Bonnechere Excavating Inc. was founded in 1989 as an equipment rental business with the purchase of a track type tractor (bulldozer). Through the 1990’s, BEI grew as an equipment rental business and acquired 2 additional pieces of heavy equipment. In the year 2000, BEI expanded as an organization by pricing unit price and lump sum contracts and began working primarily as a subcontractor. By the year 2003, the business had become sufficiently established such that bonding capacity was available and MTO Financial Rating was also available. This allowed BEI to begin tendering, managing and completing projects as a General Contractor.
Humble beginnings saw the company working out of a mobile office trailer in the President’s driveway, now a Scale Shack in one of BEI’s leased Aggregate Pits. Working from folding tables, the original office staff consisted of an estimator and payroll/office admin person. BEI has grown from that single room to renting office space within the Renfrew Industrial Commission building in Renfrew, where a recent office expansion boasts a large conference room and additional office space for the President and other staff members. In 2019, BEI completed an expansion of its’ owned garage and shop on Lochwinnoch Road to better service its’ ever evolving fleet of both heavy equipment and passenger vehicles to ensure proper maintenance and improvements can be carried out on everything from aggregate crushing units to skid steers and half ton trucks. The expansion at the BEI Shop provided the opportunity for BEI’s Motor Vehicle Inspection Station to service local enterprises and the ability to utilize the property on which it sits, to add to its’ own aggregate resources; readily available on the property, and provide an office space including conference room for the support staff at the Garage.
An aggregate source acquisition in Barry’s Bay provided BEI with the property to add an asphalt plant to its’ business and began manufacturing and supplying/installing asphalt in the Spring of 2020 in the Ottawa Valley. The purchase of Faught Pit in Cobden supplements BEI’s leased aggregate sources including those in Renfrew, Douglas and west of Point Alexander to capture a wider area that can be serviced by BEI. Fostered relationships with other aggregate sources in Eastern Ontario assist BEI outside of their local trucking capabilities.
2021 saw the acquisition of Corington Engineering Inc. who specialize in Concrete Structures and added this service to the list of capabilities under the BEI umbrella. We look forward to seeing where this new addition to the BEI family can bring BEI in the future.