Brcan book aug2017

August 2017

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Becoming

CANADA’S Greenest Employer

NAT ABRAHAM: CHANGE IS GOOD - ACCEPT IT HYDRO ONE TELECOM IS REACHING FOR THE SKY TOP10 MOST TRUSTED BRANDS IN CANADA

TAL K I NG

BIZ WI T H

DURABUILT WINDOWS & DOORS INC

FLS TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

ZEDI

Logistics Conference 2017 Canada’s annual thought leadership conference for all supply chain logistics professionals

Montreal, QC • October 25-27, 2017

FOREWORD HELLO AND WELCOME to August’s edition of Business Review Canada.

Our lead feature this month is with Cadillac Fairview, a company being rapidly recognised as one of the greenest in Canada.

We also talk to Nat Abraham, who works as Head of Distribution at the television company Breakthrough Entertainment. Benefitting from nearly 20 years in the industry, Abraham speaks with authority about a range of topics including major technological changes, logistics, procurement and problem-solving.

We also take a look at the recent work of Hydro One Telecom, the arm of Hydro One that has developed a new cloud-based back-up

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technology that it believes will perfectly complement its coverage and connectivity services.

This month’s Top 10 feature lists Canada’s most trusted brands, including the likes of President’s Choice and Costco. But which brand was ranked highest? Find out inside.

On top of this, we have exclusive profiles of several organisations: Corby Spirit and Wine Limited, Durabuilt Windows & Doors Inc, Myhealth Centre, The Ottawa Hospital, FLS Transportation Services, Zedi and 4Refuel.

We hope you enjoy the read and don’t forget that you can join the conversation on Twitter: @BizReviewCANADA.

bizclikmedia.com 3

CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

PROFILE

06 NAT ABRAHAM: Change is good –

ACCEPT IT TECHNOLOGY

16

Hydro One Telecom is reaching for the sky

LIST

24

Top 10 MOST TRUSTED BRANDS IN CANADA

C O M PA N Y PROFILES

32

82

94

Durabuilt Windows & Doors Inc

Cadillac Fairview

MyHealth Centre

104

116

The Ottawa Hospital

FLS Transportation Services

ENERGY 32 Cadillac Fairview 46 Zedi 58 4Refuel

46 Zedi

58

4Refuel

FOOD & DRINK 70 Corby Spirit and Wine Limited

CONSTRUCTION 82 Durabuilt Windows & Doors Inc

HEALTHCARE 94 MyHealth Centre 104 The Ottawa Hospital

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Corby Spirit and Wine Limited

SUPPLY CHAIN 116 FLS Transportation Services

INSIGHT

Change is good –

ACCEPT IT

Business Review Canada speaks to Nat Abraham, Head of Distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment on how he has prospered from the ever-evolving landscape of television production and distribution…

Wr i t t e n by : N E LL WA LK E R

INSIGHT

AOGG - Sara Botsford, Ella Ballentine and Martin Sheen

NAT ABRAHAM IS Head of Distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment with more than 19 years of experience in the acquisition and distribution of television programming.

In addition to his 11 years at Nielsen Media Research Canada, as Group Sales and Marketing Manager, Nat has also served as Vice President with 20th Century Fox/Astral Distribution, and was Co-President at Audiotrack, 8

August 2017

a broadcast intellectual property watermarking company based in Toronto with clients including Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Sony.

Abraham is a frequent speaker on television distribution at various television industry associations and institutional media learning programs and his clients include Columbia TriStar, HBO, Showtime, Dick Clark Productions and ZDF.

N AT H AE B AR D A LHI ANM E

“One of the key factors that differentiates Breakthrough is that our content covers a wide range of genres… everything from awardwinning kids’ series to narrative TV drama, comedy and lifestyle” – Nat Abraham, Head of Distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment

Beyond Canada, Abraham has also initiated licence commitments with major US networks and cable channels including Discovery, CBS, Lifetime and A&E. Although the industry is in a state of constant change, Abraham and Breakthrough Entertainment are buoyant. So, how has Abraham successfully navigated some often-choppy waters?

“One of the key factors that 9

INSIGHT

“Over our 30-year history we’ve developed into more of a studio than just a production house and our size and the breadth of our content helps give us a competitive advantage” – Nat Abraham, head of distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment

10

August 2017

The Heretics, by Breakthrough and Black Fawn Films

differentiates Breakthrough is that our content covers a wide range of genres,” he explains. “Everything from award-winning kids’ series to narrative TV drama, comedy and lifestyle. More recently we have been involved in the production of feature films in a variety of themes including horror, family and drama.

“With a broader range of content, we can serve virtually every segment of the industry, differentiating us from other producers who perhaps choose to specialise in a specific

N AT A B R A H A M

area. Over our 30-year history we’ve developed into more of a studio than just a production house and our size and the breadth of our content helps give us a competitive advantage.”

TV production and distribution has experienced the most dramatic technological changes with the televisual landscape almost unrecognisable from five or six years ago. Abraham has stayed ahead of the curve primarily through recruitment and an open-door policy with regards to content.

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INSIGHT “Breakthrough has tremendous resources in terms of experienced staff and their specific skillsets, yet we can be nimble enough to adapt quickly to emerging industry trends,” he says.

“As the linear broadcasters, especially in Canada, are becoming increasingly more conservative in their commissioning of original programming, we are experiencing more opportunities and rapid growth in the digital market and are creating brand new concepts for some of the OTT services.

“It’s an exciting time for us to be pushing the envelope far harder than we could previously due to the conventional broadcasters’ mandated content restrictions, which often confined the types of programming they can create. We still continue to do a great deal of work with our linear broadcasters, however, but we are really enjoying some of the creative freedom in program creation for some of the new platforms.”

Logistical conundrum Aside from the creative and performance related aspects to TV production, there is also an extensive logistical and procurement element to the business.

“Every project starts with an idea,” Abraham says.

“Whether it’s a book, a screenplay, or a stage play. With television content, what initially begins as an idea is then transformed into a written treatment to give it a feel for what the show is eventually going to look like. It’s basically a short-form overview, similar to the foreword if you wanted to compare it to a book; intended to give you an idea of the 12

August 2017

N AT A B R A H A M

L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables - Ella Ballentine

“As the linear broadcasters, especially in Canada, are becoming increasingly more conservative in their commissioning of original programming, we are experiencing more opportunities and rapid growth in the digital market” – Nat Abraham, Head of Distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment

INSIGHT tone of what that particular show is going to look and feel like and who the characters are, and what the premise of the show is. The look and feel is important and from there, we will approach writers well known in that particular genre. We will talk to directors who we feel may be the right fit for the project, and that’s where a story starts to take shape because the experience of the people that you bring on board is what transforms it into a completed film or series. The magic of turning something from just an idea on a piece of paper to a film or television show is all due to the talent and team that’s attached to it.

“Before a single episode can be produced, generally, the entire season is written and planned out.

You plan a production by keeping all of the episodes in mind so you can keep the cast and crew on a tight schedule. There is an enormous amount of planning that goes into a production from all of the departments and they will prep for months before they actually go to camera. Once an episode is shot you then have the editing, colour correction, sound mixing etc. – all of the post production to make sure 14

August 2017

the episodes are presented in the best possible form and are delivered to the broadcasters according to their technical standards.”

A man used to working on several projects at once, Abraham has to tackle problems from short, middle and long-term productions. “As Breakthrough is involved in producing so many different genres, we have teams who specialise in each of those types of content: We keep those experts involved in their field of expertise and as a result, there are different teams working on each project that can simultaneously handle different projects. Most of the talent and the crew are contract workers and will work on this show before moving onto another. Our in-house teams manage the development of the projects, production, post production and sales and distribution, but all of the rest is typically contracted out.

“This company is unique in the diversity of our content offerings, everything from kids to family to lifestyle, drama, thriller and horror movies. We have also been working with our international buyers for decades and have a good handle on content that meets their needs

N AT A B R A H A M

The Heretics - Directed

by Chad Archibald

both in the established broadcast environments as well as the now emerging digital markets. We are able to weather the economic storms that pop up from time to time in different territories because of the diversity of our offerings and having our collective finger on the international pulse.

“The first installment of our L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables trilogy property, for example, has been sold to broadcasters in nearly 20 countries this year including HBO Europe and PBS in the United States. It’s a tremendous property for us and we expect the second and third installments to sell just as well.

Combine that with our award-winning

kids content, our genre films through our partnership with Black Fawn (now eight films in), who have a achieved cult following in the horror community and you start to see the strength of our catalogue. We have over 40 feature films and over 4,000 episodes of programming that we can continue to sell and resell in territories worldwide.

“That’s really what seems to differentiate us from most of the other players in the industry who tend to specialise in one or two areas. Breakthrough has always been proud for creating content for everyone’s taste and not just a select group. It’s sort of been our key to success as a company.”

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TECHNOLOGY

Hydro One Telecom is reaching for the sky The Ontario-based telecommunications company is implementing a cloud-based back up service which, allied to the expansion of its network to additional data centres, will provide more coverage for a diverse client base, pledges President and CEO Paul Madore

Writ ten by: DAN BRIGHTMORE

TECHNOLOGY

HYDRO ONE TELECOM delivers high capacity telecommunications solutions to service providers, small and medium businesses, enterprises, financial institutions, wholesalers, utilities and public-sector organisations via an expansive fiberoptic network in Ontario extending into Montreal and the United States. It provides high-speed data networking services for Network-to-Network, Cloud-to-Cloud, Network-toCloud and Data Centre-to-Data Centre business requirements.

