Interview With Abe Fehr

(Sept.17/08)

Abram Fehr, known to his friends and associates simply as Abe, was born in Tillsonburg Ontario in 1963,  and became a successful entrepreneur, no doubt to the delight of his hard working parents who immigrated to Canada from Paraguay. Abe’s father Isaac came to Canada in 1957 and his mother Helena arrived in1962. Abe’s entire family, including 5 brothers and 3 sisters, moved back to their earlier homeland in 1976 and returned in 1982. Abe’s father worked at gas line construction for 22 years.

Abe married Lisa Froese in October of 1982, five weeks after which he and his brother Jacob started working as general labourers at Klassen Custom Fabrication, located at Old Castle Ontario. Their employment here turned out to be the beginning of a successful career.

The firm they were working for employed 25 people and manufactured electrical enclosures, panels, and tanks. The fact that these items were purchased by very large companies with a large flow of capital was not lost on the two Fehr brothers. Later they were to benefit from on this knowledge.

Abe and his brother Jacob prospered at Klassen Customs Fabrication and worked there for eight years. After his first year of employment Abe was promoted to plant manager in charge of estimating and purchasing. During his last year at the firm Abe’s employer asked him to set up a daughter plant in Michigan which he successfully accomplished.

In July of 1991 the two brothers Abe and Jacob terminated their careers with Klassen Custom Fabrication and, together with two other partners, planned to start up their own plant called Uni-Fab,. It was to be located in a leased building located across the road from the Husky station. and intended to produce essentially the same products as Klassen Custom Fabrication was making. Some of their friends helped them to secure the necessary finances and, by December of 1991, they were ready to operate.

Abe says the Christmas of 1991 was a bit lean and that their new business was a daring venture. However within a few months of operation the 4 partners were successful in procuring a contract with an American firm called Lamb Technicon for 5 industrial machines worth ¼ of a million dollars, which the American firm distributed to an European market including Russia. Thus the four intrepid partners had apparently found a niche for their products and had put the firm on secure financial ground..

By this time, in January of 1992, there were five people including the four partners, who worked from 6 in the morning to 7 o’clock at night making Unifab a working, profitable company. By February of that same year three more people were hired.

Following the first year of operation one partner left the firm so that by 1993 there were three partners. They leased a building near Oldcastle and, in 1999 being the entrepreneurs that they were, built another structure in Kingsville. Perhaps, sensing that there wasn’t enough room for three masterminds in one place, one of the three partners purchased the Kingsville operation leaving Abe and the remaining partner to run the firm at Old Castle.

This took place in 2002.

In 2007 Abe and his partner, following a grand vision of things to be, built a brand spanking new plant on Highway 77 near Leamington. The following pictures show the plant in various stages of construction.

Arial view of Uni-fab under construction

                                   Steel Girders For Uni-fab

                   Putting On The Beams For The Roof of Uni-fab

                                   The newly Constructed Uni-fab

Unifab employs 76 people and manufactures such items as enclosures, washers, and conveyors, for large manufacturing plants including auto factories. Abe and his partner sell directly to 50 or 60 US companies and send 6 to 8 of his own people to install their products in Germany and other countries.

Perhaps the most important thing for success is to be honest, says Abe. Never cheat your customers. It can be said that the drafting course, among several others that Abe took at St. Claire College, paid off well. Hard work, dedication to the task at hand, business management, and knowledge of the trade are essential as well, which is to say nothing of a very supportive wife.

Abe and Lisa are the parents of Helen, presently studying at Brock University to be a teacher, Mary, an avid hockey player, presently looking for a career in business, and David who works in construction in Whistler, British Columbia.

The following story was told by Abe Feh's mother in Dec. of 2010

Helen Fehr’s Story

Helen Fehr’s Story

Helen Fehr , born  in Mexico  in (     ),  grew up  on a cattle farm  which had 8 or 9 Holstein and Jersey cows. She has a  brother  Andy, and  4 sisters: Cathy, Agatha, Sarah, and Judy.  Her parents were Abram Bergen and Sara Wiebe .

 Helen’s first memories were from the time when she was about 5 years of age when her mother was milking the cows, and she milked some of the milk straight from the cow into a bowl  which Helen and her sister  were eager to take  inside the house. There they happily dunked some white bread  into the bowl of milk and ate it,  as  their daily supper. The girls then went to bed on a mattress filled with straw supported  by a metal frame. Their  blanket was made of  sheep’s  wool  which at first had been all greasy  and which  Helen helped  to brush; later  the wool  was carded and washed.

The house they lived in was constructed  of clay bricks made of  white earth clay that  the local Mexicans moistened  and  formed  into  large bricks, which were later dried. The roof was made of a wooden frame topped with a special clay, which was a  very messy job to do.  Sometimes the roof had to be fixed for leaks. The house had only two rooms: a kitchen  and a bedroom which  were heated by  a single kitchen stove.

 The farm was sold  when Helen was 15 years of age, and her family then moved to   a farm in Swift Current Saskatchewan, where  her youngest sister Judy was born . Helen’s father and brother worked at the Mobile Oil company while her sisters attended school.  The time was approximately 1954.

Helen, together with her sister Cathy  and her brother  Andy, moved back to Mexico in 1957 (?), where she worked at her aunt’s farm,  and he on his uncle’s farm.   Both siblings were pleased with the arrangements. Helen worked as a house keeper which she enjoyed doing, and   she also milked cows.  Together with her sister  they  milked 4 cows each every day.  The cows, it seemed, were eager  to be fed and milked.

In the mean time, (about 1956), her parents moved to Ontario.  Helen’s father found employment on the tobacco farms, as  well as did  Helen’s sisters, with the exception of Judy.   In 1958 (?)  Helen’s parents, together with the girls,  returned to Mexico to be reunited with  Helen, Cathy,  and Andy,   who had married shortly before the parents arrived. Then in 1959 the family returned to Ontario leaving Andy and his wife behind in Mexico.

Helen was married  to Isaac Fehr in  the Old Colony church in Tilsonberg in 1962. They had 9 childrew:  6 boys and 3 girls. Abe and Jake are mentioned in the previous story. The boys all had businesses at one time or another. One of the daughters, Helen Peters,  has her own business (Personal  Busines  Fitnes And Life Style Coach). The other daughter is n accountant.

Helen’s husband Isaac  worked  on a pipe line for the Union Gas Company for 20 years. During the last 4 years of his life he worked on a tomato farm.  Isaac died  26 years afyer thwy were married.

Following the death of her husband hele worked in a do nut shop called: County Fresh, located on Erie Street  South Leamington Ontario and owned by Bill and Pete Peters (the latter being the husband of Helen Peters.  519 326 7509