Ecco Heating Products Ltd. began as a young journeyman’s dream in 1960 to supply the North American sheet metal industry with quality products and the best in customer service. Fifty years later the company employs nearly 600 people in over 400,000 square feet of manufacturing and distribution facilities, and is the largest company of its kind in Canada. Despite its success, Ecco still operates using the same principles by which it was founded—hard work, high quality, and great people.

The man with the vision was Kevan F. Hartwell Sr., a young immigrant from Germany who was working in Edmonton, Alberta in the 50s installing residential eavestroughs and conductor pipe. While working the vision and desire came—to put his sheet metal journeyman skills to work and establish his own manufacturing company that would produce sheet metal fittings, pipes, and venting for sale to sheet metal contractors in northern Alberta.

Kevan partnered with a local business acquaintance, Stanley Alldritt Sr., who agreed to invest in what was incorporated on April 1, 1960 as “Ecco” to reflect Kevan’s dream to establish an “Economy company.” Today, Ecco Heating Products employs its 600 people at 12 sales branches, two mass production manufacturing plants with over seven acres under roof; three distribution centers; five custom fabrication shops; one corporate administration office in Edmonton, and one corporate operations office in Langley, B.C.

The company’s subsidiaries—Ecco Manufacturing, Ecco Custom Metal Fabrication, Ecco Machinery, and ECCODUCT™—have been developed over the years to meet the growing need for diversification and flexibility in the production of sheet metal products.

Ecco Custom Metal Fabrication has five divisions operating in Calgary, Edmonton, Langley, Regina, and Saskatoon. The company can handle ferrous and non-ferrous material from 30 gauge up to 10 gauge, and employs computer-aided plasma cutters and other CNC machinery for an unlimited crosssection of parts in rectangular, round, and flat oval—or any other shape as required. A well-trained staff produce custom louvers and dampers. Orders may be for one individual piece or for hundreds of items, and pieces could be anything from a park bench, a truck bumper, a hospital operating table, or a tractor trailer, to a retail store display rack or a stainless steel buffet table.

The company’s proprietary ECCODUCT™ In Concrete Ventilation System is a rectangular spiral seamed duct that is embedded in the structural concrete floors of high-rise buildings, and primarily exhausts air from bathroom fans, range hoods, and clothes dryers, but can also be used for fresh air intake and supply air. It is a completely engineered system consisting of a full range of terminations, couplers, and fittings. Custom fittings can also be manufactured for specific applications.

Ecco Manufacturing produces residential and commercial pipes, ducts, and fittings; Type B Gas vents, round and flat oval spiral duct; Acousti-Duct, aluminum flexible duct; ECCODUCT™ and sheathing for the post-tensioning industry.

Ecco Machinery sells and finances some of the world’s best new and used machine tools, metal working equipment, and sheet metal machinery, as well as sheet metal tools and machine shop tools, in Canada and the U.S. It also provides complete concept, design, fabrication, and building services for the production of custom machinery components for equipment automation. A wide cross-section of industry experience means developing machinery for almost any application is possible, and because of its UL certification Ecco Machinery can build industrial controls, powerpress controls, and machine tool control systems.

As important a reason for the company’s success is its commitment to operating on core values instilled by the company’s founders and maintained by each of its current employees.

As Ecco began its journey back in the 60s, Kevan took the lead in the manufacturing processes and in product sales and marketing. He hired a large group of experienced people who, like him, were obsessed with manufacturing quality products and were willing to extend themselves to provide excellent service.

These people—including his own wife and children; and, a then-recently graduated chartered accountant named Fred Wakulich who remains a pillar in the company as executive vice-president of finance out of the Edmonton Corporate Administration office—would form the core of the company. Kevan talked at great lengths about “harmony” as he knew that a hard-working, harmonious group would produce quality products that would be widely accepted. Soon loyal customers were drawn to Ecco, and the demand that ultimately led the company to national success began.

The current management of Ecco will continue to provide leadership and doing business Kevan’s way—manufacturing quality products; providing customers with excellent service; treating people with dignity and respect; praising people for their good deeds; being honest and fair with everyone, and keeping their word.

Kevan’s dream was never to become the “biggest,” only to become the “best,” and his sound reasoning was that if you become “the best,” growth becomes automatic. With this philosophy in mind, Ecco is determined to continue leading the HVAC and related industries with its products and innovation. SMJ