The company has now added what it believes will be a valuable new service to its portfolio: a comprehensive, cloud-based Backup as a Service (BaaS) solution that will complement the coverage and connectivity it already provides. “Our BaaS solution will be used to help protect the critical data of our clients and give them a real-time, enterprisewide view of its status across all protected data sources,” says Hydro One Telecom President and CEO Paul Madore. “By offering a secure, reliable, manageable and affordable service to our clients, we are also providing an even more valuable asset 18

August 2017

to them which is peace of mind.”

The service will meet the needs of clients looking for a single, consolidated repository that simplifies backup and recovery of data stored: on physical servers and virtual machines; in SaaS-based apps such as Google Apps, Salesforce.com

HYDRO ONE TELECOM

or Microsoft Office 365; in cloudbased platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure and for everyday use on desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets.

All protected data, regardless of the source, can be viewed and controlled via a dashboard for even

the most complex disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.

The company pledges its fiber-optic network provides high-speed data networking services that are secure, diverse, reliable and scalable. These services are available to data centre operators, tenants, cloud providers 19

TECHNOLOGY and companies who want to access the services that are provided within these data centres. It’s an awardwinning service that looks set to win the company new fans. “Better customer service, better pricing,

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS OFFERED IP VPN Layer 3 Virtual Private Network (routed).

Ethernet Layer 2 connectivity solutions for multiple locations.

Internet Transit Single and multi-homed upstream options available.

Digital Private Line Dedicated point to point SONET OCx circuits as well as 1G, 2G, 4G, 8G and 10G FICON or Fiber-Channel services.

Tower Attachments Attachment options to in-place Hydro One towers across Ontario.

Wavelength Service Dedicated 1G, 10G, 40G or 100G wavelength services with various client port signaling options.

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August 2017

shorter installations times. It has been a pleasure working with Hydro One Telecom,” says Chris Evelyn, President of WISP Internet Services. “We look forward to continuing to grow our business in partnership with them.”

Hydro One Telecom endeavors to embrace new partnerships to strengthen its broadband network delivery and service sustainment capabilities. Madore elaborates: “Through collaboration with specialised technology partners, we can deliver the services and guaranteed data capacity required to meet business objectives. Our technology partners include Cisco, Juniper Networks, fellow Ontariobased firm FlexITy Solutions, Arbor Networks and Alpha Technologies.”

It is business partnerships like these that look set to expand as Hydro One Telecom broadens its network to over 30 data centres across Ontario and Quebec with plans to connect to 13 additional locations in 2017. “A company’s most valuable asset, besides its employees, is its data,” maintains Madore. “We are investing in our network to address the growth of data traffic driven by analytics, mobile devices, big

HYDRO ONE TELECOM

“Madore is rightly proud of his company’s 90% customer satisfaction rating” – Paul Madore, President and CEO

data and the Internet of Things.”

Madore brings more than 25 years of experience in telecom to his role, and has led operations and engineering teams with C1/ Fundy Communications, Bell Canada and GT Group Telecom.

Prior to his appointment as President and CEO, Madore was Hydro One Telecom’s Director of Telecom Engineering and Service Delivery, where he led engineering, design and service delivery covering Hydro One Telecom’s

commercial and power system.

One of Hydro One Telecom’s biggest, and most natural alliances, is with its parent company Hydro One. Ontario’s largest electricity transmission and distribution provider boasts more than 1.3mn valued customers, serviced by a team of 5,500 skilled and dedicated employees serving communities across Ontario through a 30,000-circuit km high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit km primary distribution network.

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HYDRO ONE TELECOM

It’s a USP that allows Hydro One Telecom (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ontario Inc., which in turn is wholly owned by Hydro One Limited) to leverage its parent company’s fibre assets and deliver a diverse range of telecommunications solutions.

“We’re a unique service provider because most of our network travels along the electricity grid above ground providing the physical diversity needed by more and more of our clients,” explains Madore.

“Businesses rely on dependable electricity services. What you may not know is that Hydro One Telecom plays a critical role in the delivery of that service via our highly available, high reliability telecommunications network. This high capacity network has been built to serve the needs of a world class utility, other carriers, commercial clients and the public sector. We believe reliability and commitment are the cornerstones of our customer service success.”

Madore maintains the primary focus of his leadership team should be to utilise the customer feedback on how services are actually working to better deliver them: “Our 24/7 operations

HEADLINE

Paul Madore President and CEO

centre is always there for our customers and so is the Hydro One Telecom leadership team.” Madore is rightly proud of his company’s 90% customer satisfaction rating as it strives to build on its reputation as an excellent manager of third party connections. Through its positive working relationships with other carriers, who are both partners and clients, Hydro One Telecom aims to openly share routing information to ensure solutions offered to clients deliver the diversity they require. “My team and I work hard to earn our customers’ trust and confidence every day and with every contact on every service we provide,” promises Madore.

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TOP 10

Top 10 MOST TRUSTED BRANDS IN CANADA

Finding a brand that can be trusted is not always easy, but it can be very important. In Canada, there are 10 brands that are trusted more than others, and provide customers with a consistent experience they can generally trust. Here are what the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business has identified as the most trustworthy Edited by: ANDREW WOODS

TOP 10

10 WESTJET

ANYONE NEEDING TO fly into or out of Canada will want to consider WestJet. Flying can become a hassle, especially if it is done frequently or without much advance warning.

However, WestJet goes out of its way to make the flying experience as easy as possible, in order to help weary travelers get to their destinations more comfortably and for a higher level of value.

9 CIRQUE DU SOLEIL THE SHOWS OFFERED by Cirque du Soleil are unparalleled for their quality and excitement. The skill of the performers is second to none, and everyone who comes to see the show goes away feeling changed from when they came in. What started as a small company with one small show has grown to something much larger and more significant, based on the quality of the performances and the demands of consumers who want to see more of what the company has to offer.

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August 2017

MOST TRUSTED BRANDS

8 INTERAC A DIGITAL PAYMENT company made the list, mostly because of the quality that Interac provides to its customers. Interac began in 1984, and by 1994 it launched the first national debit card service for Pointof-Sale purchases in Canada. It takes security and data protection very seriously, which reduces the risk to customers who use the service. In today’s fast-paced world there are other digital payment providers, but few may offer the safety, convenience, ease of use, and high level of quality that Canadians will find in Interac.

7 PRESIDENT’S CHOICE GETTING A MORTGAGE or other loan can be stressful, and finding a bank account or investment vehicle that pays a good rate of interest without a lot of attached fees is not always easy, either. But with President’s Choice Financial, it is easier for Canadians to get what they need and want in their financial services company. This company has been a trusted name since its creation, allowing it to build on that reputation from the beginning and continue moving forward toward higher levels of success for its customers.

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TOP 10

6 CHAPTERS/ INDIGO AS THE BIGGEST bookstore in Canada with 212 stores nationally and online options as well, Chapters/ Indigo has a lot to offer beyond just hardbound books. There are also baby items, electronics, fashions, home decor items, and much more.

When Canadians shop for books they think of Chapters/Indigo, but the retailer is expanding much like Amazon in an effort to get more customers and provide a higher quality experience to consumers with a wider number of offerings.

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August 2017

5 IKEA IKEA IS ICONIC, at least in the minds of many people. While the company has somewhat of a reputation for inexpensive furniture, the truth is that it sells many quality items that can offer a lifetime of service to the right person.

Additionally, IKEA is committed to sustainability and to moving toward better quality and a high level of customer experience all the time. That keeps the retailer on the forefront of everything important to consumers.

MOST TRUSTED BRANDS

4 FAIRMONT HOTELS & RESORTS LAS A QUALITY hotel chain, Fairmont has been in business since 1907 and has more than 60 properties that offer luxury and service at a great price. The idea of building memories with loved ones is a big part of the philosophy behind the company, which is a global provider of hotel and resort locations. The architecture is unique and everything that Fairmont provides is designed with the customer in mind, to help enhance a great experience.

3 COSTCO WHOLESALE AS A MAJOR chain retailer, Costco is highly popular in Canada. With a number of departments, members of Costco Wholesale can buy everything from tires to groceries to jewelry all in one convenient place. They can also order online, so they can get what they need without having to leave home. For people who lead busy lives and/or like or need to buy in bulk, Costco can be a great choice.

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TOP 10

2 CAA FOUNDED IN 1913, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has been helping motorists right from the beginning and provides services for six million members through 100 offices and nine different auto clubs. It offers membership options, car insurance, travel discounts,

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August 2017

rewards, and other perks to drivers all over the country. It can also help educate younger drivers and seniors about their specific risks, and is a big proponent of laws to reduce distracted driving and the accidents that causes.

MOST TRUSTED BRANDS

1 MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT CO-OP (MEC) WHEN IT COMES to camping and other outdoor activities coupled with sustainability, MEC has the answers.

It is membership-exclusive, and does not sell to the public. Lifetime memberships are $5, a price that has not changed since the opening of the company in 1971. The company’s mission is to inspire everyone to lead outdoor, active lifestyles.

