A Decade Strong

YEARS
The Westcor Way
A Decade Strong
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hen you enter the double doors at Westcor Construction Ltd., an air of energy and enthusiasm greets
you. Curved walls showcase many of their keynote
projects, along with the Gold Seal credentials that management
has earned over the years. They are all displayed proudly – it’s
a company that has worked hard to earn a respectable position
in an industry that’s tough on business.
When the founders of Westcor established the company
10 years ago, they set out to service the mid-sized construction market with a mantra that reads: every client should
believe their project is the most important one — a lofty goal
even by today’s standards but the founders were steadfast as
they rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
Three colleagues started Westcor: Bob Robinson, Brad Hammond and Val Stordy — all of who had worked together in the
industry for many years. Robinson and Hammond came up
through the project management side and Stordy worked on
the administration side, and as Robinson notes, it was simply the right time to start Westcor. To round out the executive
team, Andrew Morgan joined a short time later, adding more
experience to the operations side of the business.
“We found there were many companies that serviced the
The team at Westcor Construcion. Photo by Mary Savage.
By Mary Savage
smaller markets, but there were very few that looked after
the mid-sized market,” says Robinson. “When we started
Westcor, we brought large-company experience to the
marketplace, but we delivered a level of service that’s very
personalized.”
And this mentality was soon coined the ‘Westcor Way.’
Their philosophy was so integral to the day-to-day operations that it became the foundation of their mission
statement – seeking to provide the highest level of customer
service, while demonstrating excellence in safety and integrity. Quality, workmanship and cost-effective solutions also
sat at the forefront and became the standards by which they
measured their success.
The Westcor Way is all encompassing: it engages innovation,
imagination and collaboration. They are progressive thinkers,
proactive industry leaders and consummate professionals. No
detail is too small and no project is too large to deliver the personalized service that’s become their signature.
During the startup years, the founders’ strategy worked
extremely well and before long, Westcor carved out a reputation for being one of the go-to companies to call for
construction projects in the mid-sized market.
Westcor Construction • 10 Years • 1
Projects
YEARS
Red Lobster
Maxxam Analytical - Phase II
Ten years later, Westcor has grown from a
three-person business to over 50 employees
and they have worked in every quadrant of
the city, the surrounding communities and
throughout Western Canada.
You will find Westcor’s crews on commercial
projects (including retail), institutional buildings, industrial expansions and renovations. They have been
instrumental in building public structures and office spaces.
Demolition, site servicing and preparation, along with concrete structures are also part of the list of services they offer.
Westcor has also built churches, recreational facilities and
educational buildings, but you will also find them working inside specialty industries such as seniors’ housing and
healthcare renovations – two fields that require a specific
level of expertise.
“We’ve completed hundreds of healthcare renovations
and that type of work is very complicated because the facility usually remains operational while the renovations are
underway,” says Robinson.
“This type of work calls for specialty services like dustfree demolitions, negative air systems and IPC (infection
prevention and control) procedures; we have people that are
experts in these areas. It’s specialty work and the clients
know they need to work with a construction company that
understands what precautions have to be taken to ensure
the existing and operational environment is safe,” he adds.
Today, they continue to serve the mid-sized construction market and they have remained true to their mantra,
but inside the Westcor office virtually everything else has
changed. Westcor has evolved in part from necessity and
partly from ‘blue sky’ thinking that has fostered many
opportunities for them. One of those opportunities strengthened their executive committee by welcoming the extensive
experience and skills of David Vandegriff as CFO.
Three years ago, Westcor moved from a 2,800-square-foot
leased bay into an old warehouse they purchased, expanded
and renovated to accommodate their growing business. And
when you enter their new 10,000-square-foot space, the
two-storey office building is humming with activity.
For the 55 employees who make the wheels of business
churn inside the Westcor office and across all of their project
sites – unequivocally – they are making a difference in their
corner of the construction industry.
“Today we work on pre-qualified projects, invited work
and jobs with repeat customers – and that’s enough to keep
us busy,” adds Robinson. The term ‘pre-qualified’ assumes
that competing companies engage in specific criteria: they
offer good value, have an excellent safety program and have
a proven track record.
www.albertamoldpro.com
[email protected]
403.371.7836
Mold and Asbestos removal company
Making homes
healthy again
Congratulations to
Westcor on their
10th Anniversary!
The Pint
We wish you continued success
in the industry.
