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Passion discovered in school becomes career, business for Brink’s Welding

PHOTO PROVIDED Brink’s Welding and Fabrication has expanded to include maintenance and repair operations for local manufacturing; that involves welding, fabrication, machining, millwright, line boring and powder coating.

When Dan Brink was a senior in high school, he had to pick a potential career and research it. “I chose welding, because I enjoyed metal shop class,” Brink said.

It was a fortuitous choice, because it led him to study welding at Pennsylvania College of Technology and begin his career in the field he showed such a significant interest in.

“I worked in the field for a year, but was just not feeling fulfilled,” Brink said. “One day I was given the opportunity to start a welding business.”

So in January of 2008, during the recession, Brink took a risk and began his own business. “I decided to go work for myself so that I can steer my future on the path that I chose,” Brink said.

Using the experience he gained working for his father’s business for a decade, Brink has grown his business.

Brink’s Welding and Fabrication has expanded to include maintenance and repair operations for local manufacturing; that involves welding, fabrication, machining, millwright, line boring and powder coating. “And for a little laughter, we seem to be paramedics for emergency calls for the local manufacturing business 24/7,” Brink said.

Rooted in Montoursville, Brinks appreciates any opportunity to interact with the residents and have a little fun.

“For humor, we fix plenty of patio chairs for the residents in Montoursville,” Brinks said. “The people we get to interact with are great and it breaks up the daily hustle of what we typically do.

Brink has worked hard to expand his business to what it is today, operating within a 2-hour radius with 10 employees.

Although they are a local company, they have worked on and contributed to large, out-of-state projects including fabricating seismic panels for a hospital in Los Angeles and highway structures for the New Jersey Turnpike.

“We’ve seen rapid growth over 15 years,” Brink said. “Every two years it seems that the business would out-grow the shop size.”

Brink started out in a 600 square-foot wooden lean-to-style shed. “Then we grew into a 1,200 square foot space, then built a new 2,400 square foot shopt overtop of the current shop and tore the shop down from the inside,” Brink said.

He quickly outgrew that space and moved into a 6,400 square foot space, then to 13,000 square feet, and is now currently in a 40,000 square foot space.

“We’ve been in our current space for the past 3 years and are needing more space for the projects we’re getting involved with today,” Brink said.

Like any successful business, Brink can’t operate that large of an operation alone, and considers himself lucky to have found the employees that he has over the years.

“The business has been blessed with team members over the years that have also allowed Brink’s to grow and have built a strong team capable of providing the services we offer to a high standard,” Brink said.

Looking ahead, Brinks plans to continue to make their employees a priority. “The business plan is to continue to give our staff opportunities to better their career and family without holding their potential,” Brink said. “The sky’s the limit and we support those who invest in themselves.”

Brink, whose feelings of being unfilled led him to starting his business from the ground up, supports people who hold those same values of the willingness to take risks to be happy.

“We support those who invest in themselves,” he said. “I want everyone to prosper.”

Brinks said he wants to expand the customer base and be the go-to company for what they do.

“We here at Brink’s are grateful for all the opportunities we have been given and always try to pass it forward.”

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