When Rene Barnes, owner of Fab-Cut Systems Inc., watched as the world economy started to unravel in March of 2020, he had moments of skepticism as he forecasted his sales funnel for the year.
Fab-Cut Systems is a family owned and operated business started in 2017, which offers rugged and high-quality custom CNC table manufacturing for the steel, aluminum and fabrication industries. Now sitting in a newly leased facility located steps from the 401 in Kingston, Mr. Barnes sees a growing trend as his client base expands to international and national markets. We connected virtually with Mr. Barnes to get his insights on the past 12 months and how his business had to adapt.
“The year 2020 has been a year that we will not forget with the challenges of COVID-19 globally. For Fab-Cut Systems Inc., in the first round of lockdowns we saw our business drop to the point that we only had one order on the books and we had to lay off 6 employees. When we were ready to cut back 4 more staff, we had a sudden rush of orders as businesses wanted to take advantage of the downturn to upgrade their operations. Says Rene Barnes, Owner, Fab-Cut Systems Inc. “That resulted in our hiring back everyone and by Q4 we added another 1 full-time and 1 part-time employee. Our business has exploded, and we ended up with about 42% over last year and it does not seem to be slowing down.” When asked about Fab-Cut Systems Inc.’s recent facility move, Mr. Barnes added, “We moved our business from 2 smaller buildings which previously supplied us with 14,000 sq/ft and transitioned to our new location which now has 25,000 sq/ft. This will allow us to streamline and improve our efficiencies in the manufacturing process. We are very optimistic about the 2021 year ahead of us and expect we will be adding at least one more employee to our team.”
“Watching the success of Fab-Cut Systems this year has been encouraging to not only the local market but also as a sign of how resilient and important the regional supply chain is in Eastern Ontario” says Ian Murdoch, Business Development Officer with Kingston Economic Development Corporation. “Supporting local manufacturing has always been a priority in Kingston, and the more we can support regional partnerships fostered by leaders like Fab-Cut, the faster we can grow together.”
With added focus on international markets in the US as well as Europe, the Fab-Cut Inc. team continue to offer exceptional products with unmatched customer service to their client bases.