Potential for paver plant to come to Merritt

Manitoba-based Barkman Concrete is looking to expand their Western operations with a potential production plant and distribution centre in Merritt.

The company has been in business, and in the Barkman family, since 1948, with a base of operations in Steinbach, Manitoba and another production plant in Crossfield, Alberta, acquired in the 1990s.

Barkman is hoping to build a paver plant locally on a 20-acre parcel of land. Brian Pries, General Manager of Barkman Concrete, addressed mayor and council at a Committee of the Whole meeting on March 4 providing details on their plans.

“We have a second plant (in Steinbach) that’s a dry cast, a paver plant. That plant we finished construction and opened in 2015, and that plant is basically a carbon copy of what we’re proposing to build here in BC.”

Pries also assured council that even in cases of urban sprawl, where residential areas encroach on industrial facilities, Barkman maintains a low impact.

“One thing you might notice from a city perspective is how close we are (in Steinbach) to residential neighbourhoods. We really took a lot of care to make sure, ‘is this going to work for our neighbours’? We take pride in the fact that we’re good neighbours, we have really good relationships with our neighbours. We don’t want to screw that up.

“Probably one of the best stories I have is when we built this plant, one of our employee’s was friends with a person that lives on the street directly behind the plant. He was chatting with him one day and his friend said to him ‘when are you guys going to be starting up that plant?’ And it had been running for about 6 months already.”

In 2018 Barkman was recognized as one of Canada’s best managed companies, and mayor and council were eager to see the presentation of services Barkman offers and hear their plans for construction, should the project move forward.

“We’ve already began discussions with some local general contractors and we’re really excited about partnering with local builders and contractors and trades to start developing a site here.”