Men of Steel

The world of rebar is getting smaller. After 31 years of fabricating and installing concrete reinforcing steel from their Chatsworth rebar yard, twin brothers Bob and Ron Main have decided to cash in and retire, clearing the way for their competitor’s expansion. The facilities of Canoga Rebar, which was incorporated in 1979, were recently sold to Bellis Steel, a family owned business headquartered in Northridge operating since 1961. Excluding Glendale, Bellis is now the only fabricator and installer of concrete reinforcing steel left in the San Fernando Valley. Bellis, with operations in Northridge and San Fernando, will now operate a rebar yard in the newly acquired Chatsworth property. “Although nostalgic, we are happy to have sold to Bellis Steel who will keep the rebar yard that we worked so hard to build, operating,” said Bob Main, 68. “It would have been disheartening to drive by and see it all gone.” Along with the property, Bellis Steel also purchased Canoga Rebar’s equipment and will employ a handful of Canoga Rebar’s employees. Direct competitors, both companies are family owned businesses with long histories of being in the trenches of a highly specialized field hit hard by the recession. The Main brothers started their business from their garage, at first buying steel from other yards and working on installations. They later acquired the property on 10049 Canoga Ave. and began adding equipment to build up their yard and fabricate their own rebar (short for reinforcing bar) which is used in concrete structures. At its peak their company employed 50 full-time employees. In recent years however, the construction slump hit the company hard. “With fewer and fewer jobs, prices going lower and lower, the bidding getting cheaper and cheaper, there’s too little volume,” said Bob Main. The price of steel in the U.S. taking a plunge this year, has further hurt the very specialized rebar industry during the recession. At the age of 68, and with no debt on the property, the brothers thought it was a good time to sell their business for $1.5 million, and retire. Handful of firms Now there are only a handful of rebar companies in the region. “It’s always a great opportunity to buy in a down market,” said Ron Ghrist, who owns the company with his wife Gail Ghrist. “It was a great opportunity for us to buy the Canoga Rebar facilities, they were direct competitors, and now we get to take their clientele and work it to our advantage,” he added. Bellis Steel Co., Inc. was started by Robert and Connie Bellis out of their home in 1961. When the Bellis’ retired in 1983 they sold their business to their daughter and son-in-law, Ron and Gail Ghrist. The Ghrist’s son, daughter and daughter in law also work in the family business. Over the years the company has worked on a variety of projects including single family custom homes, schools, hospitals, churches, parking structures, hillside homes, bank vaults, and water treatment plants. Customers The company works with large contractors and construction companies including Morley Construction Company, Benchmark Contractors, Millie & Severson and Matt Construction. Bellis Steel has also made significant investments in technology over the years computerizing all their processes including their estimating, CAD detailing, production and shop operations. During the peak of the construction boom in 2005 and 2006 the company reached annual revenues of $15 million. Now the company is seeing revenues of $3-$5 million and employs 35 workers. “We’ve definitely been hit. The business is down 50 percent and we’re in survival mode, it’s tough out there,” said Ghrist. Nonetheless, with the economy expected to recover in the next few years, there’s nowhere for the company to go but up, according to Ghrist. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re in it for the long run. This is our family business.”