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Becoming Canada’s

Greenest Employer Written by: Leila Hawkins Produced by: Lucy Verde

Leila Hawkins talks to Arv Gupta, Senior Vice President of National Operations, about how and why Cadillac Fairview is pushing so hard to become a sustainable leader

T H E C A D I L L A C FA I R V I E W C O R P O R AT I O N L I M I T E D

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August 2017

ENERGY

adillac Fairview is one of the largest and most successful commercial real estate companies in North America. With a strong focus on class A office spaces and shopping centres in select, high growth markets (Vancouver, Calgary, Greater Toronto Area and Montreal), its retail centres tend to have high levels of customer traffic, one being CF Toronto Eaton Centre, which is the busiest. centre in all of North America.

Cadillac was founded over 50 years ago in Toronto, named after the car owned by one of the three co-founders. As it went along it introduced gym facilities, self-contained heating and air conditioning, underground parking, and landscaped gardens with trees and fountains into apartment buildings throughout Ontario.

These features are common today, but had rarely been seen in urban areas in the mid-20th century.

In 1974 Cadillac merged with Fairview, a successful developer

of commercial real estate. Over the years Cadillac Fairview has launched many of Canada’s landmark buildings, including the group of six striking dark skyscrapers that make up the now iconic Toronto-Dominion Centre in the downtown core, home to the country’s major bank of the same name.

In the same year, Fairview opened Toronto Eaton Centre,

“One of the other things that’s changing really quickly is technology and how it supports sustainability, cost efficiency, and the client experience” – Arv Gupta, Senior Vice President of National Operations

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ENERGY

1,500

Number of employees at The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited

the company’s landmark shopping centre in downtown Toronto. Today, CF Toronto Eaton Centre is the busiest retail centre in all of North America with outposts from worldclass retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Apple.

Today the organisation is not only one of the largest owners and developers of commercial real estate in North America, but has also been recognised as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers.

Green at Work® In 2008, Cadillac Fairview established Green at Work, its national environmental sustainability program, focused on meeting industry-leading sustainability targets and managing best practices at each property.

Each property team has a Green

Team that plans and ensures the buildings drive sustainable practices and engage with the CF team at Head Office, where there is a responsibility council made up of senior leaders who look at environmental, social, and government trends for the organisation. “This program was inspired by engagement at the grassroots level,” says Arv Gupta, Senior Vice President of National Operations. “It’s very difficult to embed a culture of sustainability from a head office alone, and there has to be a collaborative effort at all levels to successful integrate a program of this scope into the overall business.”

Karen Jalon, Senior Director of Sustainability & Energy Management, explains the program further: “Our program focuses

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37

“…the beauty of sustainability is it’s a big win all-round.

We’ve been able to achieve significant operational cost savings through our energy initiatives, and meet the existing and future needs of our stakeholders by making sure we’re working on strategic initiatives that support the environment, the future and the passion of our people” – Karen Jalon, Senior Director of Sustainability & Energy Management

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August 2017

on clear targets, best practices, benchmarks and stakeholder engagement. There are five keys pillars, which are energy management, waste management, environmental protection; which means land, air, water, as well as responsible procurement and stakeholder collaboration.”

“When we started down this road in 2008, there was nothing like this in the Canadian market.

We spent significant time scouring the globe for best practices, reaching out to people, building awareness, and ensuring that the program would be results-driven with high impact,” Jalon continued.

These results include a reduction

ENERGY

of 43% in greenhouse gas emissions, 27% in energy and 33% reduction in water use.

One example is the office tower, 777 Dunsmuir in downtown Vancouver where in 2014, the company drilled 30 boreholes 400 feet under the ground while it was fully occupied, reducing the energy costs and GHG emissions of the building’s heating and cooling.

“CF implemented the first geoexchange retrofit in a fully occupied high rise in a city core,” Jalon explains. “This is a world-leading achievement that demonstrates our dedication to the environment and operational efficiencies.”

Numerous accolades and

certifications have followed, including being named Canada’s Greenest Employer. “It’s one thing to say that you’re doing this, but to get awards that recognise the company’s results is incredibly valuable,” Gupta says. “It demonstrates to our stakeholders that we’re committed to this ongoing journey.”

In addition to being named Canada’s Greenest Employer, Cadillac Fairview’s Green at Work efforts have led to industry recognition and distinction during the past year: • Achieving the Global Real Estate Survey Benchmark (GRESB) “Green Star” ranking

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Sustainable Urban Design bharchitects.com

Throughout the years, B+H and Cadillac Fairview have collaborated to create some of Canada’s most iconic and sustainable commercial, retail, and mixed-use urban developments. These first-in-class and endurable designs drive community success and develop innovation.

ENERGY

• Adding nine new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum and three LEED Gold certifications to our portfolio; including Toronto-Dominion Centre becoming one of the first and largest Platinum certified LEED complexes in North America • Collaborating with TD Bank to assist in its achievement of the first WELL certification (Gold) in the world under version 1.0 • Scoring A+ in the Direct Property Investing module conducted by the United Nation’s-backed, Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative While taking a strong stance on corporate responsibility used to be an aspect that set companies apart from others, it’s now become an imperative. Not only are clients and stakeholders increasingly asking for this, but as Gupta explains, so are the company’s employees. “In job interviews, we’re asking [candidates] about their qualifications, but at the

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Arv Gupta

Senior Vice President of National Operations

Arv Gupta is an accomplished operations executive with over 25 years of experience in leading business renewal, and building sustainable customer value propositions with a number of major retail organisations. Gupta joined Cadillac Fairview in June 2015 and is currently responsible for driving national operational efficiency and effectiveness, while maintaining a standard of excellence in customer experience across all Cadillac Fairview properties. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo with an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics, and he holds a Master of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.

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same time, they’re asking us about our stance, because they want to be proud of the company they’re representing.”

Combating challenges with sustainability “If you look at office properties, with interest rates being down for an extended period of time, it has encouraged people to invest and actually build new office towers,” Gupta explains.

“We need to ensure that we’re competitive, because people have a choice in where they rent office space, they can move across the street if they want to. We need to make sure that our assets and our properties continue to meet the needs of our clients.”

“On the retail side, the industry has been under a lot of pressure and there have been lots of bankruptcies.

People need a reason to come to your shopping centre.”

However the sustainability

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Karen Jalon

Senior Director of Sustainability & Energy Management

Karen Jalon is an award-winning strategist who leads Cadillac Fairview’s corporate responsibility, sustainability, energy management and smart building technologies platforms and programs.

Jalon has contributed to the development of countless industry-wide sustainability standards and is a long-standing member of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s Responsible Investing Committee. She actively influences change and positively impacts the industry and communities across the CF portfolio, resulting in strong client/customer relations, risk mitigation, and national operational efficiencies. Prior to joining Cadillac Fairview, Jalon held key positions in electrical design, commercial real estate development and construction as well as policy development. She holds bachelors in science in electrical engineering from Queen’s University and is a LEED accredited professional.

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ENERGY

program has been a great way to address these difficulties.

“One of the other things that’s changing really quickly is technology and how it supports sustainability, cost efficiency, and the client experience,” Gupta says. “The idea of smart buildings is really accelerating. We’re not only trying to meet the needs of our clients today, but we’re also looking ahead to what’s coming down the pipe, what are the new things happening that are going to enable us to deliver that client experience and that cost efficiency.

Technology is at the forefront of our business operations and has contributed to CF’s achievements in the corporate responsibility space.

“Right now, we’re focused on understanding smart buildings, and where that world is going,

and how we can leverage technology to continue to meet and exceed client expectations”.

Next, the company is set to launch a national network of electric vehicle charging stations across all its properties. This will deploy 90 new network chargers over 15 shopping centres, supporting Cadillac Fairview’s commitment to sustainability and cementing its position as a leader in the Canadian market.

As Jalon explains, “the beauty of sustainability is it’s a big win allround. We’ve been able to achieve significant operational cost savings through our energy initiatives, and meet the existing and future needs of our stakeholders by making sure we’re working on strategic initiatives that support the environment, the future and the passion of our people.”

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Persevere and pivot: How an oil and gas technology company can thrive Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: David Kulowitch

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General Managers at the Peace Bridge in Calgary

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Over three decades the Canadian company Zedi has helped oil and gas producers make better business decisions through remote asset management and control. Now it’s reaching out to a range of industries as they leverage the opportunities of digitisation, automation and the Industrial Internet of Things

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edi celebrates its 30th birthday this year. It’s best known in the oil and gas industry for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) support to the upstream sector and for its Smart-Alek device which offers complete remote flow monitoring via cell or satellite, and works under almost any weather condition.

By allowing producers to outsource construction and operation of remote asset monitoring and Supervisory Control and data acquisition (SCADA) infrastructure, saving them the expense of building telecom and IT infrastructure required to monitor or control wells, it soon captured almost the entire Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) market.

Today Zedi’s customer base is global and its credentials wellestablished among oil and gas producers, particularly the more entrepreneurial SMEs in that space.

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Today, even the larger multinationals are finally moving towards SaaS to manage their assets, says James Freeman, who has been with Zedi for the last 10 years. As CTO and President, New Ventures, and as an engineer, he believes that disruptive innovation, in the sense intended when the term was coined by Dr. Clayton Christensen, is really about changing the business model rather than technology per se.

The potential of the IIoT has given Zedi a huge opportunity, he says, to leverage its expertise and domain knowledge to support its business outcomes.

