While on holidays, I was shown through a most interesting factory in Humboldt.
This factory makes portable stages for all over North America.
The main sections of the stage are made from 3/4 inch Douglas fir shipped from Oregon in the United States. A usual size is four by eight feet, but the stages can be built to any size ordered.
These sections are smooth on one side and covered with indoor/outdoor carpet with a non-slip surface. Shaped sides to hold sections together are made of aluminum and are manufactured in India. Corner clamps to hold the sides together come from China.
Machinery in the shop includes a CNC rotor, air punch to create holes in the aluminum, a double headed mitre saw made in Turkey and saw blades made in Germany to cut the aluminum in the lengths needed. Also cut are 2 x 2 legs for the stage in the height required from eight inches to four feet. Accessories that can be ordered are stairs and safety railings to heights ordered. Cloth skirting can also be special ordered, giving a finished effect.
When an order is completed the sections are stood on edge on pallets from one to 12 deep and covered in white plastic that, when heated by a propane torch, is eight times its normal strength. This is then loaded by forklift onto trucks and is on its way to its destination.
This is the only manufacturer of this product in Canada with a staff of five workers to keep this viable business going. This company has been in business for the last 30 years but has show a rapid growth in the past five years under new management.
The owner has purchased adjacent property that will double the work and storage area of the Staging Candell Company.
