JERTYNE INTERIOR SERVICES LTD.

The Corporate Wizards
Jertyne Interior Services Ltd.
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Robert Legault, the President and CEO of Jertyne Interior
Services, a Calgary based drywall contracting company founded
twenty years ago, is guided by a few simple business principles.
The most important one being, “Always do what you say you
will do,” he says. “Your clients need to know that they can count
on you.”
This determination to satisfy their customers in the Calgary
new home construction industry has made Jertyne Interiors one
of the largest, successful insulation and drywall contractors in
the Calgary market. In such a highly competitive business this is
a significant achievement. In 1994, Robert transformed his then
small subcontracting business into an independent contracting
firm and has consistently pushed himself to succeed with his
tenacity, craftsmanship and integrity. Robert has always been an
energetic person who puts in the extra time and effort to achieve his
goals. Although everything has not always gone smoothly, Robert
tirelessly continued to seek new opportunities, and efficiencies and
improvements to the company’s products and services
Lorie Legault, Robert’s partner, wife and Jertyne’s Executive
Vice President began working with Robert before the company’s
transition. Lorie’s background in administration helped propel
Jertyne into a successful corporation. With Robert in the field and
Lorie in the office the company began to grow and this dynamic
duo soon began to set the standards in their chosen industry.
“You have to eat, breathe and live your company,” Lorie has
said. “Although we saw little growth for the first three years, we
believed in ourselves and carried on.” The foundation of Jertyne’s
business model has always been to set the industry standards
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for quality and competitive pricing while maintaining core
philosophies, managing effective safety programs and adhering to
their scope of work.
Both Robert and Lorie are content to carry on each day out of
the limelight. Anita Niven, Marketing Consultant – describes them
as “humble” and “not keen on accolades. “They are really hard
workers with a keen sense of responsibility to both their builder
partners and employees. They put their heads down and work as
hard as any employee. Robert and Lorie support each other and
encourage their employees to develop as well.”
Yet the company’s steady and solid performance has not been
ignored. Robert was featured in 1999 in an article in Vavasaur, a
magazine that profiles inspirational businessmen who have
become experts in their field. In the summer of 2011, Business in
Calgary magazine honoured the duo with a top 20 spot as “Leaders
of Tomorrow.” A year later, Lorie – at the behest of an employee
who submitted her name – appeared on the annual W100 list of
Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs, a joint undertaking by PROFIT
and Chatelaine magazines. And more recently, she also has been
highlighted in Distinctive Woman a Toronto-based magazine that
showcases a variety of industry leaders from different enterprises
and walks of life.
Robert and I are very honoured that our employees nominated
us,” she says. “We were surprised to think anyone would think
that much of us because at the end of the day we feel we are just
contributing alongside of our staff.” Lorie and Robert come by their
humility honestly.
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Lorie Carrier was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Her
father, Henry, worked in the steel industry and was involved in the
construction of the iconic Calgary Tower (originally named “The
Husky Tower”) during its construction in 1967-68. In the spring of
1971, Lorie moved with her family to Calgary. She received her
education throughout Calgary and graduated with her high school
diploma from David Thompson Secondary from Invermere B.C. in
January 1981.
Following graduation she was encouraged by the high school
assistant principle to apply for a career opportunity vacancy
within the school board as she had volunteered as a student helper
throughout her senior years which gained her the experience
required for the position that was available in the office. During
the next four years, she received valuable administrative training
and experience working as a Secretary for DTSS from 1981-83 and
eventually expanding her career as Accounts Payable Clerk within
the School District #4 (Windermere) administrative office.
It was with these two early career opportunities that Lorie
gained experience and learned office management skills that she
would use throughout her future careers. Though Lorie’s goal was
to attain her MBA / CGA designations as her formal education,
meeting her husband, Robert, during the summer of 1985 changed
her career path. Lorie likes to say with a smile that she has her
“HSD” – High School Diploma. She is very confident and proud of
her accomplishments.
In July of 1985, while visiting from BC, and out for an evening
of entertainment with her family, Lorie met Robert.
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Robert was born in Hawkesbury, Ontario and moved with his
family to Calgary in 1977. Robert’s father, Jacques, was a carpenter
and worked in the construction industry.
It was through his
father’s encouragement that Robert would apply for his plumbing
apprenticeship, in 1981, while working and training with his
brother-in-law as a drywall hand taper. Throughout 1981-85 Robert
worked two full time jobs, one as a plumbing apprentice during the
day and the other as a weekend and evening fill-in as a drywall
hand taper apprentice with his brother-in-law. When Robert was
not taping drywall on weekends, he was busy filling the weekend
voids booking his dual band with entertainment. Robert was in
his fourth and final year plumbing apprentice when the recession
of 1985 hit. He was the last apprentice to be laid off with only twohundred hours left to complete his journeyman ticket.