“A great example of such an opportunity is exactly the managed service that Zedi has provided to oil and gas companies. You need data and insights to run your business but it does not follow that you therefore need to do the collection

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A Zedi meeting in full flow

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James Freeman CTO and President, New Ventures

James is Chief Technology Officer and President, New Ventures of Zedi Inc, a privately-held Calgary-based services company that has been providing technology solutions to enable the Digital Oilfield for the last 15 years. Zedi’s full-service integrated suite of solutions empowers Oil & Gas producers in Western Canada, and United States and 24 other countries to improve production operations. In his role as CTO, James oversees technical development for the company’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform, which collects sensor and controller data from field assets and adds value to that data via cloud-based analytics and visualization tools. Presently, this platform supports 1.35 million sensors, and consumes over 47 million readings per day. As President, New Ventures, James also oversees Zedi’s efforts to expand application of its IIoT platform to attractive growth verticals outside of the Oil & Gas sector, including Clean Tech, Agriculture, and Retail Food Services.

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“I believe the advanced manufacturing

organisation of the future will be an ecosystem where partner companies provide specialised expertise that is non-core” – James Freeman, CTO and President, New Ventures

of that data, or even a base level of analytics on that data, yourself. You need the outcome of that effort.

“I believe the advanced manufacturing organisation of the future will be an ecosystem where partner companies provide specialised expertise that is noncore, allowing the manufacturer the resources to focus on what is truly IP-building, core domain knowledge required to differentiate itself in the market.”

This is already the experience of Zedi’s oil and gas customers, who use Zedi’s underlying IIoT platform to connect their sensors and actuators in the field, manage these devices and gather information

about the current state of their remote assets and the production process these assets support.

If something anomalous occurs in the process, real-time configurable analytics alert the customer, so follow-up action can be taken. This allows customers to contain the impact, minimising down-time and potential loss of production. The other part of the solution gives them the ability to see the results in a coherent form that allows them to make the decisions needed so that the well or associated upstream gathering facilities may be optimised.

Zedi AccessTM and Zedi Go are the customer-facing software

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elements of the platform, developed over the past 15 years in partnership with world-class companies including Dell, ABB, MultiTech and Emerson on the hardware side and Microsoft, Oracle and Tableau for specialized application software, that provide a familiar and simpleto-use customer interface.

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No other company, says Freeman, can offer Zedi’s level of integration from sensor to the cloud or responsiveness to technology trends and market needs. Neither do they bring the same level of personal support to a robust automated infrastructure. “Customers can come to us to analyse their business problems, engineer solutions, then procure the equipment, install, commission,

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and operate it.” IIoT is an ecosystem, he emphasizes. It’s about a lot more than just collecting data and analysing it – all businesses are faced these days with the stark fact that they must digitise or die. The IIoT loop starts with sensors (which convert physical reality into data), runs through a decision process involving people or increasingly, people assisted by analytics, and then potentially returns to the field

with actuators (the devices that convert data back into physical reality, typically through mechanical means).

Versatile However, future growth in oil and gas is restricted by a dearth of new wells coming on stream.

Zedi’s platform, refined in the most

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challenging environments met with in the oil and gas sector, is perfectly suited for adaptation in a number of other industries.

Having proved that its value proposition works, its strategy is to persevere with its existing customer base and at the same time to pivot to face other industries, equally faced with an urgent need to digitise, which would benefit by adopting the same solutions.

The food industry is of pressing importance globally, with a value chain that stretches ‘from field to fork’, Freeman points out. “We have to feed billions off a shrinking land base and farmers have had to adopt technology at a rapid rate – for example, field machinery works almost without human intervention controlled by GPS. With traceability, whether of arable or livestock products an absolute

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requirement, a huge data lake is built up as they move from producer to processor to retail to consumer.”

Another industry experiencing disruption is energy generation, particularly with the advent of distribution energy resources (DER).

The total installed base of operational PV systems, to take just one example, surpassed 300GW globally at the end of 2016. As the solar industry continues to mature, the focus is turning to asset management, a term used in the power industry to describe the financial, commercial, legal and technical management of power plants and other assets.

“What these industries have in common with oil and gas is a reliance on underlying distributed assets that support some kind of industrial process, whether it is manufacturing hydrocarbons, food, or electricity,” Freeman explains. “Gaining insight into the health of those assets, and using analytics to both optimise and safeguard process integrity, is common to all manufacturing.

“We have to feed billions off a shrinking land base and farmers have had to adopt technology at a rapid rate” – James Freeman, CTO and President, New Ventures But many industries’ assets operate outside, spend much of the time in darkness, are exposed to weather or environmental hazards, are often off-grid, and require low power wireless technologies for connectivity. All these are problems that Zedi is good at solving.”

Trending The company is very good at seeking out trends and innovations, evaluating them, and, where there is advantage,

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Zedi Our World

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Robert W. Gordon – General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Christine Barr – Vice President Finance

Clement Gaudet – Chief Operations Officer and President Canadian Operations

Debra Deane – Vice President, People

Grant Exner – Chief Financial Officer

James Freeman – Chief Technology Officer and President New Ventures

Illario (Larry) Spagnolo – Chief Commercial Officer and President US Operations

Matthew Heffernan – Chief Executive Officer

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“We’re excited to be at the forefront of introducing our technology not only to our customer base in oil and gas, but also into other attractive growth sectors”

– James Freeman, CTO and President, New Ventures integrating them into its platform.

A case in point is low-power widearea network (LPWAN) technology, which has especial relevance in remote monitoring situations. Before it added support for LPWAN technology to its IIoT gateway fleet, Zedi could only connect devices through wired connections, limiting the number of devices connected and their range.

Zedi can now create an LPWAN hotspot, up to 10km in radius, allowing any number of LPWANcapable devices within the hotspot to communicate with the Gateway.

And since most devices are not yet LPWAN-capable, Zedi created a small new low-cost, low power

hardware product called a Zedi Mote to connect to existing devices, and make them LPWAN-capable.

The speed with which Zedi integrated this technology, combined with its use to pivot Zedi’s solution set into other industry verticals, won it the 2017 Outstanding Product Achievement Award from the Canadian Advanced Technology Association.

As Freeman puts it: “LPWA technology in particular will be a key enabler of the IIoT, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of introducing our technology not only to our customer base in oil and gas, but also into other attractive growth sectors.”

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Making refuelling mobile 4Refuel provides on-site refuelling for ships, construction plants, and railways among many other industries. But what makes it unique is that it was one of the very first refuelling companies to adopt mobile technology for its drivers

Written by: Leila Hawkins Produced by: David Kulowitch

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ince it was founded in 1995, 4Refuel has transitioned seamlessly from having drivers deliver fuel using paper tickets to using electronic data. It was one of the first companies in its industry to start doing this.

As well as telling drivers the order in which they must deliver fuel, this mobile technology eliminates the need to search for client names as well as human error, such as potentially getting the wrong address. New on-board cellular technology gives real-time monitoring in terms of things like fuel levels and if a driver is running late, which means 4Refuel can be notified immediately to re-route trucks and make up the time difference.

While handheld devices have existed for a number of years, up until 2017 drivers had to take them out of their trucks to connect to the network. Advances in mobile technology have made it possible to get information directly from the vehicles.

The expectation is that very soon these devices will tell the drivers the best routes to take by analysing traffic conditions.

James Cameron Lee, Chief Information Officer, explains how this has benefited the business massively. “Back in the day people didn’t have any visibility as to where the fuel was going. With

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Larry Rodo President & CEO

Larry Rodo is the President and CEO of 4Refuel. Over the last 32 years Rodo has served in many operating and sales positions throughout all modes of transportation, including executive leadership with large global organizations.

He has been a lead consultant on Wall Street for cash logistics and travelled the world working on complex supply chains addressing globalism, security, military, high value, currency, precious metals and pharmaceutical.

The biggest thing I’m seeing right now is data coming in, into the hands of the right people on their phones and tablets at the right time – Larry Rodo, President & CEO

the implementation of technology on our trucks we’re able to show whether it be construction equipment or where the fuel is going.”

The company does around five million transactions per year, so if a business had to do this manually it wouldn’t be able to function effectively. “It’s just this ability to capture the data in the field via cellular network to our head office.

It provides data in a timely fashion. I don’t think any business of any size, if you had to do all that manually, it would just be a barrier because of

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Mike McGee Chief Financial Officer

Mike McGee is 4Refuel’s Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, Mike is responsible for the financial management of the company, and plays a leadership role in developing and executing the company’s growth strategy.

Most recently, McGee was CFO of Brookfield Global Relocation Services and Brookfield Residential Property Services, both portfolio companies of the Private Equity group of Brookfield Asset Management. Previously, he spent ten years as CFO of Sonoco Plastics (previously Matrix Packaging). McGee started his career with Ernst & Young in the audit and corporate finance practices.

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the sheer number of transactions.

“The biggest thing I’m seeing right now is data coming in, into the hands of the right people on their phones and tablets at the right time” he says, “and being powered by mobility, if you have the right data you can do something with it quicker.

“Companies that don’t adopt technology, whether being fuel delivery or any other companies, technology

Jared Prentiss Vice President – 4Refuel US

Jared Prentiss joined 4Refuel in January, 2014 and currently holds the role of Vice President, 4Refuel US. Jared supported the launch of 4Refuel in the United States and oversees the strategic, commercial, and organizational structure. Prior to joining 4Refuel, Jared spent 13 years with Penske Truck Leasing in various roles overseeing field operations.

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continues to drive business forward. If you’re not an adopter of technology I think you’ll have a tough time making it in the long haul.”

