Community has high hopes for young company

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When Samson First Nation in Hobbema established the first Native-owned modular-home plant in the country late in 1998, its aims were to offer employment and training opportunities and to increase the skills pool of the reserve. According to general manager Daniel Messett, these goals are now being accomplished through its company Samson Built Homes.

Technology is the wave of the future in the building industry and Samson wants to be riding that wave, says Messett.

The company is one of a few modular companies in Alberta that build two-storey homes. Its customers are Native and non-Native, urban and rural.

They employ between 45 and 65 people and offer training and apprenticeship through a certified provincial apprenticeship program. This means candidates in a number of trades earn hours towards journeymen papers while working at the plant.

Co-ordinator of sales and training, Kim Swampy, is one of the company's biggest fans. A journeyman painter, freelance artist and experienced housing inspector who once sat on the education board for Ermineskin First Nation, Swampy was one of the original directors for Samson Built Homes. "I saw it from a seedling," she says. Swampy is presently taking a computer-assisted design (CAD) program and jokes that she'll be Hobbema's first CAD operator as well as its first woman contractor.

Swampy and Messett agree that communication is essential to business success. Samson employees hold a circle every Monday morning, and all staff give feedback on new house designs. The company's relationship with the Samson chief and council is built on the same principles. The company keeps the council up-to-date on business developments, and on May 8 held an open house for Samson First Nation members and guests.

Flexibility is another principle. "If we have a worker who needs to be home when her children get home from school, we can arrange it," says Messett.

At the centre of a motivated labor pool, Samson Built Homes is in an enviable position, since stability or the lack of it in the labor force is what makes or breaks most builders. And Samson workers like the controlled environment of the plant; there are fewer layoffs, as building can go on all year.

The company advertises primarily through trade shows. Visibility is important because people still confuse modular homes with mobile homes.

Actually, modular homes follow the same building codes as traditional "stick-built" homes; their houses just get built faster. Once in production, says Messett, a house takes four to six weeks to complete.

Samson homes are also economical; new "entry level" homes sell at approximately $39,500.

"Buying ready-made is cheaper than setting up crews all over the province," said Messett.