American poet Robert Frost famously coined the phrase “Good fences make good neighbours” in the poem Mending Wall, first published in 1914. My Canadian experience serves as confirmation that good fences not only make good neighbours, but also sound investments!
I was born in the small town of Monte San Giovanni Campano in Frosinone, Italy, in 1951. I was the youngest of three siblings. My father, Domenico, worked in construction in Rome and I only saw him on weekends. My mom, Domenica Raponi, struggled on her own taking care of our small farm along with myself and my two sisters. My older sister Rita was married in 1957 and emigrated to Canada shortly after. My father followed her approximately one year later with the hope of finding a good and steady-paying job. Canada offered an opportunity for a better life for all of us; one that would allow us to be together!
By September 1959, we were preparing to join my father and sister in Toronto. My younger sister Elena eloped and decided to stay in Italy with her new husband. The villagers from our small town rented a bus and came with us, to bid us farewell as we boarded the Queen Frederica in the port of Naples. It was a sad time for me, as I was leaving my whole world behind; the world that I knew and loved. I was eight years old at the time.
Going through customs for the first time was scary, but soon we were on a train heading to Toronto. The train was noisy and uncomfortable, but I managed to sleep for the two nights that we traveled. At Union Station, my cousin, sister, and father were waiting for us with a 1950 Ford that would eventually take us to our new home. It was such a happy time for us … to see our family again and to just be together every day.
When I was thirteen years old, I started working with my father and my brother-in-law, Mario Fiore, installing fences part-time. They worked for a company called Frost Fence. When they did some small projects for friends, I helped them. During the summer holidays, I worked with my father full-time with a company called Nordic Fence. We worked from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm and I was paid $1 per hour. I was making $70 per week and was very happy with that. I learned a lot about fences and fence installation. Since I could now speak Italian and English, and of course being a good-looking Italian lad, people would come up to me where we were working to ask if I could install their fences too.
Some customers could not understand the English-speaking salespeople who came to their door. They preferred to deal with someone who spoke Italian. I understood how my boss was billing projects, and gave them a fair deal to obtain their business. I bought the material from my boss and made money on the labour portion of the contract. This was great because I was making a lot more money compared to the $1 per hour that I was paid by my boss. Soon my boss stopped selling me materials. I then decided to change jobs and worked for another company called Medallion Fence. My new boss agreed to sell me materials to do some extra work and earn some extra money privately. I am still good friends with the owner today.
In 1968, I started going door-to-door in new housing subdivisions to find new clients. With the money saved, and some help from my father, I bought a new truck to help with the installations. I registered Roma Fence as my business name, as I wanted to target Italian immigrants. At the time, people in the community wanted to give work to reliable fellow Italians. I was in Grade 12 at the time and wanted to finish high school and then go to university, but this was a good part-time job to make some good money in the meantime.
One day, as I was working in the Islington and Steeles area, a man stopped and asked me if I was really from Rome. Then he asked me why I called my company ‘Roma’? The man was Fred De Gasperis from Con Drain Construction. He asked me to do some work for him. Soon I had to buy another truck just to keep up with his work. My father left his job and came to work for me full-time. My brother-in-law Mario joined us one year later. By this time, we had two installation crews working full time and I was proud to have some people that depended on me for their livelihoods. I came to a point when I had to make a decision with my life, so I finished Grade 13 and started to work full-time at expanding Roma Fence.
Over the years, I made countless mistakes, but I learned from them and moved on. I wanted to make people happy with my products and services. I wanted to keep my employees working and earning a good living to support their families. It gave me great pleasure to see happy people around me, working together for a common goal; to live a good life in Canada.
Roma Fence was officially established in the summer of 1969, in the basement of a semi-detached home in North York. After many complaints from neighbours about the fifty-foot trailers pulling up to the driveway, and me making too much noise unloading, we finally decided to rent a small industrial unit in Concord, Ontario, in late 1970. Our business grew quickly and in 1972 we moved into a two-acre site on Highway 50 in Brampton, Ontario.