New initiatives Lee is currently working on a system to evaluate the work of the drivers.

“Historically there has been a view that drivers, you tell them what to do and they go and do it and finish

their day. There’s this idea in my head we’re planning to work on that people actually want to know how they did that day,” he explains.

“I’m looking at creating a scorecard system where, based on the days and on how much volume they pumped on the road, were they late for any stops, how productive they were on site versus internal targets we set – they get this feedback mechanism daily.

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ENERGY

Lynne Harkness Director, Human Resources

4Refuel believes that the employees are the backbone of the organisation.

Lynne Harkness leads a team of human resources and payroll professionals who strive to provide first-rate programs and support to all levels of the business, ensuring the most efficient tools are in place for the utmost achievement of success.

Harkness currently serves as Chair of the Peel Branch of the Canadian Payroll Association, a position she has held since 2011. She lives her life ensuring personal health and wellness are a non-negotiable priority and enjoys spending time skiing, camping, canoeing, and kayaking.

“Then a supervisor who may have 10 drivers under them will get the scorecard and see the same info,” he says. “It would be more timely.

Whereas in the past, because we were batching it in shifts and running a bunch of slower processes, we weren’t really getting that real feedback, so we’d be telling drivers days later about the next day. It’s all about just being able to get more timely data and being able to have the wherewithal for the technology to automatically email it out to the right people at the right time. “ Lee says this will make things vastly more efficient. “Also understanding issues quicker so we can take corrective actions. If we didn’t have that visibility, new managers and supervisors trying to look for things can be difficult, whereas every morning getting a report about your drivers and how to decipher that report, you make them better managers by giving them the right info in a timely format.”

Hiring the best Ensuring drivers are fully trained in

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“The key is differentiating yourself from being a commodity” – James Lee, Chief Information Officer

James Lee Chief Information Officer

James Lee joined 4Refuel in 2003 and currently holds the role of Chief Information Officer. Lee has held multiple roles in the organization during his tenure at 4Refuel including VP Operations, VP Strategic Initiatives and VP Systems Development & Integration.

Prior to joining 4Refuel Lee spent eight years in the forestry sector across a variety of disciplines including planning, operations, engineering and silviculture.

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these systems is a top priority. “There are so many things you have to worry about,” Lee explains. “When you’re on a fuel truck and carrying dangerous substances, we want to really make sure the technology is easy to use, so it’s very important that computers are responsive and simplistic.”

Just as challenging is driver retention. In December 2016 stricter legislation was enforced for long haul drivers, and it became a requirement for electronic log books to be kept for safety.

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Joe Valeriote Chief Commercial Officer

Joe Valeriote joined 4Refuel in 1997 and is currently Chief Commercial Officer. His primary responsibilities include overseeing sales, marketing and strategic development.

Having joined the organization shortly after its foundation in 1995, Valeriote is one of 4Refuel’s longest-tenured employees and was instrumental in growing the company from a family business to North America’s largest mobile onsite refueller.

Competition 4Refuel operates throughout Canada and in the last few years it’s expanded to Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin. Depending on market conditions there are plans to expand into further US states, but the company has taken the decision to focus operations on Texas for now.

It’s a highly competitive industry.

“The key is differentiating yourself from being a commodity” Lee says.

Competition is usually down to price, but 4Refuel sets itself apart from its rivals by having drivers go out to refuel company’s vehicles in the middle of the night and in all elements when they’re not active, enabling them to maximize their day.

“4Refuel does the jobs nobody else will.”

WHY ‘MAKING TIME’

can be the key to generating success Corby Spirit and Wine has transformed its business operations after what VP and CFO Antonio Sanchez describes as a period of “soul searching”. He talks us through the changes and their effect Written by: Stuart Hodge Produced by: Aquarius Rougely

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ometimes the best way to solve a problem is to take a step back and have a think about it.

And that’s exactly the approach taken by Corby Spirit and Wine Limited as it undertook what the company calls “a sequential maturity journey”.

It wasn’t that there were a multitude of issues needing to be solved but some of those working at the beverage alcohol manufacturer, marketer and distributor just felt that things could be done a little bit better.

It’s a feeling which was very much shared by the company’s Vice President and CFO Antonio Sanchez, who believes adopting such a patient and methodical approach has been vital in terms of Corby arming itself for the future.

He says: “It’s not been a crazy journey, it’s been a sequential, purposeful journey.

“We’re a company that has multiple stakeholders, we are affiliated with Pernod Ricard and we are also publicly-listed so we can’t just be shooting from the hip.

“We’ve always walked before we ran. We made time to identify our purpose and core competencies first and then we looked at strategy.

“If you just jump straight into strategy before you know your capabilities and competencies, and the ones you lack, most likely you will fail to execute.”

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“We’ve always walked before we ran. We made time to identify who we are first and then we looked at strategy”

Antonio Sanchez, Vice President and CFO

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A peaceful retreat The journey he speaks of began at a company retreat outside of Toronto back in the autumn of 2015, where the company’s executive team gathered having made “a conscious decision to move away” from their daily operations.

That meant no access to mobile phones or technology of any sort and after isolating themselves they began to talk about frustrations and issues

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between each other, acknowledging them, and then trying to think about those challenges and how they might affect daily operations.

Sanchez explains: “What we have done in the last year is really soul searching, asking ourselves ‘what is our purpose?’ and looking for the ‘why’ - why do we turn up to work? Why should we be chosen by our consumers,

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customers or employees?”

“The first thing we did was a very simple thing: our management teams agreed to make time.

Make time for strategy, make time to think, as opposed to just dealing with the day-to-day.

“That was the starting point, and then we kicked off our first strategic workshop and there we really isolated

what were the procedures and the areas we could improve on to really allow us to think strategically about our work and look for future growth.

“We then assessed our core competencies and considered the gaps in those core competencies, because we knew that, knowing what we were strong on and

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“It’s only through boldness that we will make big changes and be able to be creative” Antonio Sanchez, Vice President and CFO

what we needed to work on would be the basis for defining the strategy moving forward.

“After that, we said ‘okay, now we need to find our identity’. We really distilled it down to the point that we defined it in a limited number of words which made sense.”

A new approach By looking at the key differentiators, and identifying the company’s true purpose, they hit upon a formula for success, adopting a new company philosophy of “creating win-win memorable experiences”, for the company, shareholders, customers, consumers, and all other stakeholders.

Sanchez passionately believes in that mantra and broke it down for us. He says: “‘Creating’ has two meanings: there is the action of

creating which is a call to action, and creating also refers to creativity, so something new, something different. ‘Win-win’ means that, in everything we do, we should be showing empathy, so there should be a win for Corby but it should also be something useful, a win for our counterpart, whether it is a negotiation with a customer or a vendor, or even this conversation we are having, we aim to make sure that the other party gets value out of it. “‘Memorable’ means that in anything we do, we should try to make it memorable for the other party, maybe by making it a little bit different.

Obviously when you are in marketing, making something memorable can be something very impactful like a creative advertising but even

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small things, like really exceeding internal customer service expectations in the finance department, for example, can make a big difference. And ‘experience’ refers to the fact it should transcend the product or activity, the experience should be tangible and that’s really what adds to making it memorable.”

The words obviously have a strong meaning and resonance, but how can you then embed that into the company’s practices?

Sanchez continues: “Just as

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important as our purpose is that we have four behaviors that we’re actively embedding into the organization, and each of those behaviors really underpins the purpose.

“One of them is collaboration and it is expected to be displayed by every employee. So whether it is collaboration between sales and marketing to make campaigns more impactful or collaboration between finance and sales to

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provide the most insightful decision support. It’s all about collaboration and breaking the silos.

“Another one is empathy, knowing what is important to the other person.

We also have creativity and we really look at how we can do things with a different approach, in a different way. It’s something that’s very much embedded in the company’s DNA.

“And finally boldness, because it’s only through boldness that we will make big changes and be able to be creative. And thanks to this boldness, for example, we were able to go out and make an acquisition last year, something that Corby had not done in many, many years. Each of those behaviors are very important to our purpose.”

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Ungava The acquisition that Sanchez speaks of was the company’s decision to purchase the spirits assets of Domaine Pinnacle, maker of Ungava premium gin for $12m last year, and Sanchez says that the company is excited by the significant growth potential of this young portfolio of genuinely Canadian brands.

The next step for Corby is to

maximize that potential and build on its position as the second largest player in the Canadian spirits market behind Diageo.

The company posted net revenue figures last year of $140m and, through its affiliation with Pernod Ricard, manages one of the largest distilleries in North America, the Hiram Walker & Sons facility in Windsor, Ontario, but Sanchez is also quick to acknowledge Corby’s strategic partners who have helped them

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map out the road moving forward.

He adds: “We don’t see it just as a single standalone formula for success, but also recognize there are a number of enablers and working practices which have to go along with it.

“One of those practices is to have collaborative and integrated business planning, and to help us with that we engaged Clarkston, a boutique consultant.

“Along this journey, we upgraded our route to market capabilities, we have implemented a customized CRM system. As well as that we created a trademarking department, we enhanced our wine expertise and we built what we think is the most extensive network of brand ambassadors in the industry in Canada.

“As well as that we have upgraded

our marketing capabilities in general. We added a consumer and shopper insights group, we added an innovation group, we added digital marketing expertise, we implemented segmentation tools and we are implementing a promotional effectiveness tool: Exceedra.

