End of an era Clemmer plant closes in Waterloo after 60 years
Steelcraft, the division’s owner, is focusing on operations in Cambridge, Stratford, Woodstock
WATERLOO — The Clemmer plant in Waterloo has fallen silent, bringing about six decades of production there to a close.
“It was a very difficult decision, after all the history there,” said Paul Summers, chief executive officer of Steelcraft, which counted Clemmer as one of its three divisions. “But it was necessary given the economics we were facing.”
The Clemmer name traces its roots back to the 1920s and the opening of a mechanical repair shop on King Street North.
The Clemmer plant on Albert Street produced storage tanks, silos and pressure vessels such as hot water storage tanks for sectors including agriculture, mining and petrochemical, and facilities such as condo buildings and hospitals.
Some of those products were facing increasing competition in markets that treated them as commodities, Summers said.
Last year, Steelcraft made a strategic decision to exit its western storage business, closing two Alberta plants that also made storage tanks.
With the economic downturn in western Canada, that market “kind of tanked” so to speak, and showed no sign of coming back, Summers said. Some of Clemmer’s products were looking at a similar fate.
So Steelcraft is focusing its efforts on its other operations, including its largest branch, the QCI Component Division, which makes components for heavy equipment at plants in Cambridge, Woodstock and Stratford.
Its third division, engineered products, makes items including pressure vessels, mixers, heat exchangers and autoclaves. Some manufacturing from the Clemmer plant is moving to this division, based at a second Stratford location; surplus equipment was sold at a recent auction and the sale of the Waterloo property is pending.
Steelcraft’s head office is also on the move from Waterloo to the Huron Business Park in Kitchener.
Summers said there were roughly 35 plant and 25 to 30 head office employees based at the Clemmer site. Some moved to other Steelcraft locations, while others retired.
“It went as well as you could ever expect a plant closing could go,” he said. “People knew that at some time, something would happen to the property.”
Occupying more than 11 acres on Albert Street at Phillip Street, the land had become valuable, Summers said. But the 108,000square-foot plant itself wasn’t very efficient, having grown in patchwork fashion to a size that was much larger than Steelcraft now required.
The sale of the property is expected to close at the end of the month. Environmental remediation work done in recent years means the site can be redeveloped for certain purposes such as free-standing retail and other employment uses.
“It was a very tough decision to leave … but it was a business decision that had to be made,” Summers said. “It’ll make us more profitable.”