1973 was quite the year for me, as I married my high school sweetheart, Theresa Dagostino. She supported my efforts in entrepreneurship and helped build our family. Today I am a proud father of four, with four beautiful grandchildren. With the grace of God, I will be blessed with more.
My brother-in-law, Giovanni Fiore, joined the team in 1975. In 1980, we purchased land and moved to a 10,000-square-foot facility, built to our requirements, on two acres of property on Cadetta Road in Brampton. That was the home of Roma Fence for many years.
Along with the fence installations, Roma started to sell to customers that wanted to install their own fences, and also to other installing companies. We added other products like ornamental iron, PVC, and wood fencing to the line of products we distributed. We imported our fence components and could sell them very competitively. Our supply-only business grew to 50 percent of our total revenue. This upset some of our suppliers, as they began to see us as a threat in competing with them.
Soon our suppliers started to push back by slowing down our deliveries and ultimately upsetting our client base. Trying to stay competitive and viable, in 1995 we decided to rent a building across the street from our retail and distribution yard and started manufacturing our own chain link fence. We ordered two high-speed fence machines and reduced our costs substantially. Combined with our economical imported fence components, we quickly took a substantial portion of fence sales in Ontario.
As our requirements for vinyl-coated strand wire used in the manufacturing of vinyl-coated chain link fence fabric increased, and became harder to source, we decided to purchase our own extrusion machine and took another step towards becoming self-sufficient. We now extruded our own wire that was used by our own fabrication machines to make chain link fences by the roll. This helped our sales not only for chain link fabric products but also for iron products and fence accessories.
In 1998, we purchased a small custom iron company that was manufacturing and installing custom iron railings and fences. We used their expertise and equipment to set up mass production of a lighter, modular iron fence system that was economical and ideal for homes and businesses. We called our new product, the New York Collection, as the company that we purchased was called York Fence. We came up with a dozen styles of fences and gates that we manufactured in heights from 3 feet to 8 feet. This was a great and profitable addition to our fence distribution business.
In 2007, we moved our Manufacturing Division of chain link and iron fences, along with custom gate manufacturing to 10 Holland Drive, Bolton, Ontario. The 65,000-square-foot building on 4 acres of land gave us ample room for each division to operate efficiently and safely.
Advanced Entry Systems of Canada (AES) is our latest addition to the Roma Fence family and provides gate and entry automation for the gates that we manufacture. Along with Roma East in Stouffville, and Roma West in Milton, the Roma Fence Group of Companies provides Southern Ontario with fence products and accessories and a full installation service. Our products are also distributed throughout Canada and the United States through selected dealers.
As I look back on my life, I am grateful to my father for giving me the opportunity to create something wonderful in Canada. He suffered under work conditions that would never be allowed today, but he was happy doing it for his family and for our well-being. He survived the horrors of World War Two, he worked in Italy with little to no pay, he worked hard in Canada often under unsafe conditions, but he was determined to succeed, and he survived it all. Just when we thought things would improve for our family, he was diagnosed with leukemia. It was devastating for our family. He stood strong through this time and still had the desire to help me set up my business. Dad succumbed to leukemia in 1979, but his example continues to inspire me to take the business forward.
I am happy about what my family and I have accomplished in Canada. The Roma Fence Group is now over 100 families strong. These families, along with mine, depend on the compensation that we receive for our quality products and for a job well done. Our customers, big and small, depend on us to provide them with the materials and the know-how to complete their projects.
We support local charities as our way of giving back to the communities that supported our business model and steady growth. We support both local and international businesses for the products and services they provide us. It gives me great pleasure to see all my customers and employees having rewarding experiences via Roma Fence. I am also fortunate to have my four children working with me to help bring the company to a new level of efficiency. Perhaps my grandchildren will take over the reins one day? Stay tuned!
If you follow your dream, learn from your mistakes and just keep working and persevering, you will succeed in Canada. I am no poet, but in my experience, good fences have proven to make not only good neighbours but also sound investments, for my family and our customers.
To read the full article, please visit: https://www.transformationscanada.com/narrative/good-fences-make-good-neighbours