“What Exceedra has given us is the ability to measure return on investment on these promotional efforts and we are able to choose the most profitable ones and eliminate any that don’t work as well. We are also able to become more accurate in our sales forecasts, which leads to better cash management.

“All of that gives us what we feel is the edge and there are not many companies that have that level of sophistication,” Sanchez concludes.

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WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY Recognized as a Top 100 Industry Manufacturer and as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, Durabuilt’s 29-year journey is inspirational Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Tom Venturo

D U R A B U I LT W I N D O W S & D O O R S

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oe Sunner and his 19-year-old son Harry, came to Canada from the UK in 1994. Harry is engagingly frank about their complete ignorance about Edmonton, about Alberta, and about any business except perhaps small scale shop keeping, in which father and son had worked together since the latter was 11.

They thought they would simply continue in the business they knew – beyond that it is hard to see that they had any significant assets that would mark them out for business success. They didn’t even have a lot of money and they definitely had no plan. But, in fact, they had assets that are beyond price and which make theirs a story to be digested by any aspiring entrepreneur who thinks you need seed capital, an expensive education, an MBA and deep business knowledge to build a sustainable enterprise.

Upon embarking on Canada’s soil, Joe Sunner encountered a small window manufacturer who encouraged them to join them in their business venture. With no manufacturing ability or familiarity, Joe took on the challenge alongside his son, Harry, with a go-to attitude to face the obscurity meticulously.

Within two years of amalgamation, the partner decided to part ways. Thereon, the Sunners painstakingly embraced full-on, the business wholly, surpassing bridges of challenges together.

The Sunners bought out their partner and took a good look at what they were left with.

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“We were working 14 hours a day and a seven day week for much of the first 10 years” – Harry Sunner, President

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Durabuilt Windows & Doors had a small workshop, some very basic machinery, a dozen employees, a ramshackle company structure and no strategy for future growth.

Having taken on the business, they secured enough private loan finance to keep the show on the road.

With everything on the line, Harry Sunner promised his father that come what may they would work as a team for as long as it took. “We were working 14 hours a day and a seven day week for much of the first 10 years,” he says, admitting that he saw too little of his own growing family as a result.

Clearly the bond between father and son was very strong, but Harry is frank about their differences too. “He is cautious and analytical whereas I am a visionary optimist. I want to fly too high and he likes to keep his feet on the ground.” Seeds of conflict?

Maybe, but these differences made for a strong team. Where one was overstretching the other would pull the reins; where one was tentative the other would push forward. When a plan was advanced, Joe would insist

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Harry Sunner President

Harry Sunner, President at Durabuilt Windows & Doors Inc. Fixated on shaping a better future for his family at an early age, the move from Birmingham, England to Edmonton was a natural fit. Despite arriving in a new country they knew nothing about, and with no background in construction, they tackled the windows business buoyantly. In the 20 years since, with an infallible passion for his vision and a dedicated team, he has grown his small business into a 400-employee powerhouse.

Harry is an engaged participant and a hands-on leader who’s continuously embracing the TEC value of life-long learning. He is married to Pam and they have three children: Henny, Amany and Joban.

D U R A B U I LT W I N D O W S & D O O R S

on doing the risk assessment, while Harry would point out that growth is always attended by risk. At all events, today Joe remains CEO of the company and Harry, its President.

Springboard Despite their lack of any engineering or construction background the Sunners were quick learners. After two years Durabuilt broke even, and in the 29 years since then average growth has

been 19% per annum. Having moved premises three times in its first decade, it now occupies a 190,000 sq ft factory at Edmonton, with branch locations in Calgary, Lethbridge, Saskatoon and Winnipeg with 100’s of dealers across Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and employs more than 400 people.

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CONSTRUCTION

window market, which accounts for around 20 percent of turnover; new construction whether commercial or domestic (50 percent); and to dealers, agents and builders merchants.

This has not been achieved without growing pains. In fact, the manufacturing footprint has shrunk as the business has expanded – there’s been a transformation, and Harry hands a lot of the credit for this to General Manager Amar Randhawa, who joined Durabuilt right at the outset of its new era, aged 17, with even less experience than the owners,

but sharing their values, work ethic, pragmatism and willingness to learn.

Lean It’s about 10 years since Durabuilt set out on its lean journey, and here it really does begin to look more like a textbook manufacturer. The leadership team learned about TPS, six sigma, kanban, kaizen, CPA and ERP. They began to introduce lean practices incrementally with a series of continuous improvement iterations rather than trying to revolutionize practices overnight. Their natural

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“Becoming IMS certified … brought us up to a completely different level” – Harry Sunner, President

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instinct was to adopt what works – for example as part of the lean initiative, the plant had modified the assembly line to single-piece flow and needed to configure its ERP system to support that process.

Now, instead of having batches of parts sitting around in boxes waiting for hours to be used, the parts are brought to the line as needed.

Changing the company culture was another matter. “We wanted quality, environmental practices and efficiencies but we didn’t know how to drill that down into a 300 strong workforce. How do we get people on the shop floor to share our vision?” asked Sunner.

The route decided on was to acquire ISO accreditations, not at the time commonly found in the industry, starting with the international quality standard ISO 9001 and moving on to the environmental standard 14001 and OHSAS 18001 which governs health and safety practices.

In 2011 these three accreditations qualified Durabuilt to become the first and still the only window and door manufacturer in Canada to

CONSTRUCTION

receive Integrated Management Systems (IMS) accreditation, based on systematic processes and approaches that are implemented throughout the entire lifecycle of a project.

Sunner continues: “Becoming IMS certified is a way to measure and improve the way we do business: it’s about enhancing the quality of products and services, the health and safety of our employees and reducing our environmental footprint. It brought us up to a completely different level.

It has driven accountability in every department. When we get audited, nobody wants to fail the audit or even get a red flag! We wanted people to feel pride in their daily work.”

Bespoke technology Again, he points to the dedication of Amar Randhawa as the driving force behind these improvements. “Amar really took personal ownership of the lean process, not relying on others to drive it.” The transformation was done without outside consultants, he emphasizes, however it is a continuing transformation.

Currently, having been through

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Joe Sunner CEO

Joe Sunner, CEO at Durabuilt Windows & Doors. He plays a protagonist in leading the family to Western Canada for a promising future. He made a choice in his late 40s from England where he spent most of his younger years, to take a chance and risk all they had beyond the ambiguity, hoping for a positive change in their lives.

Surely, Joe was right about his decision to migrate as an opportunity stood waiting for them when they purchased the inexperienced Durabuilt Windows & Doors in the early 1995.

It took vision and fortitude to invest precious capital into an uncertain industry, but the investment paidoff. An analytical dad, Joe and a visionary son, Harry are unequivocally brilliant to propel their window business to success; successes built on solid relationships.

D U R A B U I LT WINDOWS & DOORS

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four different ERP platforms, each of which has proved a brake on progress, Durabuilt is migrating to a new system, WTS Paradigm, specially configured for the industry.

Durabuilt has been a member of Built Green Canada for 10 years, emphasizing its commitment to the environment. The difficult task of balancing necessary investment in automation, weathering a hit from currency fluctuations and complying with ever more stringent regulations like the recently upgraded North America Fenestration Standard (NAFS) as applied under Canadian building codes, as against the need to remain price competitive and return an annual profit, keeps Harry Sunner and his father, who at a mere 70 shows no sign of wanting to retire, as busy as ever.

Entrepreneurs to the core, they see their success in context. Sunner says: “Sometimes business leaders feel that if they are doing a little better than the competition that is fine. We do not. We are not into self-congratulation – we celebrate our successes then move on to what will be better. It took us a long time to build credibility, a trusted brand and a trusted workplace, to the point where people now want to come and work at Durabuilt.”

Durabuilt’s success, he concludes, is not just about the leadership and the workforce – it is about the health of the industry, of Edmonton, of Alberta and of the Canadian economy.

“It took us a long time to build credibility, a trusted brand and a trusted workplace, to the point where people now want to come and work at Durabuilt” – Harry Sunner, President

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MyHealth Centre: QUALITY PATIENT

EXPERIENCE

MyHealth Centre has grown into a market leading provider of efficient and high-quality care services through advancing its user interfaces and creating a culture of collaboration in a market often criticised for inefficiencies

Written by: Dale Benton Produced by: Quiyonni Borja

I

n the healthcare industry, efficiency is key. Be it efficiency from an internal operations perspective or efficiency when it comes to patient care services, a healthcare organisation can only truly achieve unmeasured success if it ensures it is operating efficiently and delivering consistent and courteous patient experience.

Suresh Madan, President and CEO of MyHealth Centre, spotted an opportunity born out of inefficient market. In 2013, while managing an investment fund, Suresh noted that all publicsector hospitals in the Ontario province of Canada were operating inefficiently. The hospitals could not cope with the intake of patients, creating long and unsustainable patient waiting times, the constant rescheduling of appointments due to poor equipment or the extremely limited availability of physicians and para-medical staff.

A collaborative effort

This is where the MyHealth Centre concept was born. A unique, collaborative partnership of radiologists, cardiologists and healthcare professionals, MyHealth Centre is focused on delivering outstanding quality and innovation through its Independent Health Facilities (IHF). “The idea was to create a chain of clinics which can operate efficiently, maintain costs

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and provide the services that patients need,” says Suresh.

Fast forward to 2017 and MyHealth Centre currently owns and operates 27 clinics across Ontario and with ambitions of expanding even further (The province has close to 800 clinics). The organisation is well and truly on a growth journey.

