Employees at Longboard Architectural Products are given the support needed to thrive in their careers over the long term.Supplied
When Chris Coppin took an entry-level job at Longboard Architectural Products Inc. in 2014, he was coming off a “toxic” workplace elsewhere and figured he’d only stay for a few months. Today, he’s still there, having risen to quality assurance manager for the company and grateful for all that’s happened to him.
Why did he stay? Maybe it was in how he describes the corporate culture at the Abbotsford, B.C.- based maker of special aluminum cladding and soffits, much of it in wood-grain design, for residential and commercial buildings. “It’s anything but corporate,” he chuckles.
He especially appreciates the atmosphere owners Mike and Karen Heppell have created since founding the business in 2005 and starting their unique Longboard cladding products in 2008. “It’s become a joke to say your work is a family, but I truly believe it here,” says Coppin. “You feel it in everything, from Mike walking around the plant saying ‘Good morning’ to you, to how you’re treated. You feel like you’re walking into a group of friends.”
After he started his first role working on the paint line, Coppin found that people could move up relatively fast — he became a team lead within a few months — and he has ascended through a series of roles since. Along the way, he was given considerable training at each stage. And while it was a smaller company early on, he still sees newcomers progress efficiently now that there are about 215 employees.
Cody Klassen, people and culture manager, says Coppin’s experience is very much in line with the Heppells’ commitment to six core values, including “people come first.”
“It’s about really having a deep commitment and caring for your people,” says Klassen. The other values are “there’s always a better way”; simplicity; sustainability; compassionate acts and human flourishing, and transparency. The latter includes regular two-way feedback with employees that has resulted in changes both to personnel systems and the manufacturing process. “We want to unleash the collective power of the team,” says Klassen.
Sustainability is an especially poignant value considering that aluminum is almost endlessly recyclable when the products reach the end of their life. Longboard itself offers the Longboard Eco line made from recycled aluminum.
A large part of the company’s business involves the market in the United States, which continued its 50 percent tariff on Canadian aluminum into 2026, but Klassen says Longboard has been able to maintain its competitiveness there and continues to expand its workforce.
That workforce enjoys a variety of progressive benefits, including a non-traditional health spending account that ranges from $2,500 to $6,250, depending on the worker and family, and covers 100 per cent of anything in health rather than conventional extended benefits (“there are no co-pays,” notes Klassen). It’s backed by catastrophic insurance if the employee reaches the annual spending limit.
Coppin also appreciates the flexible approach to taking time off within the fully on-site working hours. But he especially points to the company’s bonus and profit- sharing system, which he says the Heppells introduced as soon as the company was profitable. “That was just their mindset from the beginning, to pay it back, and it’s stuck — they haven’t cancelled it or diminished it. It’s still part of our package.”
To Coppin, the company has been a lifesaver. “I’ve told Mike, I’m grateful for where I am, for everything the company has given me, everything I’ve learned. I would never have guessed 10 or 11 years ago that I’d be in this position with these availabilities and the lifestyle that I’m able to have.”
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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.
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