Behrends Group of Companies

WHO WE ARE

Although we began by specializing in designing and manufacturing cast bronze, aluminum, and brass plaques and signage, we’ve directed our skills and abilities toward a diverse variety of products. Over the last 60 years, we’ve created hundreds of donor and recognition walls and monuments, interpretive displays, custom signage, art pieces, wayfinding systems, entry features, memorial markers, and other diverse items spanning a wide gamut of forms and functions. Our foundry and manufacturing facility in Edmonton, Alberta is comprised of a 12,000 square foot plant consisting of a sand casting foundry, a lost wax art department, a finishing department, a CNC cutting department, a painting department, a design department, and our head office.

WE’RE A FORWARD-THINKING BRAND.

Our foundry department uses completely biodegradable chemicals for our sand mixing process. This environmentally conscious method is more expensive than some others in the foundry industry, however, it allows the spent sand to be landfill-friendly. Using our new sand reclaimer, we are able to recycle up to 60% of this product, and deposit the other 40% to landfill. At Behrends Group of Companies, we’re constantly refining our tools, techniques, and processes, challenging ourselves to be better, more considerate craftspeople. One example is our use of Green Diamond Sand with a grain fineness of 100 mesh (a blended foundry grade sand); this allows for a much higher degree of precision during casting as compared to the cheaper, coarser sand used in most other foundries. This progressive mentality has also led us to experiment and work with an increasingly wide variety of cutting-edge products, such as custom polycarbonate display panels, or using interactive electronics to elevate engagement within a display.

IN BUSINESS SINCE 1952

We’re a medium sized company, both large enough to meet the high quantity, high consistency demands of our larger clients, and small enough to build personal relationships with all those we serve. We’re proud to be the best at what we do, and our team is the greatest proof of this. Among the approximately 25 employees that make up our manufacturing team at any one time, Behrends employs 6 foundry employees with combined experience totaling approximately 175 years. The finishing department includes 12 employees with a combined total of 90 years of experience.

We also keep a team of 5 full-time designers with over 30 years of combined design experience. The expertise of these loyal, long-standing employees, alongside our dedication to keeping abreast of industry-relevant technological advances, are the reasons we can take on complicated and demanding projects confidently, and turn out consistently great results. Our level of experience means we work well collaboratively with other trades — over the years, we’ve worked with architects, construction companies, masons, carpenters, artists, other graphic and industrial designers, engineers, and many other fields to achieve our collective goals.

WE'RE EFFICIENT

At Behrends Group, each order is scheduled according to the work required by each department, and each department is given a completion date for their section of the order. These dates are tracked in our internally hosted, networked scheduling program, which gives our plant manager and our sales department precision tracking and co-ordinating capabilities, allowing us to maintain punctual production and delivery times, and making it easier to stay on-budget. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you to create something functional, memorable, and timeless.