In an area that is seeing unprecedented growth and prosperity, there is one company that is willing to give back to charities that need it the most. It’s the way in which the money will be garnered that is probably the most interesting part of the story. Crushrite Concrete has painted the mixers of not one, but two concrete trucks. For every meter of concrete that is delivered through the pink trucks, Crushrite will be donating one dollar to a foundation. This year, the money will be going toward breast cancer research.
Jon Robert is the Chief Executive Officer for Crushrite in Esterhazy and was available to talk about his new endeavour. “The reason why we did this is to raise awareness, this year specifically for breast cancer research. But basically, we recognize that there is a lot of chronic disease. We see a lot of friends and family being affected by heart disease, cancer, etc. and we want to raise recognition.” Robert’s plan is to not only focus on breast cancer but also has plans of giving to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and other charitable organizations focused on chronic diseases.
Last year, four area women put on a fundraiser for breast cancer research in Esterhazy titled “A Night to Fight for the Girls”. The response was overwhelming with the group raising more than $30,000 for Saskatchewan-based cancer charities and prompting a second annual breast cancer night on May 3 of this year. Robert is not directly involved with this fundraiser, but he has decided to donate a portion of his money raised to their cause specifically. “We are supporting that. We are going to put our trucks out in front of the hall that night, just as a visual, and we’ve made a commitment to donate the first $1000 that we collect from them, for their cause specifically.”
Jon Robert is the third successor in the line of Robert’s that have run this family owned business. Crushrite was originally started in 1968 by Clem Robert, Jon’s grandfather. In the early 1970s, Bob Robert, Jon’s dad, bought out the redi-mix portion of the operation and started doing jobs in the Potashville area. It was at this time that the construction of the original K2 storage barn was taking place and Crushrite was making a name for itself. Because there was no other concrete plant in the area, the town of Esterhazy asked Bob if he would move his company into town. Bob agreed and set up a plant to meet the growing demand of the town. The company ended up expanding into Moosomin and Churchbridge and was working hard to meet the area demand.
In 1991, the business reached a turning point when Clem Robert retired from the company and some of the other family members branched out to work with other companies. Bob Robert became the sole proprietor of the business. When Bob passed away suddenly a few years ago, he left his son, Jon Robert, to manage the company. “So my family, my uncle and my cousins, now own Yorkton Concrete Products, and Guy [Gendreau] had his start with Crushrite here. Although we are not the same company, we do a lot of resource sharing and we work very well together. Guy and dad worked very well as partners together and they separated on fantastic terms.”
Crushrite has a long list of accolades, having plants set up in Esterhazy, Moosomin, and Grenfell and having served the area for just over 40 years. Some of their most recent projects include supplying the concrete for PotashCorp’s Scissors Creek shaft, headframe and out buildings. They also supplied concrete at the Amec site in its early construction. They supplied all the concrete for the Mosaic K2 expansion, and are also part of the Mosaic K3 expansion. They supplied the concrete for the Northland Power Gas plant as well as for the new hotels in Esterhazy and the new hotel in Moosomin. They were involved with the windpower projects near Moosomin and Robert says that all of these projects are neat to talk about. Every one of the projects had its challenges: technical challenges, and logistical challenges.
Some of these challenges have encouraged Robert to make changes where it counts the most with his employees. “We’ve put an extra emphasis on safety. Just over 10 years ago, we did not put as much of an emphasis on it as we do today. Let’s face it, safety was considered more of an obstacle than anything. One of the things that we’ve established here in the last 10 years, is showing people that we care that they go home with all of their fingers and toes intact. That we care that they make it home at the end of the day. To me safety is of the most absolute, utmost importance.”
Jon Robert lives in Esterhazy with his wife and two children and has no plans of leaving any time soon. “Crushrite is not going anywhere. It’s here to stay. I’m a homeboy. I love Esterhazy. I think it’s a fantastic community and I am very excited to see where it progresses to.”