canadian General Tower and the regional jail. Simcoe\’s Norfolk General Hospital and the Bell Telephone building have also felt \’the Butcher touch\’, it was stated.

IFAIR SHARE ON BUSINESS

The president of Butcher & Son Ltd. concedes that \”Through the years we have received our fair share of the business, although this has only been achieved through out record of performance. Integrity and reliability are \’musts\’ in this business.

\”Just to give you an example. We put literally tons of decorators\’ cotton on the walls of the Scarfe mansion before applying five coats of paint!\” After the disasterous fire at Grace Church June 25, 1975, we made stencils and applied the gold leaf to the walls. In fact, we refurbished everything in Grace Church except the organ, at a cost of some $55,000,\” he said. Services in the church were not resumed until Oct. 19, 1975.

NEAR FUTURE PROSPECTS UNCERTAIN

As to the future, Herb had this to say: \”We here are feeling the pinch of a falling Canadian dollar, higher interest and mortgage rates. These factors, plus inflation and rising costs for just about everything, discourages developers who want to build houses, apartments, etc., because they cannot see a reasonable return on investment.

\”I can\’t see much change until the proposed development of the downtown core is well underway, and that could be two to three years away.\” However, our business in Hamilton, Dayson Sandblasting & Coatings Ltd., purchased in May, 1978, is doing exceptionally well. The firm has built up a first class reputation so that it is well booked for several large-scale jobs. The company specializes in industrial work, sandblasting, special industrial coatings, etc., and is well able to challenge the competition for new markets in the industrial field. Dayson does much work for Dofasco, Stelco and other large industrial concerns,\” he concluded.

THIRD GENERATION

Now, the third generation Butcher is very much involved in the family business.

Jeffrey, who at 27 is vice president of both companies, was born and educated in Brantford, although probably not on Grand River Ave. where his father, Herb, first saw the light of day. He graduated from Appleby College in Oakville, Ont., after which he took a course in Architectural Technology at the Mohawk College of Applied Arts & Technology before joining the J.D. Lee Engineering Co. in Brantford to gain a couple of years\’ experience before joining the family business.

He is now with Dayson in Hamilton and this company, like Butcher & Son Ltd., is by no means confined to Wentworth County, but takes in as well Sudbury, Coppercliff, Thamesville, Brockville, etc.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Herb Butcher said that \”Dad didn\’t have much time for outside service work; except he was an active Mason, being Past Master of Reba Lodge and Mocha Shriner\’s Temple, London, Ont. With me, its been a different story.\”

H.D. Butcher is a past president of Rotary; Jaycees; Golf and Country Club; Brantford Red Cross Society; Boys\’ and Girls\’ Club; and the Cerebral Palsey Association. He is also a member of the Board of Management of Grace Anglican Church. He is active in his business associations, too, being a past president of the Canadian Paintings Contractors\’ Association, ; a regional director of the Grand Valley Chapter, OPCAQ; director, Ontario Society for Crippled Children; member of the Advisory Committee for Apprenticeship, and a Mason and Shriner, like his father.

And so it is that the firm of Butcher & Son Ltd. is really a family concern in every sense of the word, even after purchasing the Dayson company in Hamilton.

Herbert D. Butcher is president of both companies; Herb\’s wife, Jewell, is secretary-treasurer of both companies, while both firms have Jeffrey Butcher as vice-president.

PRICES REFLECT CHANGES

Just before concluding the interview, Herb showed me some company records of the early 1930s. Certain invoices to customers contained such items as:
3 packages of Alabastine at 65 cents; 1 gal. Boiled linseed oil 80 cents; 1 1/2 gal. Turpentine 75 cents; 270 lbs. Semi-ready exterior paint at 15 cents; and 32 hours labour at 70 cents.

With 70 cents per hour as a selling price for labour, they must have been paying the employee about 35 cents per hour! The paint was purchased from Scarfe & Co.

How times have changed! But then, so have human values and attitudes.