Iconic family-owned sheet metal business officially closes doors
An almost-century-old Vancouver business that has created custom metal works since 1922 has shuttered its doors.
Main Sheet Metal Works, a sheet-metal fabrication shop, has been a mainstay on the still-gritty but fast-gentrifying stretch of Main Street wedged between Chinatown and Pacific Central Station for more than nine decades.
“It’s been a wonderful business,” said Madeleine Grant, the third generation of the Grant family who has worked in the store.
Her mother, current owner Trixi Grant, turns 65 in June and is looking forward to retirement. “It’s sad we can’t find a buyer to keep it going.”
The profitable store was put on the market about a year ago, with no luck.
On Thursday, its machinery and equipment will be up for auction.
On Wednesday, scores of people came by the shop to check out the hundreds of shearing machines, saws and welders, and other tools and equipment for sale.
Among the inventory were machines and hand tools dating to the 1920s, which, Madeleine pointed out, can create pieces with detail and workmanship modern machinery can’t accomplish.
The store has been in its current location — a 1905 heritage building with the original wood facade — since 1929, currently sitting between the Ivanhoe hotel and a trendy Italian restaurant.
The Grant family took partial ownership of the shop, where Madeleine’s grandfather started apprenticing in the 1920s, after the Second World War. He became the full owner in 1970. His son, Madeleine’s father Peter, started his apprenticeship when he was 14 and eventually took over the business, which enabled him to raise a family and three kids.
When Peter became ill in 1998, his wife, Trixi, took over, determined to keep it going for the family, even after Peter passed away in 2010.
“She never trained in sheet-metal work, but dad always said she was a far more successful runner of the shop than anyone else, including himself,” Madeleine said, laughing.
In the beginning, the store focused on sheeting and ventilation work before expanding to different product lines and metals.
For a while, it churned out beds for hospitals and stools for Via Rail trains.
It supplied countless homeowners and restaurants with range hoods and stainless-steel countertops. One of Peter’s favourite projects was a fountain on Georgia Street.
The store took on “the odd stuff that nobody else could or would do,” Trixi said.
It did a lot of work for the film industry and drew its share of designers who needed help turning their ideas into products.
Closing the shop was a difficult decision for the family, but they all agreed it was time, Madeleine explained.
“My dad’s dream was for us to do what we wanted with our lives. We are all extremely grateful this shop has supported our family and allowed each of us to follow our dreams,” she added.