After graduating university with a
commerce degree and launching a
promising career in banking, Jeff
Fuller chucked it all to head out on the
road with his band. When he found himself
broke, tired, and ready for a change,
he went into the family business. And he
hasn't looked back.
It was a prescient decision. After working
with his dad at Abraflex for 14
years, he started his own company, Fuller
Industrial, which fabricates pipes and fittings,
and interior rubber lining for pipes
and tanks. Today, Fuller sends its niche
products all over the globe; up to 90 per
cent of its business comprises exports out
of the Sudbury plant.
Fuller's forward thinking has carried
his company far. It now has a presence
on every continent, and after making a
name for itself in the mining industry is
seeking the same success in oil and gas.
He credits growing up in an enterprising
family with fostering the ambition
that's brought him to today.
"When you grow up in a family that
owns a business or is entrepreneurial,
you always get to see the business from
both sides," he said. "As an employee, it's
easy to understand it from the employee
perspective, but it's not always easy to
look from the other side and understand
what the perspective is from the owner.
So, I was lucky to have that and lucky to
have that support too."
Motivation for him comes in looking
for opportunities to grow. Fuller doesn't
view obstacles as barriers to success, just
roadblocks whose solutions haven't yet
been revealed. He's a big advocate of
setting goals and seeing them through to
completion.
"I set big goals; some of them I know
how I'm going to get to them, some of
them I don't know how I'm going to get
to them, but I set them and then I stay
focused on them," Fuller said. "It's amazing
when you know in the back of your
mind it'll pull you towards it, so you'll
always find a way to get there."
Fuller said finding great people to
work for him is one of his biggest challenges,
so he appreciates his employees
and their contributions.
Integrity, respect and honesty form his
triumvirate approach to business, and
all ideas are vetted through an employee
charter of rights before they're adopted.
The company can experience short-term
success quickly by deviating from those
tenets, Fuller said, but in the long run, it
will be more successful by sticking to its
guiding principles.
"If you always act with integrity, if you
always treat people with respect, if you
always look after continuous improvement
and try to treat people the best that
you can, and create a good environment,
it works on two levels," Fuller said. "First
of all, it's the right thing to do, and
secondly, in the long run, you're going
to be more profitable, a healthier company,
and make more sales. It all works
together."
Acknowledging that pipe and rubber
coatings are "unromantic," Fuller said
he's adapted his business to become
knowledge-based, transforming them
into the fastest available, highest quality,
and often lowest priced, product and
exported it around the world.
The company is now offering valueadded
product lines alongside the pipes
and coatings, which is increasing sales.
In the future, Fuller envisions the company
doing more detailed engineering,
isometric drawings, and scoping of projects
earlier in the process, furthering its
diversity.
Chalk it up to another goal met and
conquered in Fuller's ever-evolving
career.
"It's about finding a focus and getting
the vision and finding the way to get
there despite all the obstacles and always
overcoming all the problems," he said.