Building a Legacy Written and photographed by Mary Savage
W
hen it comes to concrete construction, Brad Rasmussen knows a thing or two about the industry. His track record brings over four decades of experience to a tough and unforgiving trade. After running a successful concrete formwork business in High River for 10 years, he moved to Calgary and established Conform Works Inc. during the spring of 1998. By 2001, Brad’s son, Jordan, joined the company to run the office while Brad supervised the fieldwork. In an effort to keep pace with an ever-changing economy, Conform has expanded, contracted and once again expanded. They have recently repositioned the company having survived the economic downturn in the late 2000s. Today Conform has gained significant market share as one of Calgary’s preferred concrete structure suppliers, but their growth has not always come easily. In the fall of 2008, business was good. The Conform crews were busy, the company had numerous large contracts underway and they employed up to 300
people. One year later, every construction company in North America was seemingly on the front lines of the economic crash. Conform was reduced to a skeletal staff of 25, they had lost 75 per cent of their annual revenues and the payables were piling up. The following two years brought more bad news: contracts were scarce, payroll was a constant struggle and fielding calls from collectors had become a full-time job. But Brad and Jordan refused to quit. “We didn’t close the doors because we were committed to our business community; we were not going to shut things down unless an external situation forced our hand,” recalls Brad Rasmussen, president and founder. “We knew we had to ride it out and honour our debts.” Conform’s commitment illustrated their business acumen and true to form, the market started to rebound. By the close of 2012, Conform had achieved 100 per cent growth. They had re-hired several key people and rolled into 2013 with a sizable list of large-scale projects underway.
Brad Rasmussen
CA PERI/12.288
Congratulations ConForm Works on your 15th anniversary!
Conform Works 15th Anniversary
Formwork Scaffolding Engineering www.peri.ca