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WEDNESDAYJULY 21, 2010 Record BUSINESS Section C

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Enterprise

CAMBRIDGE — It has bleachers northof the Arctic Circle in Inuvik, in theQueen Charlotte Islands off the coast ofB.C. and in Port aux Basques, N.L.

The company came to the rescue of theUniversity of Waterloo in 2008, manufac-turing and installing seating for 1,100 inonly 65 days, when the university neededbleachers in a hurry for its new footballfacility.

W.H. Reynolds (Cambridge) Ltd.,known as bleacherguys.com on the in-ternet, has been in business since the1960s, but had one of its busiest years everin 2009 and shows no signs of slowingdown.

Ninety per cent of the company’sbusiness is selling bleachers, playerbenches and picnic tables to munici-palities across Canada, says Brad Thom-son, who owns the business with his wife,Shona.

“They own the real estate that re-quires our product.”

W.H. Reynolds sells bleachers in allsizes. They can seat anywhere from 12 to12,000 people, all cut, welded and assem-bled at its 10,000-square-foot plant onCowansview Road on the city’s east side.It also sells bleachers on wheels, indoormodels and “fold and go” bleachers thatcan be set up temporarily. When the Lis-boa Bakery & Grill in the WilliamsburgTown Centre in Kitchener needed bleach-ers for the World Cup of Soccer in June, itturned to Reynolds.

Made of aluminum and wood, its pic-nic tables are bought by the hundreds by

conservation authorities, says Brad, andit also distributes football, soccer andother goals for Scoremaster.

The company’s origins date back tothe early 1960s when Bill Reynolds beganselling gill pulverizers, used by farmersto break up soil, out of a house on ElginStreet North in Cambridge. The gillswere made in North Carolina where arelative of Reynolds worked.

The gills were also used to groom balldiamonds and playing fields, so Reynoldsbegan selling bleachers, benches andpicnic tables as well. Brad Thomson’sfather, Alex “Aj” Thomson, joined thecompany as a salesperson in themid-1960s and bought the business 10years later when Reynolds retired. Brandand Shona took over when Aj retiredabout five years ago.

In the mid-1970s, the company movedto rented facilities on Laurel Street inCambridge, but finally purchased amuch-needed larger home on Cowans-view Road, where it moved in January. Itallows Reynolds to make bleachers by thehundreds so it can store them for quickdelivery.

The company built its name in the

pre-internet area by banging on doorsand attending trade shows, says Brad,who started working at Reynolds whilestill in high school. But nowadays, itsmain marketing vehicle is the internet,where it pays for prominent placementduring searches for bleachers.

“We are not a low-bid company,” hestresses, adding that the company em-phasizes quality and service and refusesto buy an inferior raw material offshoreto maintain competitiveness. Among itssuppliers is Gerdau Ameristeel in Cam-bridge.

The company has seven full-timeemployees, but can go as low as three oras high as 20, depending on order volume.It assembles bleachers coast to coast,either with its own crew or hired workersif the site is far away.

Its biggest job to date was installing8,000 bleachers at T.D. Waterhouse foot-ball stadium in London, Ont., in 1999.Brad and crew members lived in a rentedhouse in London for two months whileworking on that job.

With governments distributing stimu-lus cash, the recession has been good forbusiness, says Brad. He has a tender duethis week for bleachers in St. Johns, N.L,and 40 projects in production or undergo-ing installation across the country.

It has no desire to expand into the U.S.because that market is already saturated,he said. If anything, a key challenge nowis to “control the growth while still beingprofitable,” he said. “I’ve seen so manycompanies get too big, too fast.”

PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF

Brad and Shona Thomson have guided W. H. Reynolds (Cambridge) Ltd. to a position of recognition in the sale of bleachers,picnic tables, player benches and associated products.

W.H. Reynolds (Cambridge) Ltd. had one of its busiest years ever in 2009

By Chuck Howitt, Record staff

‘Bleacherguys’ finds its niche in many a field of dreams

Address: 58 Cowansview Rd., CambridgeNo. of employees: 7Website: www.bleacherguys.comPhone: 519-653-9721

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W. H. Reynolds(Cambridge) Ltd.

chowitt@therecord.com

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada scaled backexpectations for economic growth Tuesdaywhile going further out on the interest rate limbwith its second quarter-point hike in as manymonths.

The central bank issued what economistscalled a “dovish” statement on the global andCanadian growth, but maintained the domesticeconomy was sufficiently healthy to withstandraising the trendsetting rate to 0.75 per cent.

The Canadian dollar jumped 0.91of a cent to95.71cents US.

The rate hike will have an impact on vari-able-rate loans as the big commercial banksbegan raising their prime rates by a quarterpoint shortly after the announcement.

The prime rate increased to 2.75 per centfrom 2.5 per cent, increasing the cost of consum-er and car loans and variable mortgages tied toprime.

For example, a quarter-point increase inmortgage rates will add about $46 a month, or$550 a year, for a homeowner who has a $340,000mortgage for a 35-year term.

