By Natasha Rombough, Director of Marketing and Communications, CHBA
For nearly 50 years, Grandeur Housing Ltd. has been focused on reimagining home construction. Based in Winkler, Man., Grandeur specializes in volumetric modular construction, producing a wide range of products, including single-family homes, multi-family residences and apartments, commercial buildings and specialty projects such as supportive housing and shelters for remote communities.
Founded in 1976, Grandeur began with the vision of creating exceptional “mobile homes.” Today, the Grandeur production facility is more than 200,000 square feet, employs 250 staff and produces an average of one home per day. The factory comprises two main production lines, with a third for R&D and special projects. Line one handles larger projects such as townhouses and apartment buildings. Line two focuses on single-family homes, smaller products and some commercial projects, often sold through their retail outlets.
Derek Hiebert, Grandeur’s general manager, has been with the company for 29 years. In that time, he has seen Grandeur grow in scale and capacity, and broaden its range of modular products to adapt to new opportunities and keep the production lines running.
“Historically, we were known as the quality customized modular homebuilder, and the majority of what we did was single-family homes. We’ve maintained that reputation for quality over the years, and we’ve taken on challenges that were outside of what we would traditionally do, like building houseboats during the winter, that could help sustain a factory for a full 12-month cycle,” Hiebert says.
Touring a factory
I had the opportunity to visit the Grandeur factory in 2024 and was given a small group tour of the facilities by Hiebert. If you’ve never been to a modular factory, I highly recommend going to one if you get the chance. We entered through huge bay doors and and saw the first stage of a home’s construction: The floor being built. Unlike site-built homes, where the structure is stationary and trades rotate through, factory-built homes efficiently move through stations where different trades work, like a giant assembly line. The modules in the Grandeur factory are moved from station to station using air casters to “float” the homes on a cushion of air.
Hiebert walked us from the front of the factory to the rear, showing us the different stages of construction and highlighting the attention paid to quality construction, including tight building envelopes for superior energy efficiency, which as a Qualified Net Zero/Net Zero Ready Builder is very important.
It was mid-afternoon, and there were many people working at the time, including quite a few women and visible minorities – a testament to the company’s commitment to hiring people from all walks of life.
Modern methods, modern opportunities
Grandeur’s approach to hiring and training is rooted in the belief that anyone can succeed with the right support. “Factory construction is able to accommodate a lot of different demographics, skills, and knowledge bases,” says Hiebert. “We have taken people with an interest in construction and turned them into great framers, plumbers, electricians, finishers, cabinet installers and more. They’re able to try out those jobs in a safe and controlled environment. We’ll hire a high school student as well as someone who’s nearing retirement, and they all have roles that we can incorporate into our systems.”
Grandeur currently has employees from 18 different countries, which is fairly diverse for a small town in Manitoba. That diversity does present unique language-barrier challenges. To help newcomers feel at home, they’ve designed custom ESL (English as a Second Language) courses, using company standard operating procedures as the foundation. “They not only learn to use English in a more conversational way, but they’re also taught the lingo that we use here at the factory,” Hiebert says.
Regardless of background and experience, employees are able to try different areas of the process if they have an interest. Hiebert says that some people really enjoy learning one skill and doing it well, while others eventually want to explore different kinds of work.
His own daughter started working at Grandeur after coming out of school. Even though she’d helped with home renovation projects in the past, she didn’t have the confidence to jump into construction right away. Instead, she started with a cleaning job. She soon realized she could do more and worked her way through the system.
Hiebert says providing those types of opportunities is part of Grandeur’s mandate. “Sometimes people don’t think they’re capable of doing this work, but when you give them a little bit of a safer opportunity, they prove to be more than capable, and so if we can get people in the door who think they can do a little, we can often show them how much more they are capable of.”
Serving remote locations
Tapping into opportunities doesn’t just happen within Grandeur’s workforce; the company is always on the lookout for unique business opportunities. Their flexibility and willingness to serve remote communities has been a lifeline for places where housing and infrastructure are hard to come by. “We really service the remote northern market well from a residential perspective because we become a solution provider for a lot of the communities,” Hiebert says. “It’s not just about cranking out an apartment building; it’s about really working and understanding the needs within the communities, and meeting them.”
One example that holds a special place for Hiebert is a Safe House the company built in Pikangikum, a remote First Nations community in Northern Ontario. “We were able partner with the community to provide much needed services for the community. I’m always proud of the projects that have a positive impact on people’s lives. We are also currently in the process of completing a Women’s Shelter and will be delivering Second Stage Housing to this same community in February of 2026,” he says.
Transportation is a constant challenge, especially when delivering homes to remote locations. “Some of these communities are restricted to access on winter roads. So, we work with the community, design and build a product, and deliver when the winter road opens,” Hiebert explains. “If needed, we fly in to complete the project and turn over a fully functional home or building.”
Challenges
Factory-built construction is not without its challenges. Securing financing for projects is difficult due to industry norms and government policies, such as not financing a project unless it is physically at its final destination. This creates cash flow issues and limits the ability to scale up production.
Grandeur, like other modular factories, faces significant hurdles due to inconsistent building codes and standards across jurisdictions, which Hiebert says makes it difficult to scale up the company’s assembly lines to maximize efficiencies, and therefore increases operational costs due to different requirements in different jurisdictions.
Another major challenge is educating clients, policymakers and industry partners about the unique requirements and benefits of modular construction. Derek describes the need for a “mindset shift” in the construction industry: “If we want modular to be part of the solution, we actually have to leave room to do it in a way that is modular conducive. We can’t leverage all the benefits of what we do if we’re not willing to look at doing it differently.”
As demand for modular construction grows, they must balance the desire to expand with the realities of supporting systems, financing and regulatory compliance.
A values-based approach to innovation and growth
Despite these challenges, Grandeur is looking to the future. The company currently produces roughly one home a day, and plans to double capacity in the coming years. “There’s some automation equipment that I want to start incorporating into our system along with refining our current processes and systems that will increase efficiency and increase capacity through our factories,” Hiebert says. “It’s not about replacing people, but it’s about reallocating that labour to another area to utilize the automation.”
For Hiebert, the future of modular construction is about building relationships. “I see modular being used in various ways and formats to complete projects in partnership with various other organizations and companies. The future is an alignment between utilizing the benefits of factory and off-site construction to complete projects on site using the knowledge and skills that exist in the larger industry.”
As the company approaches its 50th anniversary in 2026, it is planning celebrations for employees, owners and the community. No matter what the future looks like, Grandeur will stay true to its core values: Family, commitment, quality, faith and integrity. For Hiebert, who has grown along with the company for decades, those values have allowed both him and Grandeur to evolve and thrive, and the future is full of possibilities.
Fast facts
Company Name: Grandeur Housing Ltd.
Head Office: Winkler, Man.
Areas Served: North-Western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC
Full Time Employees: 250
Retailers: 3
Units per year: 230-250
Coming CHBA Events
Feb. 10, 2026, CHBA Day on the Hill, Ottawa
March 2026, Finalists Announced for the CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence
May 4-8, 2026, CHBA Home Building Week in Canada, Québec City