In the fall of 1985 Lorie moved from BC to Calgary. While the
plumbing career slipped away from Robert’s dream, he fell back on
the drywall skill he had acquired. During the next few years with
ambitious and entrepreneurial determination, Robert and Lorie
worked as a team to create their first company, Unique Services.
Robert sub-contracted to drywall companies as a Drywall Taper
and started building his reputation as one of the most skilled hand
tapers in the industry. The quality workmanship delivered along
with his commitment for delivery times, ensured the construction
hires was in high demand for re-hiring Robert’s skill. The first
company experiences from 1985 – 1994 taught Robert and Lorie
a lot of survival and management skills from expansion to
recession needs.
Unique Services was renamed in July, 1994. The name was
uniquely created as a symbol of the children’s names, Jeramie and
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Krystyna who were a part of this young couple’s life, as the first
company’s name was duplicated with another business, causing
confusion within industry.
The company was re-named and
became known as Jertyne Interior Services.
As Alma Taylor, a veteran Calgary purchasing manager and
housing contracting negotiator recalls, “Robert worked very
hard, seven-days a week and had a well deserved reputation for
quality work.”
Even though the recession was still lingering, they got their
first break with Janssen Homes in 1996. Robert had previously
been hired as a subcontracted taper by Janssen but Lorie pursued
Conrad Janssen to give Jertyne Interiors a try. “I kept phoning him
and saying, ‘Conrad, just one or two houses, try us out’ And he
finally said, ‘Okay, I’ll give you a try.’ Janssen was the one that gave
us our first house in Calgary and actually hired us on a full contract
for insulation and drywall.”
It has been a positive business relationship ever since. “We
feel that we can rely on Jertyne to complete projects on time and
correctly, since our ability to deliver to our clients in a timely
manner is of utmost importance to us. This is a key reason why we
deal with Jertyne,” says Conrad Janssen. “If there is ever an issue,
during the stages of a home build, Jertyne has always gone the
distance to solve them to our satisfaction. They strive to maintain
positive relationships with the people they work for as well as the
people who work for them.”
A year after the Janssen contract, they had six home builder
customers, eighteen employees, nine trucks and had relocated from
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the home office to a bay in north east Calgary. By September 2001,
Jertyne had doubled its home builder customers and grown to a
staff of thirty-five employees. The majority of Jertyne’s work has
been and continues to be within the city of Calgary and surrounding
areas including Airdrie, Cochrane, and Okotoks.
Writing their own scope of work began when the building
contractors asked them what services they would provide if their
company was hired. Never being inclined to sit back and have their
potential clients select a larger company, they sought advice from
a close business associate and were soon on their way to creating a
significant business tool and marketing document that is still used
today, and has also been widely copied throughout the industry.
Their “scope of work,” describes the company’s inclusive day-
to-day management of the on-site operations, the detailed services
provided and a set of specifications required to complete the work.
Insulation and drywall are one of the largest scopes of work in the
completion of building a residential home.
Robert’s comprehensive knowledge of the business also
translated directly into quality customer service and has resulted
in the creation of “The Jertyne Advantage,” which is a set of sixteen
checkpoints guaranteeing their scope of work is completed to a
high standard. This credo has earned them an A+ rating with the
Better Business Bureau.
Jertyne now has about fifty employees and utilizes the services
of just as many sub-contractors. Since 2007, the company has
been based in its own office and warehouse in the Springbank
Commercial Park, about twenty-five kilometers west of Calgary’s
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downtown and just off the Trans-Canada Highway.
Besides Janssen, Jertyne’s clients include many of the major
home builders in the Calgary area: Kingsmith Homes, Brookfield
Homes, Calbridge Homes, Sabal Homes, Augusta Fine Homes,
Nuvista Home, Albi Homes and Baywest Homes. Executives of
each of these firms have high praise for Jertyne and its proven
track record to get the work done and on schedule. Many of them
also have been working with the firm and Robert exclusively, for
upwards of twenty years.
“I got to know Robert about twenty-three years ago,” says Larry
Thomson, the President of Calbridge Homes. “He was a taper and
I was a sales person for another company and we’d talk late into
the night as he completed his work. And one thing led to another
and we have been friends ever since. When he and Lorie started
Jertyne, I was running Albi Homes and we hired him. Robert is
one of the most honest people I know. Since then we have done
business with him and he continues to be an integral part of the
success of our company. That’s a true partnership.” Thomson adds
that while Calbridge deals with a few other insulation and drywall
companies on smaller projects, the bulk of its work on hundreds of
homes, both large and small, each year is done by Jertyne. “It has
been a really good experience,” he says.