For Suresh, throughout this journey it is crucial that the business remains committed to providing efficiency in its operations and

exemplary patient care, but this level of service can only be delivered through the quality of its greatest asset - its people.

“The quality of our service can only be as good as the quality of our team,” he says. “As a healthcare service delivery company, it requires physical interaction with the personal touches and care from the best possible people. This is only possible if you have that high-quality team.”

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Culture

Developing that high quality team came with a significant challenge.

In acquiring a series of clinics from across the province, that brings about different cultures and working dynamics. This was a key area in which Suresh has spent the best part of four years addressing.

“The challenge was to mould the different cultures into one consistent culture and in turn deliver a superior high-quality service and form a superior high-quality team,” he says.

This moulding of a core, consistent culture came to a head recently as MyHealth Centre was crowned a “Great Place to Work 2017-18”. For Suresh, this speaks volumes as to

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the way in which the organisation is committed to ensuring its employees are the best they can be and are valued from top to bottom.

This internal metric comes from some very outward facing initiatives, such as the Patient Ambassador Program. This programme is centred around patient feedback, encouraging patients to highlight the instances of MyHealth Centre employees going the extra mile to deliver a level of service that is unmatched across the industry.

This culture of championing the hardworking employees is not only a case of celebrating the hard work already done, but allows room for them to think about where they can improve their service.

H E A LT H C A R E

A personal touch

As President and CEO, Suresh strives to show that he is not hidden away through top tier management, but he is there for his employees and wants them to feel valued. This comes through a more personal initiative called the Champions Lunch.

“Every month we elected four members of our organisation, four members elected by their peers for high quality service,” he says.

Suresh would then invite those four members each month to a personal lunch, providing an opportunity for him to engage directly with his employees, but also gain a better understanding of MyHealth Centre.

“I try to get to know them, to understand where the company is succeeding and where it can improve. I learn from their frontline experience dealing with patients,” says Sureshj. “We implemented a number of initiatives based off of those conversations and this really enhanced the trust as well as the overall efficiencies throughout the organisation.”

SURESH MADAN, President and CEO of MyHealth Centre

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It is clear that MyHealth Centre is committed to delivering a great place to be, but what work does the organization do to deliver on the promise of efficient and highquality service to patients?

As the company continues to grow towards improving its market share and acquiring more clinics, Suresh is all too aware of the role that the patients will play in that growth journey.

MyHealth Centre conducts regular patient feedback exercises and takes action on all of that feedback. This feedback allows MyHealth Centre to grow as dictated by the patient need, not simply the business one.

“Patients like enhanced quality,

they like the common touch and feel of each of our clinics.

They like the widespread nature of our clinics,” says Suresh.

“In some cases, we’ve found that some patients would travel between 20-30km to get their clinic services.

MyHealth Centre provides the ability to visit a local clinic that could be close to home, or even close to work. That is a major benefit and quality of service we provide.”

Transforming technology

It’s not just the locations of clinics and the quality of care that is provided by employees

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that defines the success of the organisation. Technology has already transformed the healthcare industry and will continue to shape the future and this has not been lost on Suresh.

MyHealth Centre has significantly invested in improving its user facing interface, creating convenience and simplicity for the patient. This investment into technology for the patient represents a wider internal aim of enhancing the quality of the patient experience, with some initiatives ready to roll out late this year.

This aim is centred on growing demand from changing patient expectations.

“Patients are trying to obtain more information within their own healthcare space,” he says. “They are more demanding, curious and aware. That’s an overall trend so we have to adapt to that. We want to make sure that all the info patients need and the convenience they need is provided and available to them.”

MyHealth Centre is currently developing a mobile and tablet application, one that is a subset of all the organisation’s patient facing tools. The app will allow patients to receive booking reminders, confirmations and follow up details all through push messages. All of

the necessary data surrounding a patient’s healthcare is handled through a secure, encrypted network.

The purpose of this app is to provide all the information a patient needs efficiently and securely, directly to their phone or tablet device. Suresh is keen to push the appointment flexibility that the app provides as patients can choose their own timings that work best for them, as opposed to the historical method of requesting bookings.

“We want patients to have more choice as opposed to us making the choices for them,” he says. “It’s a huge transformation in engaging with the patients and meeting their needs.”

As MyHealth Centre continues its journey into expanding its market share, acquiring more clinics, first and foremost in its province and then beyond the wider realms of Canada and more internationally, Suresh stresses the need to remember it is the patient that defines the organisation’s growth, not the other way around.

“I don’t see our growth and market changes happening on their own, it’s more a case of our perception

of the need of the patient,” he says.

“We need to change and enhance our systems to fulfil that changing demand and need which will happen over time. That will establish us a leader in the market.”

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The Ottawa Hospital: Building the next generation of patient-focused healthcare Business Review Canada speaks with Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Cameron Love, who discusses how The Ottawa Hospital is transforming its services against an ever-changing healthcare landscape Written by: Catherine Sturman Produced by: Quiyonni Borja

T H E O T TA WA H O S P I TA L

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n 1998, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) came into existence through the merger of four hospitals and has since become one of Canada’s largest academic research hospitals. With a vision “to provide each patient with the world-class care, exceptional service and compassion we would want for our loved ones,” TOH has embarked on a significant redevelopment strategy focused on constructing a new state-of-the-art academic campus.

Cameron Love, TOH’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, is responsible

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for overseeing the development strategy and plan. Responsible for the overall operations of the hospital, Love has worked in a variety of leadership roles since the merger in 1998 and now oversees the ongoing implementation of the new site development.

“The first 10 years after the merger focused on reorganising our programs and services across TOH’s three campuses,” he explains.

“Creating corporate programs and services, developing an integrated research platform, and expanding our critical-care and tertiary-care programs and services were our main focus.” By 2008 TOH had implemented its merger plan and strategy and evolved its focus to developing a robust Quality Plan and strategy. “In 2008 CEO, Dr. Jack Kitts, led the development of a new vision [to provide each

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patient with the world-class care, exceptional service and compassion we would want for our loved ones], which refocused our hospital on becoming a top 10% performer in quality and patient safety and focusing on patient experience.”

Over the last decade, TOH has drastically improved the care and compassion of services provided to patients and families, becoming a leader in such metrics as Hospital Standardized Mortality Rate, Patient Experience, Surgical Site Infections and Cost per Weighted Case.

This vision and quality platform

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will guide TOH through its development strategy and planning process. “TOH’s vision centres on compassionate and world-class care, which will guide our planning for developing our new state-ofthe-art campus,” explains Love.

The Ottawa Hospital Redevelopment Strategy

TOH operates 19 sites altogether, including three main campuses: the Civic, General and Riverside.

However, as a regional provider of adult acute-care programs and services, TOH also operates 16 satellite sites that provide dialysis, cancer and mentalhealth programs and services throughout the Champlain region.

In 2007-2008, TOH completed its long-term Master Plan, which outlined the future plans for its campuses. TOH’s overall development strategy includes expanding the General and Riverside campuses; however, the flagship component to the development plan is the construction of a new

H E A LT H C A R E

Civic Campus, which currently has infrastructure of almost 100 years old. The Civic Campus is the Ottawa region’s only Trauma Centre and operates a series of regional programs, including Cardiac Care, Vascular Surgery, Neurosciences (neurosurgery and neurology) and minimally invasive surgery, to provide complex academic care to patients across the region, province and country.

With a globally aging population and demographic growth, the expansion of TOH’s programs and services and construction of new Civic Campus will support the health-care demands of the Champlain region’s population.

Within the Ottawa area, Love explains “there has been significant volume growth, particularly in patients with multiple medical issues, which are often in patients over age 70.” Such growth is not unique to Ottawa, but is a challenge the entire health industry is currently facing worldwide. Bernie Etzinger, Chief Communications

Dr. Jack Kitts, President and CEO

and Outreach Officer at TOH, explains that “the growth in healthcare demand coupled with the aging population will result in a shift in the Champlain region’s demographic profile, which is critical for TOH to plan for as part

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H E A LT H C A R E

Cameron Love,

Joanne Read,

EVP and COO

VP Planning and Support

of its development strategy”.

The Civic Campus is a critical element in the Champlain region’s healthcare system because it is the only site that provides care to patients with the most severe and complex care needs. While the programs and services provide world-class care, the future requirements of programs such as Neurosciences, Cardiac Care, Stroke, Trauma and Complex Medical care cannot be effectively or efficiently managed within the aging infrastructure, nor can they accommodate the projected growth

in demand and volume. “The current campus is approximately half the size it needs to be to accommodate current and future development standards for a site that will operate 750+ inpatient beds and some of the most advanced health and research infrastructure in the country,” comments Love.

“The business case clearly outlines that the time has come to develop a new regional centre.”

The Academic Future

Like the majority of academic centres worldwide, TOH shares a

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similar tri-partite mandate of clinical care, research and education.

TOH’s development strategy will include significantly expanded infrastructure to support the evolving standards needed for new models and advancements in research and education.

In partnership with the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College, TOH will continue to focus on educating future physicians, nurses, other health professionals and support-service workers.

Education that includes simulation training, internships, fellowships and apprenticeships will continue to advance and evolve the education spaces the hospital will need to plan for. “The need for advanced simulation training

centres and decentralised education spaces integrated with clinical and operational spaces will be essential to support new education training programs in the future,” comments Love. The simulation centre and education conference centre concepts will be integrated with the new Civic Campus development, allowing TOH to continue its mandate as a leading academic institution.

