A NEW COUNTRY, A NEW LIFE, A NEW BUSINESS –
THE STORY OF OUR FOUNDER
In 1949 Dominic Crupi left Calabria, Italy, with a dream to build a new life in Canada for him, his wife Maria and their three young children. It would be two years before he saw his young family again.
Penniless, speaking no English, and with only determination and his dream, Dominic worked that summer on his uncle’s farm near Milton, Ontario.
After moving to Toronto, Dominic found employment with a sewer contractor. Soon after, he began to find extra work on small concrete jobs, travelling to each one by streetcar, carrying his tools in a sack.
D. Crupi & Sons Limited
His persistence paid off. In April, 1951, Dominic bought a small, used GMC dump truck and D. Crupi & Sons was born. On October 23rd, he drove to Union Station to collect his wife and three children, who had just arrived from Italy, to take them to their new home on Oakcrest Avenue in Scarborough.
It would be some time before Dominic decided that he should get a driver’s license to drive the truck.
Dominic continued his concrete and drain work, as well as the risky business of raising war-time houses to add a basement. But, he also had a nose for new business opportunities. When his customers began asking him to pave their driveways, he bought a 1/2 ton roller. From then on, asphalt paving became the focus of the business.
The Family Chips In
By now, Dominic and Maria had five children. Maria concentrated on raising the family and helped with the bookkeeping. Many other family members supported the business with a lot of hard work and sacrifice to help it grow.
In 1963, after working summers with his father, Dominic’s oldest son, Cosimo joined the firm full-time, and Dominic bought a John Deere rubber-tired loader for the then-enormous sum of $5,200.
Crupi's First Location
In 1965, Dominic’s second oldest son Mike joined the company. The family also bought their first small yard on Brimley Road just south of the Dufferin Construction asphalt plant, which Crupi would in turn buy some years later.
The Brimley Road Yard would also house their first official office, a small building with two desks, a phone, a filing cabinet and no washroom.
Three years later, Crupi bought a property on Passmore Avenue and began making plans for their first asphalt plant – a 5,000 pound Barber Greene batch plant. For the next few months, the family built the footing forms with scrap lumber from a neighbour’s lot. They also built a new shop and office, fully equipped with its own washroom.
Growth & Expansion
While the Passmore location remains as the company’s head office, Crupi has continued to invest time and resources to grow the business throughout the years.
1971
Crupi's first asphalt plant officially opened on Passmore Ave.
1977
Crupi purchased the Brimley asphalt plant location, equipped with a 5,000 pound Barber Greene batch plant that output 130 tons per hour.
1979
Replaced original Passmore asphalt plant with a 10,000 pound Barber Greene batch plant that had output of 300+ tons per hour.
Crupi was one of the first paving companies to start recycling concrete for aggregate as a joint venture with Gazzola Paving. Crupi eventually took over this recycling operation in 1988.
1980
Recycling program expands with the investment in a heater scarifier machine, which eliminates the need to remove the entire depth of asphalt when resurfacing asphalt pavement.
1983
Dominic's youngest son Frank, who had joined the business in 1975, launched Road Surface Recycling Inc (RSR) under the Crupi Group with innovative equipment to replace the heater scarifier, that introduced rejuvenator to the asphalt resurfacing process, eliminating the need for a new asphalt layer.
1985
Integration of hot mix production with aggregate operations, including the purchase of Halton Crushed Stone's Milton Quarry and, in 1987, a full interest in Lee Sand & Gravel's Stouffville location.
1991
Purchased the 10,000-pound Wibau batch plant on Ashbridge Circle in Woodbridge.
2001
Operations expanded to include a limestone quarry in Kirkfield, Ontario.
2005
A new state-of-the-art continuous-flow drum asphalt plant built at a new Bethridge location in Etobicoke.
2014
Ashbridge plant sold. Sales and production expanded at the larger, more efficient Bethridge location.
2015
Purchased a licensed sand & gravel pit in Erin, Ont., to expand the Crupi Group's service area and better serve their aggregate customers.
2019
Crupi's newest asphalt plant opened in Oshawa to extend the company's reach further into the eastern GTA.
Little could Dominic have imagined, while traveling on the streetcar with his sack of tools, that today, 70+ years later, the company he founded would be one of the largest integrated paving contractors in Ontario!
The Crupi Group Today
Three aggregate operations
Four asphalt plants
An aggregate depot
A skilled and experienced team of more than 200 employees.
The original shop, built in 1968, is now ten times its original size and is an integral part of the company's reliability.
The Crupi Group of Companies is a proud Canadian family business with Dominic’s oldest son, Cosimo, continuing to grow the business that now includes the third and even fourth generations of the Crupi family.
We are proud of the company’s humble beginnings and the reputation that has been built on Dominic Crupi’s dream. With an eye to the future, there is a shared commitment to honour that legacy and reputation as the company evolves and grows to new heights of success. The Crupi Group strives for excellence with a personalized, invested approach that never loses sight of the core values that the Crupi Group brand stands for.