PLC Logger's Voice Winter 2017

PLC Supporting
Member Spotlight
S
KOWHEGAN – The phone rings a lot at Canadian
Chains. To Jason Carrier, that is a good sound
because it means business.
Canadian Chains is a division of Jackman
Equipment Inc., owned by his father, Mario Carrier, and
Jason’s management of it started with that phone in 2013.
“I was doing inventory because I was working here
and my father came out and gave me the phone and said,
you’re officially in charge, call me if you have any issues,
and away he went. That’s how my family does it,” Jason
laughed.
Three years later Jason is busier than ever building
the high-quality traction tire chain company into a brand
known not just in New England, but nationwide.
The Carrier family has a reputation for that kind of
drive to succeed, and it has served them well. The family
has deep roots in the woods, and Mario Carrier’s
businesses all depend on logging and forestry to this day.
For Canadian Chains, that means Jason spends a lot
of time working with loggers sizing, building, and fitting
chains for skidders, forwarders and other mechanized
equipment. And it’s not just logging, the company also
does a lot of business with farmers, trucking companies,
construction companies, and other customers in Maine and
beyond.
“If it has a tire, we make chains for it,” Jason said.
Quality of products and service is the top priority
for Canadian Chains. Another big selling point? The steel,
the chains, the workmanship is 100 percent made in the
U.S.A., and that’s how Jason intends to keep it.
Canadian Chains has its origins in Canaan Maine,
where founder Roger Gower began making skidder tire
chains in his backyard in 1963. By 1968 business had
grown to the point that the company moved manufacturing
to Skowhegan and expanded four times in the next 12
years. The company was very successful in those early
years but by the late 1980s had decided to close its doors,
then it changed owners twice before Mario Carrier bought
it in 1999. He quickly built a new manufacturing facility
Canadian Chains Continued on Page 8
The Logger’s Voice ▪ Winter 2017
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