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Weekly UpdatesA Thunder Bay environmental consulting firm is on an aggressive fast track to expand its offerings beyond its northwestern Ontario boundaries.
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True Grit Consulting Ltd. is opening a testing lab in the city this spring and is staffing up a new Sudbury office with company president Eric Zakrewski predicting continued and "aggressive growth" this year in both communities.
"We have a vision over the next few years. We want to position ourselves as the leading environmental services firm in Northern Ontario."
Zakrewski has assembled an experienced 21-employee team of engineers, geoscientists, hydrologists, industrial hygienists and health and safety experts to handle any kind of industrial and commercial site assessments and remediation work.
They're skilled at conducting groundwater and soil investigations, monitoring indoor air quality for mould, bacteria and asbestos levels, and have designed hundreds of waste management facilities.
The company even has its own version of a quick-reaction force with seven people on stand-by to assess land and marine chemical spills as part of its insurance claim work.
Zakrewski said there's more project work out there in mining, forestry and municipal infrastructure work which involves government regulatory approval.
One big client is Marathon PGM which plans to develop an open pit base metal mine on the north shore of Lake Superior. True Grit has been helping with the environmental baseline work for the miner's feasibility study and permitting.
Established in 2006, True Grit quickly grew out of a Tungsten Street office and into a two-story building on Barton Street next to the Confederation College campus.
"We've doubled in size every year for three years in revenue and the number of staff" with billings of more than $4 million posted in 2008, and a more conservative $5 million forecasted for 2009. But they plan to hire 10 to 15 more people in both cities.
Zakrewski previously worked for a national engineering firm with a Thunder Bay office. When they were acquired by an American company, he was offered a job opportunity in Western Canada.
Like any industry, there's consolidation in this business too and large global-minded firms want the big ticket multi-billion dollar projects. It means these companies pull out of smaller regional markets like Thunder Bay.
Reluctant to leave his hometown, Zakrewski started his own firm. Relying on smaller environmental assessment work in a struggling forestry economy was a risky move.
"I thought if we're going to make it in this market, in this economy we're going to need some true grit," hence the framed photo of John Wayne in the corner of his office.
But he saw enough promise and quantity in the smaller projects, like municipal waste water systems and helping junior miners prepare closure plans, to make a go of it.
"We see a lot of opportunity out there at that level: Quite frankly there aren't a lot of $100 million-plus projects in Northern Ontario. That's not what founds our business. It's a lot of $1 million-type projects that really are your bread and butter."
To attract the best engineers, scientists and technologists out there, Zakrewski created an employee-oriented culture to promote some advanced and enlightened thinking.
"Everybody has the ability to participate in the management of the company."
Instead of having a policy-laden, top-down management style, he wanted entrepreneurial-minded employees who thought and acted like owners.
The company buys the best field equipment available and entrust employees to take care of it. "They take it out and treat it like it's their own," said Zakrewski. "We know we're onto something that works."
It's allowed them to recruit Ina Chomyshyn, a certified industrial hygienist who ran Lakehead University's Resource Centre for Occupational Heath and Safety for 25 years. She now the director for the company's Industrial Hygiene Services.
This past March, True Grit opened a Sudbury office managed by Troy Gordon, who knows that market well and intends to staff up to seven employees at their West-mount Avenue office.
Sudbury's mining camp can be boom-bust, but "I like everything I see. I think it has more promise than the northwestern Ontario market," said Zakrewski. "We're looking at it with a long-range sense."
A sagging economy means more quality people are available and he wants to assemble a team "to work on world class projects" when the market eventually turns.
Closer to home, a new materials handling lab nearby on Alloy Drive is scheduled to open in mid-May.
The company has invested heavily in a full line of aggregate and concrete testing instrumentation and equipment to help gravel pit operators and contractors meet provincial highway specs.
The lab is part of a three-year plan to get into highway work and design projects, and eventually proceed into asphalt testing, said Zakrewski.
"From there we'll be aggressively pursuing more work with the province for paving and highway projects."
www.tgcl.ca
By IAN ROSS
Northern Ontario Business
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