‘We’re running 24/7:’ Stittsville’s LD Tool and Die bolstering workforce to make COVID-19 swabs

The Owner and President of LD Tool and Die wouldn't necessary describe business as 'booming' — Laurie Dickson more aptly describes his situation as 'crazy.'

The Stittsville custom injection molding company has been a partner of Kanata's Spartan Bioscience for 15 years, and the federal government just invested in the Spartan Cube: a new COVID-19 testing device which will give results on the spot, within 30 minutes.

Since that contract was signed, Dickson says his company has had to figure out how it's going to go from producing tens of thousands of swabs for the cube, to millions.

Dickson tells 1310 NEWS' The Rob Snow Show that they've taken 2,000 sq. ft. of factory and turned into a clean area where 27 newly hired people will be packaging product, and in another three weeks he plans to have anther 27 hired.

In a matter of a couple months, LD Tool and Die is expected to go from a company of 70-80 employees to possibly 140 or 150.

“Never in a million years did we expect to grow at such a rate, and we're able to turn it around,” says Dickson. “We're not resting here. We're running 24/7.”

Part of the challenge, Dickson adds, is that he has other customers too, but he says this project takes precedence. 

The other tough part of this situation is LD Tool and Die had been bombarded with resumes. Dickson says he saw 250 emails from people looking for jobs at his plant, but can't hire them all. He did say, however, that the hiring could continue as the COVID-19 situation drags on.