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PROFILE

Hard work

keeping

family

together

By Brian Rodnick

Knapp Fasteners Incorporated

Jim and Jenny Knapp are proof that any goal can be The Knapps began dating in high school and went on to study busi-
achieved through old-fashioned hard work. ness at Conestoga College. Upon graduation, both wound up work-
ing for separate fastener companies.
The husband and wife team are a big part of the driving force be-
hind the continued success of Cambridge-based Knapp Fasteners Jenny was a buyer and Jim was in sales, but the pair quickly real-
Incorporated. ized there was a huge market for fasteners and decided to use their
knowledge and experience by opening their own business.
What began as a great idea formulated by a pair of newly-married
twentysomethings 32 years ago in a small rented industrial unit has “Everything that is manufactured needs fasteners,” says Jenny. “We
blossomed into a successful multi-million-dollar family business had the buying and selling end covered so we both decided to quit
with an international reach. our jobs and start Knapp Fasteners.”
“We started with nothing,” says Jenny, taking a moment to chat in It was 1987 and the couple, who married two years before, set up
the company’s comfortable boardroom at its Boxwood Drive facility shop in an industrial unit on Colby Drive in Waterloo with a few old
in the city’s north end. “But we both just wanted to have our own kitchen tables and chairs borrowed from their parents with dreams
business.” of building a solid business.
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Spring 2019