Plumb-Line Group

Back to Basics With a new leadership team, a fresh vision and more than three decades of service in Calgary, Plumb-Line Group of Companies is building a foundation for the future

BY CAMIE LEARD

I

t’s a common theme in construction and in business: sometimes you need to break things down before you can build them up again. After five tumultuous years of acquisitions, sales, management shuffles and financing hiccups, Plumb-Line Group of Companies has regrouped and refocused and has begun to reclaim its place as a leader in its industry.

Con-Forte Contracting, Asty Construction, Plumb-Line Residential Services and Sas-Can Masonry and Restoration

are companies that have laid the foundations for much of this city over the last four decades. Specializing in concrete and masonry work from residential basements through to commercial highrises, chances are you’ve set foot on a Plumb-Line company’s handiwork. It’s that legacy combined with professional, efficient and leading-edge business systems that president Joel Thompson and his senior management team will use to rebuild their company’s reputation and market share in the coming years.

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The Plumb-Line Management Team: Front (l to r): Jeff McConnell, Joel Thompson, Kevin Kuntz. Back (l to r): Chris Althorp, Todd Elliston, Shane Forrer. Photo by Camie Leard.

“Throughout my career, I knew these companies. I knew they did quality work and had a strong legacy in this city,” he explains. “So my role is to set the vision, simplify and ‘draw the target’ then let the companies do what they do best. They’ve been building Calgary for a long time – it’s just a matter of giving them the tools and support they need to do it.”

Thompson took the reins as president in July 2012. His back-to-basics philosophy is simple: take care of your people, take care of your customers, take care of quality and everything else takes care of itself. “It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that,” he says.

Take Care of Your People: Safety Program Aims for “Zero” Todd Elliston is Plumb-Line’s corporate health and safety manager. Having joined the company in June 2012, his mandate was simple: make Plumb-Line a safety leader in the industry.

“Our goal is to reach zero,” he explains. “Zero accidents, zero near misses, zero incidents and zero property damage.”

While developing a safety culture in an organization that hadn’t had an official program up until last year has its challenges, Elliston says a few factors have convinced him they can reach their goals.

“There is a strong support for the program right from the top,” he says. “Financial resources have been allocated to support us in every way, shape and form. We have a leadership team committed to creating a safety culture and we’re involving the front-line workers right from the start in the development of the policies and procedures to ensure we get it right and have buy-in right through the company.”

Extensive training, policy development and incentive programs all contribute to the program Elliston and his team are building – a program that is a key factor in the company’s overall strategy.

“Safety is priority number one and we intend to be a leader with a program as good as those of the general contractors we work with,” says Thompson.

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Take Care of your Customers: Traditional Values and Building Synergies With their roots firmly planted in the family business model, Plumb-Line’s people know the value of building relationships through service. Asty’s general manager Shane Forrer has been on the front lines since he was “old enough to watch cement dry.” His father, Mike Petrollini, and his partners founded the company in 1978 and built it to be the largest business of its kind in Calgary before selling to Plumb-Line in 2008.

“I remember my father’s days of handshake deals when your word was your bond,” says Forrer. “We knew everyone on a first-name basis and built long-term relationships with our customers and with our staff. I still try to carry that forward today.”

Taking those traditional values and building on the synergies created by having four companies under the same roof means creating value for customers. Kevin Kuntz, general manager of Plumb-Line Residential Services, says: “Having a family of companies in one place means having a bigger

team of people building relationships with clients and really giving them the strength of the entire Plumb-Line offering – whether we’re cribbing basements in a residential area, restoring historical buildings or laying sidewalks – each customer benefits from a huge wealth of experience and expertise between these walls.”

With that expertise and a commitment to building customer relationships, the Plumb-Line team has a simple message for clients past, present and future: “We only need the opportunity to prove that the service is still there,” says Forrer. “There have been a lot of changes, all of them for the better, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the work – we’re delivering the quality end product we always have.”

