September 18, 2008
Calgary Herald

"Craftsman is building a Wooden Empire"

People who are determined to run their own business and are not afraid of hard work often make a go of it, but few have been as successful in such a short time as Kevin Halliday.

His parents ran a railing company in Edmonton and he figured he could make his mark with a similar service here.

He got a phone number and a business card and says his first sale to install stairs and railings took place in a Home Depot parking lot in 1999. He found the product, hired an installer – as he had no actual experience – and with the money earned was able to buy a business license.

Today he has 50 full time staff and a host of sub-contractors working for Spindle, Stairs, & Railings. He’s just moved his head office and manufacturing plant into 50,000 square feet and has two more bays bringing his total up to 70,000 square feet, all within a couple blocks of 30th Street S.E.

I was amazed at the production flow on my tour through Halliday’s new plant that started in the storage building where winter-cut hard white maple and steamed walnut and cherry lumber arrive from a Quebec sawmill where he keeps a million board feet in stock from his own use. I watched lengths pass through saw blades set by lasers to provide the optimum cuts, sawdust blown into containers outside for other uses, ripping used for smaller product, and boards bonded together on a huge computerized gluing machine.

The results range from stacks of mouldings, baseboards and casings to the most distinctive and creative stairways. Inside the shop, I watched a craftsman working on a spiral stair railing on a 4.9 metre-high jig system – designed by Spindle, Stairs, & Railings – which can be adjusted to make any size and shape of perfectly curved product.

In today’s tight labour market, I expected Halliday would be complaining about finding staff. He saw the problem coming and besides importing craftsmen from the Philippines, he has for some time been training young people in his own school. And he pays students for attending. They are taught at the plant and onsite and upon graduation he helps set them up in business as installer sub-contractors.

It’s worked so well her that he recently set up other training schools in Saskatoon and Kelowna,B.C., and he is already receiving lots of orders from those cities.

Halliday is a hard worker and focused individual who has earned his second nomination as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year as well as making Profit and Alberta Venture magazine’s 50 fastest-growing company lists.

But he takes time to be with his young family and his support of kids’ hockey has led him into another company launch.

Spindle, Stairs, & Railings is the prime sponsor of the arena at the Family Leisure Centre. Realizing that not all parents or grandparents can get to every game or practice, Halliday has installed cameras at the rink that allow families to watch hockey on their computer via www.arenacam.ca.

Halliday will be showing off his products at this weekend’s Home and Garden Show; they really are a credit to fine workmanship.

Spindle, Stairs & Railings is the largest stair manufacturer that produces and supplies its own wood in addition to custom milling, manufacturing and installing. Spindle, Stairs & Railings owns it's own tree farm and trains installers through its inhouse school.