Advance Lumber Remanufacturing Ltd., was established in 1995 by the company founder Rajinder Brar. Rajinder migrated from India to Canada in 1974. After working a few odd ended jobs, he began training to become a machinist. He was certified and worked in the trade for nearly seventeen years. In the late 80's, Rajinder and some investors opened a Shake and Shingle Mill, due to unstable markets and the poor economy, this endeavour was not successful.
However, Rajinder had a vision, he wanted to work in the lumber industry. He had learned from his mistakes, and in 1995, was ready to make another go at the lumber industry. In the Summer of 1995, one acre of land was found in Surrey, British Columbia. Rajinder found a Irvington trimline, and a mobile re-saw. With some fabricating and repairs all the equipment was ready to operate by the summer of 1996.
The vision was simple, buy stock from larger mills, re-manufacture the product to create pallet-stock, keep your overheads low, and always keep the customer happy. In order to insure success Rajinder was going to treat everyone as if they were family. He stated that he was going to respect his suppliers, employees, and customers, therefore he said "you cannot go wrong".
Rajinder, started with himself and three employees (mainly family members and friends) . Within two years Advance Lumber Remanufacturing Ltd. had grown to employ over thirty full-time employees. Including three office staff members. Another three acres of land was rented to help ease the lumber storage problems. It was clear to many, the work ethic paid-off; customers were happy with the service, and equally happy with the simple honest work ethic, not to mention were impressed by the superior product they were being supplied.
In 1999, Advance Lumber Remanufacturing grew to include Advance Freight Systems Ltd., the company was set up to help ease the load delivery problems which were hampering the success of Advance Lumber Remanufacturing Ltd.. Advance Freight Systems, has since grown to be an entity of itself employing another twenty employees, and is still in the process of growing.
As the eve of the new Millennium was approaching one important aspect to the future of Advance Lumber Remanufacturing Ltd. was clear, new equipment and land were needed to meet the growing needs of Advance Lumbers' customer base. In the summer of 2001, Advance Lumber and its partner companies purchased twelve acres of land in Surrey, British Columbia.
By the winter of 2002, Advance Lumber Remanufacturing Ltd. was operating in its new 9, 000 square foot warehouse. Two new trimlines were added with a dedicated re-saw and notcher, also a chamfering line, and custom cut chop-line were added in a second 8, 000 square foot building. The offices have expanded from a mobile trailer, to a state-of-the-art 3, 500 square feet office, with the newest computer software to help customer orders get processed more efficiently and economically. In 2002 Advance lumber had shipped out more than 19 million board feet of finished product, and another 5 million of raw materials.
One detail is abundantly clear to all the members of the "Advance Family", without honesty and loyalty, be it too our suppliers, employees, or customers, nothing Advance Lumber, and Rajinder Brar, have accomplished to date would have been possible.
If you ask the president Rajinder Brar, what the future holds in stock for Advance Lumber, his answer is simple, "All we can do is work hard, the rest is in the hands of the one above. "
Whatever the future may hold for Advance Lumber Remanufacturing Ltd., one thing is clear, they will be working hard.