Precast Inc. - November/December 2008 - (Page 36) F E AT U R E people first BY SUE MCCRAVEN | PHOTOS COURTESY DOMINIC GIROTTI putting In Dominic Girotti, there is a teenager who “worked like a dog” in his father’s precast plant to make money for college. In Dominic, there is a determined young man with a plan who struck out on his own in electrical engineering, vowing never to work in the family business again. Here is a professional double-degreed electrical engineer, P. Eng. and pilot who worked successfully for years designing and troubleshooting building automation systems for Johnson Controls and who developed software for IBM and Bell Northern Research. Dominic had been a bachelor and engineer whose career path took him to three of Canada’s provinces: Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. So what happened to change all that? ENTHUSIASM AND CONFIDENCE GROW AT HY-GRADE PRECAST CONCRETE AS MANAGEMENT AND STAFF WORK TOGETHER TO FIND SOLUTIONS. Father talks about retirement By the early 1990s, two brothers, Mario and Scotty Girotti, began to feel the effects of toiling long hours for many years in the family’s precast concrete plant in St. Catharines, Ontario. Mario, Dominic’s father, and Scotty, Dominic’s uncle, wanted to spend more time tending their gardens and vineyards and making wine. In the latter stages of their careers, Mario and Scotty were looking for less stressful responsibilities and an end to long working hours. Known as Six Brothers Ltd. in 1948, the Girotti brothers began precasting operations in St. Catharines. Products included precast pavers, landscaping products and other specialty items. In 1974, they moved to their current plant on First Street just off a country road located among acres of fruit orchards in eastern Ontario near Niagara Falls. By the 1980s, Hy-Grade Precast was an established successful business with a good customer base and an excellent reputation for product quality and follow-through. Always wanted to run his own company “My father and Scotty were tired of being the first at work in the morning and the last ones to turn out the lights at night,” Dominic 36
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.