Westcor Construction • 10 Years • 2
Harry Hays Building
iWorld Connect
“In the construction industry, anyone can get a business
licence and bid on a project, but that doesn’t necessarily bring
good value to the client,” comments Robinson. “The industry
is trending toward ‘best value,’ and not best price. In today’s
market, you need to have systems and people in place to sustain long-term growth and stability; and you need to develop
excellent partnerships with your trades and contractors.”
As Robinson has observed, the pre-qualified standards have
been around for a long time, but after the last economic downturn, both the public and private sectors have become more
selective with whom they work. “A project is not always awarded
to the lowest bidder anymore…and the last recession cleaned up
the industry – weeding out many of the companies that couldn’t
meet the pre-qualification criteria,” Robinson adds.
Hats off to you Westcor congratulations on 10 years!
Allied
Projects Ltd.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
403-543-4530 | www.alliedprojects.com
Congrats on reaching
your 10th anniversary!
From all of us at Hamilton & Rosenthal,
we wish you many more successful years!
Congratulations Westcor Construction!
Wishing you many more decades of success!
(403) 266-2175
www.hamrose.com
www.varko.com
congratulates
www.skylineelectrical.net
403-287-8535
Westcor Construction Ltd.
on their 10th Annversary!
Congratulations to Westcor Construction
on their 10th Anniversary!
www.mcgregor-thompson.com | 403.250.9311
Westcor Construction • 10 Years • 3
YEARS
Vocational Centre Extraordinaire
Career and Technology Centre – Lord Shaughnessy High School
When Westcor was selected to be the
general contractor on the Career and
Technology Centre (CTC), they were
honoured to be part of the $8.6-million
project. A first of its kind in Alberta, the
CTC is flagged as a prototype building
and program that invites youth wishing
to pursue credentialed trades training —
while still attending high school.
The school originally opened in 1967
and over the years, has undergone additions and renovations, but there were
many challenges that Westcor had to
overcome – one being that the school
Lord Shaughnessy High School
remained opened to the teachers, students and CBE administration. The project was completed in phases to accommodate the daily activity.
In addition to the new construction, many existing areas of the building were repurposed and modernized, adding to the complexities of the project. Westcor’s safety program proved to be almost as
challenging as the construction work itself — in order to ensure the staff and students were provided
a safe environment.
The construction was completed in the spring of 2013 and today, the CTC is over 110,000-square-feet.
The programs offer dual credentials as well as post-secondary preparation in welding, auto body, preengineering, hairstyling, culinary arts, media design, business information technology and health services.
Resort-Inspired Retirement Community
Amica Mature Lifestyles – Aspen Woods
During the fall of 2011, Westcor
was awarded the Amica project and
19 months after breaking ground, the
$25-million project was completed.
Designed as an assisted living community for seniors, the four-storey,
greenfield construction site provides
185,000-square-feet of resort-inspired
living with a 146-bed capacity.
As construction got underway, the
majority of the structural concrete
components were poured during the
winter – meaning Westcor needed
ground-thawing techniques to keep the
project on schedule. The following winter, the interior finishes were completed
Amica Mature Lifestyles, Aspen Woods
with the assistance of a dry-heat system that was installed throughout the building. The system was monitored daily to keep the building
at a consistent temperature – necessary for the construction finishes.
High-end finishes include coffered and domed ceilings, extensive decorative wall and crown mouldings, and vinyl wall coverings throughout the corridors and common areas. The facility offers an array
of amenities including a beauty salon, full pool, spa and exercise area with change rooms, a theatre
room, full commercial kitchen and laundry room, dining rooms and a pub.
Westcor Construction • 10 Years • 4
ISO National Management, Local Execution
ISO recognizes the weak link in the flooring supply chain for Retail
and Hospitality establishments – Installation. While relationships
with manufacturers are built on an economy of scale, the installation
labour market is, by definition, locally scaled. Such fragmentation
creates an imbalance that becomes apparent in higher administration
and project management workload. It results in inconsistencies of
work quality, reliability and efficiency from building to building. ISO
provides a sound solution.
403.253.4441 | www.isocanada.com
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Consistent execution at a local level
We control the entire Service Delivery
process through our corporately owned
warehouses and ISO full-time project
management staff.
● Local warehouses and installation crews provide
the capacity to deliver quality service and quick
turnaround
Proud to be
Congratulations
● ISO owns and operates to
warehouses across Canada
working with
for product delivery, storage
Westcor
Construction!
and staging
Westcor
● Qualified, fully insured local
labour crews with you,
Construction.
