JCL Concrete Pumping Ltd.'s Rich History & Experience
It all began in 1976 when Antonio and Maria Sciacca decided to open up a building supply yard to better support their family. This location was centrally located on Wade Avenue, in the heart of Toronto. Despite the hardship of being new immigrants with three young children, they persevered. Becoming an integral part of the community led to the expansion of their sales to include the sale of ready mix concrete. At this time, most of their employees consisted of the immediate family. Their eldest son at the time, ten year old Jimmy, ran the loader while Maria answered phones and Antonio (aka “Tony”) did sales, ran deliveries and filled orders. Despite neither of them having any family support in Canada, Maria and Antonio built their own unique family by establishing solid relationships with their customers. These relationships developed into long lasting friendships that continue to be treasured to this day.
In 1986, the Sciacca family decided that another location was essential to their success. Their second location was found in Etobicoke, Ontario on Steeles Avenue. At that time, business was conducted out of a small trailer. By the year 2000, that location became the central base of Ontario Redimix, boasting the largest, most complex batching plant system in the Toronto region.
In 1996, it became obvious that Ontario Redimix Ltd. needed to expand its growth to the East end in order to service more of their longstanding customers. Many of these customers had been loyal through the economic ups and downs of the construction industry. It was with this motivation in mind that their third location was built on Feldspar located in Pickering, Ontario.
On February 23, 2000, Antonio Sciacca was tragically taken away from the Sciacca family in an unfortunate accident. It was a devastating loss to the core of the family and the company. However, as hard as it was to go on, all three children, Jimmy, Claudio, and Laura knew that continuing their father’s success would ensure his legacy. Jimmy became the face of the company and his strengths were in sales and marketing with an eye for growth and handling the day to day activities. Claudio’s role was to control the daily dispatching of concrete production and ensuring customer satisfaction, which was quite the multi-tasking effort. Claudio treated all employees as part of the Ontario Redimix family, always reminding them of the key part they played in representing the company. Laura’s role became invaluable at the head office. Her strength lay in her eye for detail and order. She made certain all financial books were in order, negotiated contracts, oversaw all business aspects of the company and, more importantly, made sure collections were done in a timely manner. With a clear view of what was needed to be done, all three were very unique in their roles and worked together harder than ever to make Ontario Redimix the successful company that it came to be.
In 2002, Ontario Redimix expanded its locations to include Barton Street, in Hamilton, Ontario and, in 2006, their fifth location was centered in Milton, Ontario on 105 Steeles Avenue East. By 2007, Ontario Redimix was operating one hundred trucks and producing over 3000 meters a day, making it one of the largest suppliers of ready mix in the privately owned sector in the GTA.
In addition to the ready mix business, the Sciacca family also started new endeavors. In 1998 they ventured into disposal, dump truck and stone slinger services and in 2004 JCL Concrete Pumping Ltd. was launched to serve the fast growing concrete pumping industry.
Eventually, the time came when the Sciacca family made a big decision to sell Ontario Redimix. The Sciacca family sold its ready mix business to Holcim (Canada) Inc. The family works hard at their new location in Etobicoke, Ontario to ensure the utmost success of their new businesses which are steadily growing to this day.
“With our grief came our strength to expand this company to where it is today. As our parents proudly taught us; be humble, treat everyone as you would want to be treated, work hard, have good faith, be grateful for even the smallest things and being able to give to your community is a reward within itself. We feel that we have made our father proud.”
- Jimmy, Claudio and Laura Sciacca.