Fastest in their Field
Industry by industry, these are the companies that out-sprinted their peers
by Phoebe Dey
Manufacturing: Spindle, Stairs and Railings 2002 Ltd.
#7 Fast 25 Under $20 million
When Kevin Halliday says he started his company from scratch, he means it. In 1999, he left his parent’s company in Edmonton to start his own stairs and spindle business in Calgary. He had no money at the time and had to make his first sale in a Home Depot parking lot because he had no office space of his own.
He used that first $1,700 to pay for his business licence and started thinking ahead. Way ahead. At auctions, he bought machines he didn’t need and stashed them away in storage for years until the time came to use them. And although he worked out of his truck and didn’t have an office, he bought a phone line from Telus and had it forwarded to his cellphone in anticipation of the day he would require a separate line. He went door-to-door, stapling his business card to the homeowner’s stairs and followed up with a phone call, promising high quality work at an affordable price. Then, when he landed a job, instead of strapping on the tool belt and installing the stairs himself, he hired people
to do the work.
“I could have done it myself and saved money but I’ve always believed in thinking big right from the beginning,” says Halliday. “I’ve always hired the best and never installed a stair in my life. People always say, ‘Shouldn’t you learn how to do it?’ but if I do, then I’ll actually have to do it. If I’m installing, I’m not concentrating on sales or building up the business.”
That philosophy has paid off for Halliday. Named seventh fastest for sales less than $20 million, Spindle, Stairs and Railings grossed almost $7.5 million last year, up from $2.3 million the year before. The company turned out just as Halliday imagined in those lean years. Within five years of starting his business, he moved into a 25,000-square-foot building, a far cry from working out of his
truck and being the sole employee (today there are 43). He met the five-year goal he set for himself – within two weeks of the anniversary of drafting it – by building his business up, bit by bit. The only time he turned to a bank for money, he says, was to mortgage his building.
Along the way, Halliday noticed how hard it was to find custom-trained workers in his niche market, so after failing to reach an agreement with a community college, he started his own on-site “school.” So far, the program has fast-tracked about 100 carpenters to become skilled railing installers. There is no guarantee the graduates will work for his company, but Halliday is fine with that. “If they go to work for the competition, we have showed them what we can make in our company,” says Halliday, who’s training program is now in Saskatoon with plans to open in other cities in the West.
“We’ve created a customer for the future. They know our mission and what we are about, so when it comes time to buy their railings, they’ll come to us because we stand out.” With a mill of its own, the company is involved in the entire process of manufacturing stairs, from chopping down trees to installing circular stairs in your house. Sourcing raw materials from the on-site mill has also helped increase the company’s profit margins. “We’re the only one in North America that does it from start to finish,” says Halliday.
Business Services : Maxim Group Inc.
#3 Fast 25 Under $20 million
Craig Nadeau is quick to tell you that his company isn’t just successful because of Alberta’s economic boom. The staffing industry isn’t as affected by markets as people think, he says. “This industry is always in balance,” says Nadeau, president of Calgary-based Maxim. “This is an environment for
companies to find good people. Our business model has been a key to our success, not because
of a busy marketplace. You will have literally dozens of staffing companies suddenly start up in this type of environment and not all do well.”
When Nadeau took over in 2000 it was “pretty clear that Maxim needed massive changes,” he says. Before then, Maxim was mostly made up of a number of smaller companies that were doing business but were not “in business,” he explains. “I put the skids on everything and built it on a specific model of being a staffing firm and nothing else.”
Since then, Maxim has continued to grow in sales and size. It has gone from one office in Calgary to five across Western Canada, with plans to continue opening one a year and break into the American market. Sales have risen from $8.8 million to $11 million over the last two years. Using specialized staff for each of its five divisions – information technology, engineering, administrative/professional, accounting and legal – allows the company to build relationships with potential clients, says Nadeau.
Maxim’s size also sets it apart from others in the industry, he says. It is small enough so the company can be “light on our feet; the Edmonton office is going to service a different population than Vancouver and we can adapt to our clients’ demands.” But Maxim is big enough that it is supported by a solid backbone to make things run smoothly. Nadeau credits finding his own great people to staff his firm, before looking for skilled employees for others, as a reason for success. To keep them happy, Maxim offers incentive plans tied to sales, including a year-end cruise for almost everyone.
Being Alberta-based also helps, says Nadeau. He hears many clients say they would rather see their money go to a locally based business than a multinational staffing firm whose profits likely land in a different country. “People can trust us. With hundreds of staffing firms in each city, we want our clients to remember us. We won’t just parachute someone in and leave them alone. We do everything from carefully screening the potential job candidates to following up with our client to ensure the
hired candidate is fulfilling his or her role. We want to be working with the clients, not just for this one position they are looking to fill, but down the road.”
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