Marcel Equipment has moved into its new headquarters, which was purpose-built to boost productivity and capacity, as well as create a comfortable working environment for employees.
Founded in 1976, Marcel Equipment has grown from a local dealer to a global heavy equipment provider.
The new location in Southwold, Ontario, just outside of St. Thomas, enhances the company’s landfill compactor rebuilding and construction equipment reconditioning process.
Previously, Marcel Equipment worked out of six buildings. Now, all operations have been consolidated into a single facility.
As well, the new 39,000 square-foot headquarters is located on 15 acres of land, a significant boost in space compared to the previous 3.5-acre site.
“Our shops were bottlenecked. We just didn’t have space to add more tradespeople,” said Mark Frederick, Marcel Equipment’s General Manager. “This space will allow for needed future growth.”
Designing the new facility required about two years of planning, followed by 18 months of construction. Marcel Equipment focused on creating a modern, state-of-the-art facility to boost productivity as well as employee comfort.
“You will be hard pressed to find another heavy equipment facility like this anywhere in Ontario,” Frederick said. “A lot of thought and planning went into the design, process flow and outfitting of the work areas, as well as research to ensure we were equipping it with all the latest and greatest tooling.”
The new facility includes a parts warehouse, four welding bays, a drive-through 60 ft. x 25 ft. paint booth that’s large enough to accommodate a Cat 777 haul truck and a 992 wheel loader, a separate building for washing and sandblasting equipment, a dedicated enclosed bay to rebuild components and 11 heavy equipment bays.
“The drive through bays are 120 feet deep. So, we can fit a lot of machines in each way,” Frederick said. “And we doubled the size of our welding shop to increase our productivity.”
New facility doubles capacity
The company’s crane capacity has also doubled and now includes two 10-ton cranes in the repair shop, a 5-ton crane in the weld shop and a 2-ton crane in the component rebuild shop.
The facility is also equipped with hose reel systems to deliver fluids, air and high-pressure water required by the mechanics.
To ensure employee comfort, the shops are also all air-conditioned and equipped with radiant floor heating for the colder months.
“I don’t like working in 40-degree weather, and if I was a mechanic, I wouldn’t want to work in 40 degrees either. It seems that the summers get hotter and more humid each year. We believed that it was important to make the investment now to go with full climate control for all shops,” Frederick said.
Alongside an advanced welding shop air filtration system, all shops are also equipped with multiple Nox and Co2 sensors connected to an automatic air evacuation system.
“From a health and safety point of view, we’ve done a lot of improvements as well,” Frederick said.
Marcel Equipment also increased and modernized its office space. The building includes a large lunchroom, high-tech boardroom and space to accommodate future growth.
“This is a big investment for the company. We wanted to make sure that it was done right,” Frederick said.
“That way we’re set for the foreseeable future. It is our hope that our technicians and future recruits will appreciate these working conditions for what they are — the best in the business.”
