Our Experience & Background

Experience

Since 1956, Ebco Industries Ltd. has delivered world-class quality manufactured projects to customers worldwide.

Our unique capabilities provide a ‘one stop’ operation for our customer requirements. Our strengths encompass the complete spectrum from heavy metal fabrication, heavy machining, and turnkey assembly to light precision machining, light precision fabrication, and precision sheet metal fabrication.

Our customers range from small start-up companies to world class suppliers of OEM capital equipment and machinery. At Ebco, we have a diverse portfolio of past projects to offer that suit numerous industry needs. Having experience across multiple borders and continents makes for a team that is well aware of the barriers and challenges that new countries and cultures bring on. Through harmonic collaboration, true craftsmanship, and a pride in our work, Ebco is able to provide top quality projects to a range of customers around the world.

Our Background: The Founders

In 1933, Helmut and Hugo Eppich were born in a German-speaking community in Yugoslavia. They grew up in a small blacksmith shop, run by their father, but due to difficult post-war conditions, the whole family was forced to move to Germany almost six years later. In Germany the conditions did not improve, and with the outbreak of World War II, things became tougher. Times became even more cumbersome when Helmut and Hugo’s father died in an accident, leaving the twins’ mother to bring them up alongside their two older brothers. Survival was the name of the game, and when American forces occupied Nuremberg, the twins collaborated with them and ran errands for the G.I.s, earning cigarettes which they exchanged for food for the family.
The twins have come a long way since their childhood in present-day Slovenia. Helmut apprenticed as a tool and die maker in Germany. In 1953, with an optimistic outlook and $600 borrowed from their mother, the twins set out to Canada in the hopes of a better future. With tool and die making experience in Germany, Helmut and Hugo were driven toward succeeding in the industrial sector of British Columbia. With twin determination, and the partnership of a friend, Stefan Burger, Ebco Industries Ltd. was incorporated in 1956. What started as a small fab shop in Vancouver’s downtown eventually evolved into a robust group of companies that, at one point, encompassed over 20 subsidiaries.
Over the years the twins have been recognized for incredible achievements thanks to their innovations, ingenuity, and passion for the industry. They have received honorary degrees from SFU for their business efforts, as well as receiving the BC Business Entrepreneurs of the Year award in 1990. Their efforts to establish a company with such deeply embedded community roots, and an emphasis on cultural diversity in the workplace, has made Ebco one of the leading manufacturers for OEM equipment & repairs in North America.