That sentiment is echoed by both Kurt Gibson, General Manager
of Brookfield Homes and Richard Grainger, the Construction
Manager for Augusta Fine Homes and Nuvista Homes. Gibson has
known Robert for about a decade. Jertyne has been responsible for
the interior finish work on such Brookfield single housing projects
as those in Auburn Bay and Cranston in southeast Calgary. “Robert
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is a passionate individual,” says Gibson. “He is committed to his
work and is constantly trying to find better ways. He asks a lot of
questions and doesn’t sit back and wait. If there is a problem, he
will resolve it quickly.”
Adds Grainger, who has also been working with Robert for
twenty years: “Robert is a top quality guy and runs Jertyne the
same way. I have not found another company that can compete
with Jertyne. I have tried other companies, but I have never found
anyone who can come up to their quality of work.”
Another important reason for Jertyne’s success has been the
company’s attention to detail and its role as an industry leader. “The
industry did not offer to do poly protecting, concrete protecting
or power vacuuming. The competitors didn’t deliver what we
thought was a finished quality product for the next trade coming
behind them” says Lorie. “We cleaned it up and that is one of the
reasons we developed our reputation based on this. By adding
those finishing touches, it meant something to the builders that our
competitors were not delivering”.
When deficiencies of any type are discovered, the company
assures its clients, they communicate with the appropriate
management in the field to have the issues resolved prior to Jertyne
moving forward with their scope of work. Jertyne is committed to
deliver on their promises and to deliver better installations with no
cover ups.
Calgary home building contractors know and trust Jertyne’s
work. “There really is a fine line between doing excellent work
and rushing for the builder’s sake and compromising quality,” says
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Alma Taylor. “That’s one of the reasons why you hire someone like
Robert and Jertyne, because he and his staff, many of whom are
long-term, can provide that quality assurance.”
Looking at Jertyne from the outside, HR consultant Lisa
Holden-Rovers concurs that this has been a major characteristic
of the company’s culture. “One thing that has always stood out
was that Robert and Lorie really are leaders in their industry and
always wanted to be,” she says. “That’s been consistent. And they
are always looking for ways to maintain and improve it. They want
to be the ones who set the standards for the industry and they
continue to source new ideas, products and innovations. Living
that and consistently raising the bar in their industry is what they
have focused on.”
In 2008, Jertyne introduced a full paint division to Jertyne’s
scope of work, offering priming services as a new service for
clients who only wanted to incorporate partial paint services. The
full paint division has been scaled back to prime only due to the
recent recession. Jertyne has recently added Spray Foam Insulation
to their scope of work due to the request of client needs. “Greater
efficiencies is the way the housing market is going, and we will
see that there will be larger percentages of all homes completely
sprayed in foam,” Says Robert. Spray foam can mean a decrease
in monthly heating and air conditioning costs by approximately
forty percent.
As the business grew, Robert as CEO, spends his time on
Business Development and Sales & Marketing, attracting good
quality contracts, while promoting quality workmanship. During
the past few years Jertyne has hired a few additional positions,
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Human Resources, IT, Estimating Manager, CFO, COO
and
OH&S Officer to the team, to allow Robert to take on more CEO
responsibilities, while allowing Lorie to expand her skills as a
visionary leader. The company is now well positioned to manage
new opportunities. “Calgary’s new housing market has increased
significantly this past year and will continue to excel for the next
couple of years, “ Robert predicts, “and we are prepared for the
increased demands.”
Beyond the office, Robert and Lorie actively support a number
of causes and charities. They are also a staunch supporter of the
Canadian Home Builders Association – Calgary Region, and have
become a corporate sponsor. They have donated supplies and
materials to Habitat for Humanity, STARS Home Lottery and the
Foothills Hospital Home Lottery.
Robert and Lorie are very passionate about the health and
safety of their staff on and off site and want all their staff and trades
to go home safe every day. “Robert and I have tried not to be all
about ourselves. We’ve always put our people first, our staff and
our clients,” she says.” Without our clients being number one,
we wouldn’t be able to attract key employees and without our
employees the clients couldn’t get the work done, so to us, they go
hand in hand.”
Neither, Robert or Lorie has any plans to slow down. “As for the
future, I think you have to grow,” Lorie says. “As our clients’ needs
change, we have to re-prioritize and expand to accommodate them.
Robert and I will continue to expand the company, but we’re opting
for controlled growth rather than grabbing at whatever comes
our way.”
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Robert is even more succinct. Asked to comment on the business
acumen that has driven Jertyne forward, he summarized it concisely
as follows: “Our management style is having the greatest ability to
empower our people to be the best they can be in everything they
do every day. Motivation is the change of the day-to-day operations
as new challenges forever present themselves.” He adds “We see
ourselves continually attracting solid partnerships and retaining
our long term, loyal clients. We’re set up to have a fantastic new
year and have just recently added two new builders to our roster,
Cardel Homes and Wolf Custom Homes.”
2014 it will mark twenty years since Jertyne has opened its
doors and it’s a success story that’s still writing itself as Robert and
Lorie direct the “Jertyne team” to set new goals and objectives as
they move forward.
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