Take Care of Quality: Invest in your People, Products and Processes Joel Thompson knows that the quality offered by PlumbLine companies lays with the tradesmen on the front lines.

“The companies are full of these professional tradesmen who take pride in the quality work they do,” he says. “Their

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skills are learned through years of experience and they want to be proud of the work they do. That’s what makes the companies valuable.”

Examples of the companies’ work are features in many of Calgary’s favourite places. Sas-Can’s masonry work adorns the Penguin Plunge building at the Calgary Zoo, skaters shred Asty’s curved concrete at Shaw Millennium Park, shoppers flock to CrossIron Mills where Con-Forte’s handiwork shines and hundreds of families’ homes rest on solid foundations thanks to Plumb-Line Residential’s quality work.

While each of the Plumb-Line companies has decades of quality work behind them, the management team has no intentions of relying on its reputation.

“You’re only as good as your last job,” says Thompson.

“That’s the one that people talk about.”

Along with the quality that comes from an experienced team of trades people, Con-Forte and Sas-Can’s general manager Jeff McConnell says Plumb-Line is enriching the rest of the team as well to ensure a culture of great work thrives at all levels.

“We’re investing in our supervisors, our foremen and right through to management, and beyond,” he says. “Our people are our greatest assets in delivering quality work and by providing training, education and support, we give them the tools they need to continue delivering the highest level of work.”

Aldo and Simon Leone – Creating a Legacy of Craftsmanship When Simon Leone graduated from high school 10 years ago, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: follow his dad’s footsteps into the concrete business. But it wasn’t just any business, it was Asty Construction – a company his father, Aldo, had been loyal to since it poured its first sidewalk 25 years earlier.

“My dad loved his job,” says Simon. “And the company always treated him well, so I went to work on his crew right out of high school. I started out as a labourer and went from there.”

Ten seasons later, Simon has learned a lot from his dad and other Asty “lifers” like him. He now runs a crew of his own as a concrete foreman. His second in command? Aldo, of course.

“I love working with my dad,” says Simon. “We keep an eye out for each other.”

This two-generation team, believe it or not, isn’t unique at Asty – there are other father-son duos – but it is rare in the industry. Shane Forrer, Asty’s general manager, says veterans like Aldo are becoming rarer by the season.

“Our greatest blessing could become our greatest challenge,” says Forrer. “Year after year these Aldo (left) and Simon Leone, a father-son team, have worked for Asty Construction for 35 and 10 years respectively. Simon, now his dad’s foreman, guys, who have been with us for decades in some says Asty has always treated him and Aldo well and has given him lots of room cases, are retiring and there isn’t an influx of for advancement. Photo courtesy of Simon Leone. young people coming in to learn from them and carry the craft forward. There’s a gap forming.”

It’s a gap Simon is more than willing to fill.

“It’s a privilege to be able to work with these older guys, earn their trust and have them teach you the skills you need to move forward,” he says. “And there’s lots of room to grow with Asty. Every year, I’m one step further in the company. It’s been a great opportunity.”

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Above: An example of a masonry project by Sas-Can. Right: A crew from Asty preparing a sidewalk for a new subdivision.

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Moving Forward Chris Althorp is Plumb-Line’s director of business development. Having joined the group in 2012 with the express purpose of reintroducing the Plumb-Line companies to the market, he says he’s excited about moving the business forward.

“This is a great group of people who have been doing the highest quality of work in this city for decades,” he explains.

“Combine that with a dedication to building lasting relationships with clients and I am confident the company has a bright future.”

The management team has undeniable drive when it comes to that future. With new leadership at the helm and a renewed focus on safety, quality, service and integrity, Thompson says he’s optimistic about the coming years.

“I love working with these guys; there’s so much energy,” he says. “It’s not often an opportunity like this comes by in where you have the chance to reinvent something and put your own stamp on it. I think this team is ready to make great things happen.”

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