It’s about $90 per month higher than sixmonths ago when interest rates were half apoint lower.

But Laura Parsons, a mortgage expert atBank of Montreal, noted that borrowing costsremain at near historic lows.

“It’s a buyers’ market and the rates are stillreally good. That’s the problem, we’ve forgottenwhat a bad rate looks like,” she said.

And while variable rates rose, there wasevidence longer-term interest rates might slidemoderately because of the central bank’s gloom-ier outlook, said CIBC chief economist AveryShenfeld.

The vast majority of economists had pre-dicted the rate move — while a few speculatedbank governor Mark Carney might hold back ifhe felt economic growth was slowing.

Carney’s governing council scaled back thebank’s previous call on growth by two-tenths ofa point to 3.5 per cent this year and 2.9 per centnext.

But that didn’t stop the central bank fromfollowing through on the hike, although it castnew doubts about the pace of monetary tighten-ing in future announcements.

The key, said economists, is the bank’s newestimate that will take until the end of 2011forthe economy to reach potential, two quarterslater than previously projected.

BMO Capital Markets economist MichaelGregory said Carney gave himself an extra sixmonths to return rates to normal levels, whichhe said would be in the two-to-three per centrange.

Gregory agreed with the bank that a modesthike now was appropriate.

“There are risks posed by rates being too lowfor too long and I believe those risks are begin-ning to crystallize.

“When credit is cheap, people consume moreof it than perhaps is optimal over the long haul,”he said.

Centralbankhikesinterestrate The ¼-point increase issecond in two monthsBy Julian Beltrame

‰ Rates continued on page C2

CHICAGO — Conrad Black’ssix-year prison sentence couldcome to an early end today, exactlywhere it was handed down — in acourtroom in the U.S. city wherethe disgraced Canadian-bornmedia mogul was convicted offraud and obstruction of justicethree years ago.

A U.S. district court judge, thesame one who presided overBlack’s trial and sentenced him toa six-and-a-half year sentence in2007, will outline Black’s bailconditions, which are expected toconfine the former newspaperbaron to the United States.

But it’s very possible thatBlack’s days as an inmate are over,said Jacob Frenkel, a former fed-eral prosecutor and an expert inwhite-collar crime.

“It is reasonable to expect thatMr. Black will walk out of the U.S.

penitentiary some time onWednesday and possibly neverreturn,” Frenkel said.

It remained unclear Tuesdaywhere Black would be when JudgeAmy St. Eve makes her pro-nouncement; it’s likely he willremain behind bars in Coleman,Fla., until St. Eve sets bond andbail conditions, and not appear inChicago, appeal lawyer MiguelEstrada said in an email.

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court ofAppeals granted Black’s motionfor bail Monday, weeks after theU.S. Supreme Court weakened the“honest services” law that wascentral to his fraud conviction andkicked his case back to a lowercourt. The justices left it up to thelower court to decide whether theconviction should be overturned.That decision has not yet beenmade.

Black also was convicted ofobstruction of justice after jurors

saw a video of him carrying boxesof documents out of his offices,loading them into his car anddriving off with them. The docu-ments were sought by governmentinvestigators. The high court’s

ruling didn’t affect the obstruc-tion of justice count.

It’s possible he’s already servedenough time to cover that charge,said Frenkel.

“Even if the obstruction ofjustice conviction survives, asmost expect, the length of time hehas served already is consideredby most federal judges to be rea-sonable for such a conviction.”

Black has, by all accounts, beena model prisoner at Coleman,where he’s been one of 1,000 crimi-nals, most of them convicted ofdrug or weapons offences.

The former Canadian citizen,convicted of defrauding HollingerInc. of more than $6 million, wasborn into a life of luxury. He’s arenowned historian known for an

expansive vocabulary. And yet formore than two years, he’s beenPrisoner 18330-424, eating hismeals in the prison mess hall,teaching English to his Hispanicfellow inmates, and learning howto play the piano.

The one-time conservative alsotook up an unexpected cause whilebehind bars, urging an end toAmerica’s war on drugs.

“The U.S. is now a carceralstate that imprisons eight to 12times more people (2.5 million) percapita than the U.K., Canada,Australia, France, Germany orJapan,” Black wrote in a letter tothe Sunday Times of London inNovember 2008.

“U.S. justice has become a com-mand economy based on the ava-rice of private prison companies, agigantic prison service industryand politically influential correc-tional officers’ unions.” Black alsodescribed his fellow inmates as“quite interesting and affable,often in a Damon Runyon way.”

Black set to be released on bail by Chicago judgeBail conditions expected to confinedisgraced former media mogul to U.S.By Lee-Anne Goodman

M. SPENCER GREEN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, FILE

Conrad Black is to learn theconditions of his bail today.

IN QUOTES CONRAD BLACKFORMER NEWSPAPERTYCOON

Going to prison “was a littlelike going back to boardingschool.”

‰ Black continued on page C2