Jason and Jessica Brandon saw a need, not just for Estevan, but for southern Saskatchewan: a new radiator shop, which would cut down on downtime for business owners and farmers.
The result is the arrival of West End Radiators in Estevan. The business, which has its head office in Winnipeg, opened locally in early January. This marks West End Radiators first location in Saskatchewan.
Jason believes it was time to “have a rad shop in town again.”
“West End Rad out of Manitoba, they were ready to expand into Saskatchewan,” added Jessica. “And since Jason has been ordering his cores from them for many years, they offered us (the chance) to manage the shop.”
Jason brings many years of experience dealing with radiators. He worked for his brothers at Prairie Gold Pumpjacks and Rad Repair, with oilfield work and a radiator shop all in one, but he thought it was time to concentrate on one business, so he parlayed his existing relationship with West End into this opportunity.
He also used to work for the Hank’s Rad Shop in Estevan.
Business has been very good thus far, he said.
“It’s been picking up quite a bit here,” he said. “It’s a slow process, but now that we’re getting everything stocked up, we keep a lot of radiators in stock now, a lot more than what I could ever keep in stock.”
It took time to get set up with the shop and the sign at their location at 237 Third Street and take care of other jobs associated with setting up a business.
West End Radiators provides diesel particulate filters and other emissions cleaning that can be found on vehicles. They re-core radiators that can’t be replaced.
“We custom-make the cores in Winnipeg, and then they send them to me, and then I put them together,” Jason said.
The business also repairs the fuel tanks on semis if they’re leaking, they look after air conditioning condensers and handle any other tasks associated with oil coolers or radiators.
Jason tends to a lot of radiators for drilling rigs and service rigs, and has done a lot of work in semi-trailer units.
“A lot of the newer stuff has emissions (requirements) on it. They have filters, they get plugged up, and you have to clean them,” he said.
Jason and Jessica are currently the two employees of the Estevan business, and they hope to eventually add more staff members. Jason has had some late nights already, finishing up work for customers.
“I’m the type who I like to have stuff done on time and on schedule,” said Jason.
Calls have come in from throughout southern Saskatchewan since they opened. The closest place to get any radiator work done would be Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Yorkton.
Their customer base has been diverse, between the energy, transportation and agriculture industries. And they can accommodate pickup trucks and small cars, although they haven’t had as many of those vehicles thus far.
“The agriculture around here is pretty big, too, so a lot of those guys were either ordering new rads through dealers, or sending them away to get fixed. The downtime was pretty huge. And that goes for everybody,” Jason said.
He enjoys helping people, and there is a sense of satisfaction when he is able to meet the specific needs of customers.
“A lot of these places, downtime is a big thing for them,” he said. “This is their bread and butter.”
“Helping them get up and going again (is big),” said Jessica.
Jason wishes he would have gone into business for himself a long time ago, and Jessica agrees that this was the right decision, and the right time to make the move.
