Parts of the Whole

Allan Lukasik is one of those busi ness owners who don't mind get ting their hands dirty - literally or figuratively. That's good, because as one of four entrepreneurs who pooled their resources and expertise to start City Machine Corp. in 1998, he doesn't have much choice.

"Being hands-on goes with the territory when you run a machine shop," said Lukasik, who told BusinessWest that he and partners Porter Burns, Norm Pimpare, and Patricia Hamel, who all worked together at another machine shop in the city before starting their own venture, are successfully carving out a niche for themselves in the highly competitive machine tooling and repair business.

In the process, they …