Research is the third mandate, which is a top priority for TOH. Over the last decade, TOH and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) have achieved tremendous research success, particularly in the fields of cancer, stem cell,

H E A LT H C A R E

neurosciences and translational research. “Research is an essential element to achieving our vision, and our development strategy integrates a robust platform focusing on basic, clinical and translational research,” adds Love. The new Civic Campus vision includes research institutes that will integrate clinical care with research and take the advancements from the bench to the bedside.

The Electronic System Platform

TOH’s redevelopment strategy is one of two critical infrastructure pillars for the future of health-care delivery in the Champlain region.

The other significant undertaking is implementing a new integrated health-care information system.

Over the last decade, TOH has implemented a fully electronic back office information system platform in partnership with ORACLE. The system has achieved a variety of significant efficiencies and created a best-practice systems platform for business functions such as supply chain services, financial services

and human resources management.

On the clinical side, a variety of systems have been customized to advance the electronic clinical platform; however, the current systems are not fully integrated and require a variety of paperbased functions. To move to a fully integrated electronic clinical delivery system platform, TOH has completed a business plan review and market assessment over the last 18 months. TOH will be partnering with EPIC to implement a fully electronic health-care information system. “To achieve our vision and goals from a quality and patient experience perspective, we have to move to an integrated healthcare system, which will allow us to realise the operational benefits and efficiencies that other major centres have achieved by partnering with EPIC,” comments Love. TOH’s major investment of more than $150mn is essential to advance the effectiveness and efficiency of its programs and services.

Implementing the EPIC

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Dr Jeff Turnbill, Chief of Staff

platform will be one of the largest transformations TOH has undertaken and will positively change many of the hospital’s current practices. The outcome will be a fully electronic infrastructure that will improve the efficiency, effectiveness and “patient-centred” options that TOH envisions for its programs and services. In addition, the EPIC platform will provide a base upon which regional programs and services can be integrated across other health-care providers.

“Implementing the EPIC platform

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is a critical strategic investment for both TOH and our healthcare system in the Champlain region,” adds Love. The future of health care is the integration across multiple sectors. “Whether it is hospitals, home-care, longterm care, post-acute care, support from family physicians or community health centres, we have to look at how we provide care across an entire continuum of what a patient needs, and just not episodic care within a hospital.”

The EPIC platform will enable TOH and all health-care partners across the region to create a fully integrated health-care system that will benefit patients and families accessing all health-care centres.

The Ottawa Hospital – the future of healthcare

The health-care industry is advancing at an incredible rate. It has been said that the advancements that occur over the next decade will have a greater impact on the health-care system than those

H E A LT H C A R E

over the last half century. “The advances in medical technology, electronic systems and devices, drugs, and research outcomes will continue to evolve at a rapid rate. As we plan the future of health care, we have to take into consideration these evolutions and create flexibility within our hospital and health-care development plans,” comments Love.

The advances in health care will impact all sectors and such transformations will change the landscape of not only health care but also the City of Ottawa’s infrastructure. “When we think about the evolution of healthcare technology and where patients will receive care in the future, between hospital and home, the patient experience will be focused on the human vision of care across an integrated health system,” adds Etzinger.

TOH is a leading North American health-care centre focused on compassionate, world-class care.

With a robust development and

Bernie Etzinger, CCO

electronic health-care system transformation strategy, the success TOH has achieved to date will evolve further, allowing the hospital to reach its goal of being a top 10% performer, benefitting the patients and families of the Champlain region.

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KEEP ON

TRUCKING FLS Transportation’s President, Mike Flinker, says that despite 30 years of success he is eyeing new opportunities for growth and acquisitions

Written by: James Henderson Produced by: Sharicka Braley

F L S T R A N S P O R TAT I O N

“W

e were three guys with a dream,” says Mike Flinker as he recalls the very earliest days of FLS Transportation.

Fast forward 30 years and the Canadian-born President now leads a $400 million a year business that was taken over last year by a private equity firm, a development that will allow the business to now look for acquisitions of its own.

But it wasn’t anything like all plain sailing; with just $1,100 between them, the three business partners only had enough money to incorporate the business, confident that their past experience of the transportation would be enough for the banks of Canada to open their doors, battling for the chance to offer the burgeoning business with financing.

Not so. “With no capital to speak of, the banks turned us straight down,” says Flinker. Instead, the trio were forced to approach former clients asking if they’d support the newly formed FLS Transportation, with one caveat – could they pay us right away?

“Initially it was a surprise how many of our former clients said they’d put business our way, but to ask for money up front really did startle a number of them, which is understandable because we’d always received payment from them in a timely manner. It was really tough to explain to them that it wasn’t a case of not trusting them, but rather the banks not wanting to finance the new company.”

Perhaps surprisingly, a number of trusting clients agreed to turn around payment straight away,

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“We’re currently working on an acquisition and while we can’t say who it’s for, we’re really excited about it” – Mike Flinker, President

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Craig Swain Vice President, Strategic Operations

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Domenic Di Girolamo Chief Executive Officer

Jason Hollingsworth

Chief Information Officer

Pierre Gagne

Sandra Fraser

Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Vice-President, HR & Corporate

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S U P P LY C H A I N

meaning they could pay the trucking we had designs on really growing the companies 10 days later, thus business, but to do that we had to overcoming the banks holding their be a player in the US market – you’re checks for seven days. In Flinker’s wasting your time if you’re not and words it was “off to the races we you want to grow,” he comments. went”. He acknowledges that it was an By his reckoning it would take a atypical way to establish a company, couple of years, but that reckoning saying: “If you presented proved to be it as a business plan ambitious for a to a bunch of Harvard couple of reasons.

Business students, they’d “It was a really tough probably say we’re going transition,” Flinker bust in a few days, but we admits. “We thought really defied the odds.” the clients that we had What followed was – which were mainly nigh-on two decades of American companies solid domestic growth in who were giving us Canada, as the business cross border business won itself a name for – would ultimately logistics excellence, – Mike Flinker, President give us business in the taking in truckloads, US, but that wasn’t intermodal, freight management, and forthcoming and we had to do what temperature controlled equipment. everybody else did and wait in line.”

But keen to push the business The global downturn of 2008, forward, Flinker pushed for expansion 2009 and 2010 was also hugely into the potentially lucrative US market challenging for the sector, with a in 2005, something he marks as “a number of businesses falling by real milestone” for the company. the wayside in the process.

“The Canadian dollar had begun to “In reality it took eight or nine years escalate in value and we knew that and really get traction in the US. That

“I think when it comes to companies like Walmart or Home Depot, it’s about gaining their confidence”

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was the biggest surprise to me, I never thought it would take that long.

That’s not to say we weren’t growing in the time because we were picking up clients but it was the huge Fortune 500 clients that we had worked with in Canada that we reluctant to give us that domestic US business up until 2014. I think we showed a lot of tenacity in our pursuit that made them realize that we weren’t going to quit, and perhaps after so many companies fell away in the aftermath of 2008, 2009 and 2010, that they saw an opportunity for us,” he says.

“I think when it comes to companies like Walmart or Home Depot, it’s about gaining their confidence and

FLS has worked diligently to fundraise for various charitable organizations.

Whether a bake sale, food drive, or collecting and donating toys around the holidays, there is always a new charitable venture underway. The generosity of the FLS team, and affiliated donors, in giving both their tie and talents has yielded very positive results for members of our community with needs

showing them that what we can do, and then doing exactly that – we always felt like that but it’s irrelevant if the client doesn’t share that view.

If you view yourself as a genius but the rest of the world thinks you’re an idiot, what good is that?”

The breakthrough saw the company’s fortunes soar, and by the time FLS was sold in 2016, in the 11 years since it entered the US market it had achieved compound sales growth of 30% per year, and compound profit growth of 28% per year, leading to admiring eyes that ultimately saw the company acquired

by Arby Partners in March last year.

“What’s been added is real

S U P P LY C H A I N

FLS takes pride in its ability to offer timely and costeffective transportaion and logistics solutions

More than 30 years of expreience in providing leading edge logistics solutions across North America.

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Legal Logistics: Since 2008, Lewis Rice has provided insightful legal counsel to FLS Transportation Services, helping it become one of the fastest-growing third-party logistics service providers in North America.

Where can Lewis Rice take you?

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Focused on providing exceptional service to clients of various sizes across a number of diverse industries, FLS is passionate about developing customer centric solutions, hand-crafted from a wide portfolio sf services.

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As leader in the third-party logistics space, FLS invests early and often in new technologies and infrastructure that position its clients to be supply chain leaest in the markets it serves

structure,” says Flinker. “If we had weaknesses it was on the administrative side. We bolstered all of our accounting, we have a first rate CFO and a top quality controller, as well as a great assistant controller.

Concurrently, they’ve given us the freedom to keep doing what we’re good at, and given us capital to make acquisitions. We’re currently working on an acquisition and while we can’t say who it’s for, we’re really excited about it. We hope to see that close by the end of the summer and we’ll look to make more acquisitions after that.”

The company is also making inroads into the Mexican market, and

has Mexican nationals to smooth the process, while it is working closely with its clients to ensure its technology offering is best-in-class.

Flinker is a 37 year veteran of the business, but says he is “massively excited for the future.”

If the last three decades at FLS Transportation is anything to go by, he has every right to be so.

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