Building for the future: How traditional businesses are modernizing to grow

Canada’s traditional industries — agriculture, construction, manufacturing — are at a tipping point. The pressure is coming from all directions. Labour shortages could mean 100,000 agricultural jobs are vacant by 2030. Construction costs have risen twice as fast as consumer inflation since 2017. Traditional businesses also face succession gaps, changing regulations, increased competition, and trade disruptions. These are not temporary headwinds. They are structural shifts that demand even the oldest industries find new ways to operate, compete, and grow. 

Shifting your mindset

Jeremy Hildebrand, the CEO of AgriHub Inc., says modernization is the only viable path for many Canadian farms. Amid rising costs and a smaller labour pool, farms are under pressure to become more efficient and productive to remain profitable. 

“I don’t think there’s a farm out there that isn’t considering, or hasn’t already adopted, some form of automation,” Hildebrand says. 

He explains: “Our company goes back 65 years, so we’ve seen three generations of farm takeovers. The grandfather would have 20 cows. The father, there was some consolidation going on, and he had 200 cows. Now the kids are talking about 2,000 cows. It’s a completely different world.”  

Shifting your mindset is the first and most important step for traditional players. 

Jason Stubbe, a third-generation partner at Stubbe’s Precast, describes the mentality that’s helped grow his grandfather’s concrete business into a state-of-the-art, award-winning building company in Ontario today. 

“We believe that if you’re not moving forward, you’re slowly falling behind,” Stubbe says. “We see ourselves as innovators. We will take things that everybody’s doing today and find better ways and create more opportunity for everybody.” 

Gathering intel

Traditional businesses can stay ahead of the curve by consulting with industry experts both at home and abroad. Access to information has never been greater. 

For example, AgriHub hosts open houses to showcase the latest in ag-tech. Here, egg farmers can see for themselves how a free-run or aviary cage systems could help them meet new animal welfare regulations and more efficiently produce, collect and sort eggs at the same time. 

“It’s like Lego for adults,” Hildebrand says. “The eggs gently roll onto a wide egg belt where a camera at the front controls the belt speed to maintain a precise flow. A leak detector checks for any leaking eggs and stops the process if one is found. The eggs then pass through a feather removal system before a camera-based inspection is used to identify and separate defective eggs. The approved eggs move into the packing system, where they can be stamped if required and automatically packed onto pallets. Humans observe and control, but the work is fully automated along the way.”  

For Stubbe’s, inspiration came to headquarters in Harley, Ontario, all the way from the Middle East. 

Stubbe recalls a game-changing conversation after one of his clients returned from working in Dubai in the late 2000s. The city was booming and the client observed that, “Everybody’s using precast over there. We’re still using cast-in-place here. It’s got to be a better way to build buildings.” 

Stubbe’s was all ears—this could save time and improve quality. The company started with semi total precast projects, meaning parts of the buildings (the floors and exterior walls) were created this way. Within two years, Stubbe’s completed the first total precast project in Ontario, a 17-storey condo building in Barrie where the entire structure and building envelope was precast. 

Attracting young talent

Modernizing plays a critical role in attracting young employees, who may not otherwise picture themselves working in traditional industries. For many years, young Canadians left the family farm for jobs in the city and never returned. Technology adoption has helped to spread out economic opportunities. 

“If you live in Swift Current and you want to be an engineer, you don’t have to move to Regina anymore. It’s possible to stay there and become a highly paid professional working in the agricultural sector,” Hildebrand says. 

Furthermore, modernization has transformed the work environment, making it more appealing to the next generation. 

“Choring is yesterday’s world,” Hildebrand says. “Their grandparents were in muddy boots at six in the morning, but today’s farmers start the day with data. They get automatic alerts on feed intake, livestock health, and barn conditions, sometimes even before an issue becomes visible.”  

Investing in technology serves to attract young talent to traditional industries, and in return, young people bring the energy and ideas that spark more innovation—it’s a virtuous circle. 

More than 900 people work at Stubbe’s Precast, and the average age is about 25.  

Stubbe explains that young talent is so important to their business, they created an in-house school called the Academy of Building Technology. It welcomes teens straight out of high school and trains them to become drafters, estimators, and construction leaders—and to think like innovators.  

“Our true competitive advantage is our people and the way they think,” Stubbe says. “Our core purpose around here is to challenge the norm. We love nothing better than the guy working on the shop floor, or on a site, that comes up with a new idea to make things better.” 

Getting buy-in

When Hildebrand sits down with farmers, he puts hard numbers on the table. 

“A very common discussion in dairy is the total cost of milking. We get right down to the litre. We monitor the performance of each individual cow for health, wellness and production. We discuss the current cost of producing a litre of milk, including your capital, your service and parts, your consumables. And we plan for payback through investment in automation, cow care and facility management.” 

This direct comparison of today’s cost structure against what automation would look like is compelling. Adding in a succession argument helps, too—the next generation is far more likely to take over a farm that’s modern, professionalized, and built for the future. 

Similarly, at a workforce level, people are more likely to get behind new technology if they see a use case, and not just a cool gadget.  

Stubbe explains that at his family’s concrete business, when the software development team comes up with a new program, they don’t just put them in charge of championing the new initiative. They find someone who works in the impacted area and bring them in as an early adopter. 

“Let’s say it’s in estimating. We find somebody on the sales or the estimating team that we can  free up some of their time, and that people know and trust already on the estimating team, and they’re 100% bought into the initiative.” 

Looking ahead

For the companies willing to adapt, the upside is significant—both for their bottom line and for Canada’s economic growth.  

Hildebrand predicts, for example, that the adoption of ag-tech will bolster farmers’ capabilities and the country’s international reputation for food excellence.  

“In the next decade we’ll be separating manure into nutrient and energy streams, harvesting the biogas for energy, and then using GPS and Near Infrared Technology (NIR) for guided nutrient application, so each field gets exactly what it needs.”  

He adds: “There are technologies being developed today to tell you, with a biometric wearable like an eartag, if a cow or pig is trending toward sick or not. It’s the next generation of advancement in terms of healthy livestock.” 

Stubbe shares this enthusiasm for his company’s and Canada’s future. He believes his team has found a way to put housing prices back in reach for more Canadians amid an affordability crisis. 

“We sat down and said, there’s got to be a different way to build buildings.” 

FastTrack speeds up construction by using standardized, repeatable unit designs and a precast system. This way, Stubbe’s can build midrise residentials faster and at a lower price point, because they’re ordering and installing in bulk.  

“FastTrack is going to change the industry,” Stubbe says. “What we want is to become the IKEA of building systems.” 

The pressures that traditional industries face are real. But owners who shift their mindset, stay informed, attract young talent, and make a teamwide effort will find that the opportunity is as great as the disruption.