SINCE 1999
SINCE 1999
Practifab has the ability to adapt to the demands of our customers. We strive to provide quality products and services in a professional and timely manner.
Our array of services, products and talents are constantly being improved and expanded.
Practifab is always interested in meeting with and helping individuals with their unique ideas and aspirations.
Below Fred de St. Croix provides info about what we've done, where were at, and where we're going.
The company was originally registered in June of 1999 in the province of Quebec under the name Fabrication Pratique or Practical Fabrication. During the first few months I had only a small, half full box of tools in the back of a pickup and a desire to start a business from scratch.
One of our earliest projects was also one of the largest. Asked to design and build 50 foot boom sprayers for commercially spraying liquid fertilizer. Since that time the sprayers have been used to cover 2000 acres per year and are still going strong.
During this early phase of our development, I was asked to design specialty office furniture for a high-tech company in a period of major growth. After many designs and much discussion a final design was decided on and my search for a shop started. With a purchase order for 30 desks and a 50% down payment check in hand, I signed a 3 month 
lease for a nice old shop in Cowansville, QC. The day I moved in I arrived with only one tool box and some new power tools still in their boxes. I waited for the welder shop to deliver my welder and the steel truck to deliver the steel. By the end of the week a prototype desk was completed. Over the next 2 years we built 300 desks, printer cabinets, conference tables and other such equipment for the same company.
In the three years spent at 150 Church St. there were a number of 
employees hired who helped complete scores of different projects. We built all sorts of agricultural equipment, completed many industrial projects, and built some equipment for our own use in our shop. It was a wonderful time and I learned a vast amount in a small amount of time.
Due to the long hours my business demanded of me and my desire to have more disposable time for my growing family, I decided to sell and move across the country. A large amount of my fabrication equipment was sold to a fellow who took over the lease for my shop. I kept the company which had recently been incorporated under the name Practifab Inc. with plans to continue the business on the West Coast.
After the move some of my clients requested that I continue to supply them with the products I had manufactured and for which they had come to depend on. Having sold most of my equipment I decided to act as a manufacturing contractor, subcontracting the projects out to shops in QC. At first I was concerned about coordinating a project from a distance, but soon discovered that I could produce the same product for very similar costs.
Family life has changed the way I look at life. Doubts abound in my opinion of the very values and building blocks of our society. Concerns of where this planet will be, has more of an effect on my decision making now. Since my children will live with the choices our generation makes, my desire to do something to improve the world rather than mess it up motivates my actions. Although, it seems almost futile to attempt.... but attempt I will.
Presently, demands by my family is of the highest priority. Concentration on web site development and internet marketing will fit best during this time.
Recently my interests have returned back to computer programming. This was my major interests in the 80's but I have not done anything in this feild since 1990. A lot has changed since those days. Everyone uses a mouse now and graphical interfaces for operating systems is normal now. And of course the internet.
Web 2.0 is here and we want to create dynamic websites that will help encourage people think globally and shop locally.
We hope though our website, localfarmlink.com, people will find it easier to source their foods locally.
As globalization balances world ecomomies and corrects inequalities between regions allowing all people of our world to live in peace and financial comfort, (that's the point of globalization ain't it?) the costs involved in producing disposable goods that can be bought for pennies, and then used for a short amount of time, only to be thrown out, will come to an end.
As our environment heats up and fossil fuels are depleted, the costs associated with shipping, fabrication and amortization of equipment and products will raise dramatically. The need to supply quality, durable, locally made products will be necessary.
Practifab wants to be there when that time comes.
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