Proud to be working
● All flooring surfaces
Extending our
and we wish you many more
congratulations
years of success!
as they celebrate
The
ISO Value PrOPOSITIOn
10 years of
One POInT OF COnTaCT. One InVOICe.
success.
●
●
Local iSO owned warehouses and project managers
Centralized estimating, one contact point, greater building
To increase flooring installation efficiencies in all your establishments
consistency, efficiency
CALL US AT 1-866-627-1211 FOR A CUSTOMIZED ESTIMATE.
● National standardized pricing
www.isocanada.com
● Cost savings through vendor consolidation
● Local qualified, background checked and insured labour crews
● Supply and installation of any/all flooring surfaces including White
UNITED DECORATING INC.
Rock and Acquarelle wall protection Alberta’s Paint Experts & Approved Sika Applicators
● Installation completed during your off-peak hours
● Waste diversion through carpet and under pad recycling
Weather
Protector
Ltd.
●Western
COR
Safety
Program
compliant
403-273-9511
Congratulations Team Westcor on 10 successful years of
build contracting service. Your company’s professional
approach and attention to detail has distinguished above
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many as a contractor of choice. It has been our pleasure to
work with you and we at Western Weather Protector Ltd.
wish you another 10 years of success in building.
Sincerely,
Management and Staff
adv
Phone: 403-569-1101 | Fax: 403-569-1211
[email protected]
www.uniteddecorating.com
“Congrats to the whole Westcor team,
we look forward to the next 10 years!”
Westcor Construction • 10 Years • 5
fas
on
“Today we compete with like-minded businesses that have excellent safety programs,
operate efficiently, bring value to the client and
can sustain long-term growth,” he continues.
Westcor has undergone other changes and most
recently, they have been working to upgrade and
improve internal operating systems. “When planning our future, we engaged a certain amount of
brainstorming and many great ideas were born.
One of those ideas looks at improving our internal operations, which has enabled us to take on
more work, larger projects and bring more value
to our clients,” notes Vandegriff.
Currently underway, Westcor is implementing
an ERP (enterprise resource plan) that ultimately
seeks to expedite client and project communications. “The ERP solves two major growth
problems: it makes us significantly more efficient internally, but more importantly, we are
far more responsive to our clients’ needs,” says
Vandegriff.
“Once the system is fully operational, we will be able to
provide our clients with real-time details about their projects
regarding costs, production schedules and related information,” he adds. “The clients really enjoy working with our
people, our culture and our systems, but they wanted access
to information quicker and we are responding.”
Looking back over the past decade, Robinson observes
they are working in interesting times. “We are at an inter-
YEARS
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esting growth level now and by integrating new systems,
we are building a better company. All of our team leaders
have risen to the challenge…most of them have been with
the company since its inception and they understand the
Westcor Way,” notes Robinson.
“It’s how we run the business, how we keep employees
engaged and challenged, and what we value in order to
make our clients feel important,” he continues. “And as we
move forward, we are able to give new employees a roadmap that teaches them the importance of the Westcor Way;
it’s not just a philosophy – it’s how we do business.”
Westcor views every relationship as a collaborative one
– from their clients to subtrades to the employees. “Anyone
should be able to build to plans and specs, but we work with
our clients to make their project the best it can be. Everyone we
work with is viewed as a partner and we continue to work hard
to build a collaborative environment,” says Robinson.
As Westcor celebrates their 10th anniversary, they pause from
the workday to extend a sincere note of gratitude to all of the
clients, business partners, suppliers, contractors and employees
who have helped them achieve this milestone. “We recognize
that we could not have arrived at this point without a lot of
help from a lot of good people!” adds Robinson.
Westcor Construction Ltd.
www.westcor.net | (403) 663-8677
#11, 2701 16 ST, S.E., CALGARY, AB T2G 3R4
TEL: 403-207-7291
FAX: 403-207-7254
Berkshire Contracting Ltd.
Custom Cabinetry & Architectural Millwork
#11, 2701 16 St. SE, Calgary, AB T2G 3R4
Tel: 403.207.7291 | Fax: 403.207.7254
[email protected]
www.weatherguardmetals.ca
403.203.9304
Congratulations to Westcor Construction on
10 years of success! It has been great to
work with you through your first 10 years.
Westcor Construction • 10 Years • 6