It’s no surprise, when you look at their drive to succeed, abilities and family values, that brothers Corey and Blake Sanders continue to lead Spandreltech to new heights. Corey is now vice-president of operations, and Blake vice-president of finance, at the company founded by their parents Irene and Wesley in 1991. Irene’s parents had immigrated from Germany and started a metal fabrication business, which soon expanded into panelling, backpans and more. In 1991 Irene and Wes created Spandreltech and the company now serves markets across North America.
Corey was destined to join Spandreltech, as he has quite literally grown up in the shop. By 16, he worked at Spandreltech before and after school, on weekends and ran the night shift during the summers. “It has always been important to me that I know how to run every machine in our shop and our production
manager, Brian, has always encouraged that,” he says. “In high school I did a co-op at Spandreltech and learned CNC programming. This has been the most valuable skill I have ever learned, and I owe a great deal to our head programmer, Brad, for all he has taught me. While working towards my diploma, I worked remotely. Dad would email me drawings, I would do the DXF panel layouts and send them back.”
Blake enjoyed the business and worked on nights with Corey during high school. He studied kinesiology at university and had planned to make that a career – until third year. “I realized the opportunity I had that so many other people do not,” he says. “I’d learned ordering and business financing already and excelled in math in school, so finance was naturally a great fit for me.”
At that point, Blake knew the basics but still had a lot to learn. In 2014, when their parents were in a serious vehicle accident, Blake (20) and Corey (23) jumped right in. “We had to take the ball and run with it overnight,” says Blake. “We’d propped each other up. We knew we could count on each other and we still do. We both can and will do whatever it takes to get it done. That includes rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty.”
During COVID their perseverance was again tested. “We were feeding nine assembly lines in North America,” says Corey. “We had many sleepless nights. We had employees and customers looking at us for answers, relying on us to know what to do next. Fortunately, several of our projects were medical facilities and we were declared an essential service.”
Corey and his wife Christina have two boys and Corey jokes that he already has a future brake-press operator and front office administration. Blake is engaged to Jessica and they are also planning for their future.
“We would not be where we are if it were not for the support we have had along the way,” they say. “Every accomplishment we have ever achieved needs to be shared with the remarkable team that has been assembled at Spandreltech.”
Article by: by Treena Hein Aug 4/22