Rector Machine Works Ltd is a local family business celebrating its 90th anniversary.
While the term ‘family business’ typically means a business run and operated by people related by blood or marriage, Rector takes the definition to a literal and figurative level, which may be the key to the company’s lasting success.
David and Mark Rector have continued their parents’ values of treating everyone like family, be it employees, customers, or vendors. “They believed in trusting people and being loyal to them,” said David. “That loyalty and trust is returned to us, in lower employee turnover, repeat and referral business, and strong vendor relationships. We want to take that family feel forward for the next nine plus decades.”
Rector Machine Works Ltd employs 38 full-time and 12 part-time, serving customers in steel, forestry, mining, and wood, in Northern Ontario, and across North America.
Some notable highlights of 90 years in business for David and Mark include, being the first machine shop in Sault Ste. Marie to be ISO certified (1995), and the first and only in the Algoma Region listed on the Canadian Welding Bureau’s website as having the CWB Certification for Aluminum Fabrication (2018). They also broke ground in 1998 on the Sackville Road location and expanded again in 2015 with the help of FedNor funds.
The machining, welding, and fabricating services business was started in Espanola in 1933 by Herv Rector and his wife Loretta, then moved to the Sault in 1943. When Herv died in 1967, his son Herv Jr. took over with his wife Sandi and they grew the business until they passed in 2018 and 2019. In 2015, their sons David and Mark Rector took over, becoming the third generation of the Rector family business. Whether there would be a fourth generation was very much up in the air, until recently.
“Our parents never pushed us to be part of the business,” said Alexa Rector, Mark Rector’s daughter. “I had a feeling I wanted to be involved, and I was the first grandchild, so I felt a lot of responsibility to be involved. My grandmother was very important to me, and before she passed, she told me she really wanted to keep the business family run…and that she wanted me to be here.”
Alexa had worked on and off part-time at Rector Machine Works Ltd. since Grade 9, but became a full-time employee in January of this year. “Her words haunt me, but she was right, I love it here,” said the 24-year-old administrative assistant. “I grew up here, it’s where I’d get to see all my family at the same time: I even came in at Grade 8 graduation and before prom to show everyone my dress.”
After earning a Bachelor of Arts and Sociology from Algoma University, Alexa thought about pursuing a human resource program, but when her grandparents got sick, she left her other part-time jobs, wanting to help at the office.
“I wanted to make my grandparents proud and be a part of the business long term,” said Alexa, who reports to the Controller, her aunt Karen. “This business means everything to me. I decided to stay here and stay put, carry on their legacy, and live through them.”
Alexa considers everyone in the company family. She’s proud that even if she has the Rector name, that she is treated as everyone else is. Though, she jokes that her father brings her lunch most days, a perk that other employees do not receive.
“He’s my best friend,” said Alexa, speaking of her father Mark. “Our relationship has gotten a lot closer with me working here; we take care of the truck fleets together and are on the joint health and safety committee together. We’re like two peas in a pod, and I want to be like him in so many ways. I admire his humour, personality, and positive attitude.”
Alexa said she is proud of the work they do and their relationships with the vendors, customers, and each other.
She said the one downside of a family business is trying to separate work and home lives: “My dad reminds me a lot. He’ll say: ‘I’m here to visit with you, not to talk shop.’ So it’s a lot of balancing.”
In the long term, she can see herself in the human resource function at Rector Machine Works Ltd., to ‘keep the guys in line.’
David Rector’s son, Gabe, just turned 19. He’s been working in the office part-time for four years, but recently took a co-op position working in the shop. Now he’s thinking about going to Sault College for Millwrighting or Machining after he finishes the Entrepreneurship/Business program at Georgian College. Then after time in the shop, he’d like to work his way up to sales, just like his father did.
“I really like this, it’s been a great summer,” said Gabe. “There hasn’t been a day I didn’t want to come to work.”
This is a big shift for Gabe, who had been pursuing his own entrepreneurship ventures including a sneaker resale business, and the streetwear line of clothing he launched in 2021 called Raw Thoughts.
“I never thought I was a right fit for the family business, and working with tools, but it’s really fun,” said Gabe. “I’ve been helping on special projects, millwrighting and machining, doing clean up jobs, organizing, and packing and receiving.”
He even likes the jobs most others don’t want to do, like cleaning, because he enjoys seeing immediate results. As a side bonus, while cleaning out the Quonset hut, he found one of his grandfather’s old jackets; the very one that he wore when they broke ground on the Sackville Road site in 1998.
Having heard his father and uncle talk about the business so much, he started thinking that he wanted to keep it in the family. But he doesn’t expect special treatment.
“I don’t want anything handed to me,” said Gabe. “I’ll work my way up. I’m loving learning from really special people who have been here a long time. I think of them as family. I’ve been coming in since I was really young, so working with these people 15 plus years later is surreal.”
With employees treated as family, Gabe says they feel taken care of and secure in their jobs. He likes the idea of employing people, and creating the foundation and opportunities for other people.
Gabe was proud to be part of the 90th anniversary celebrations, but felt it was bittersweet without his grandparents there. “I wish my grandparents could have seen how we’re doing today; what Mark and my dad have created and have done in the last four years, to see that the legend lives on.”
[More]
