BOOMING BLACKLINE SAFETY HEADING TO LARGER QUARTERS
When Cody Slater joined the fledgling Blackline Safety company as CEO six years ago, it had sales of around $3 million. Over the past year, the globally connected safety technology enjoyed sales of $16 million, and the firm is now moving its Calgary headquarters to accommodate its growing number of talented Calgary designers and engineers.
Slater has a vision for Blackline to become the world’s leading supplier of wirelessly connected gas detection and lone worker monitoring products. And it is well on its way, by meeting demanding safety challenges of organizations in more than 100 countries.
Since its launch, the company has worked out of character space in Ramsay where its products are manufactured in-house.
The space was continually rearranged but the time has come to move into larger premises and, with the help of the Colliers International team of Justin and Peter Mayerchak, it is preparing to move into the 24,000-square-foot former Dominion Bridge building on 24th Avenue S.E.
The new location will allow for more comfortable areas for Blackline’s pods of R&D, software, testing, quality control, manufacture, assembly and shipping. And lots of parking for its 120 Calgary employees.
An important room that is going to need careful managing during the move is where customer care takes place 24/7 over 365 days. It’s an impressive safety operations centre where, during my visit, an experienced safety technology team was monitoring 14,528 people across North America and Australia.
They are able to respond within 60 seconds to any atmospheric hazard or person working alone indoors within complex facilities and the most remote reaches.
Blackline’s connected safety monitoring technology detects gas leaks, health problems, safety incidents or security breaches when every second counts, so its Calgary responders are trained to give advice, alert management or call for emergency response.
Slater says Blackline is like a concierge that truly connects companies with their staff in the field. The lone worker technology also stores and processes compliance data for record keeping and reporting.
A new program for Blackline is its G7 Insight connected gas detection offering that equips businesses in the energy, utility and telecom sectors with a new global standard for gas detection.
Any leak is instantly responded to by the Calgary centre, which knows the exact location, initiates emergency response, alerts other team members in the affected area and dispatches them to assist fellow workers.
Slater reports that in collaboration with its distributor, Brogan Safety Supply, it recently received a 36-month lease order from a Canadian energy producer valued at $1.9 million. Blackline will deliver its G7 connected gas detector and lone worker monitor, plus its G7 Bridge portable satellite base station.
The company has also signed a supply and revenue-sharing agreement with ION Science, the global leader in designing and manufacturing volatile organic compound ( VOC) sensors. VOCs are gases given off by a variety of liquids and solids that can affect the respiratory system, skin and eyes, and can cause fatigue, memory loss and affect the nervous system.
Photoionization detectors have historically been too expensive for large workforce deployments, but are now part of Blackline’s detection portfolio with a plug-and-play cartridge interface with its G7 device offered at affordable monthly payments and zero startup fees.
It’s an exciting time for Blackline, as not only is it looking forward to a new office, continuing to grow its Calgary staff and expanding its U.S. operation, but will soon open a European office in support of its 10 employees based in Colchester, U.K.
Blackline has become a leader not only in Calgary’s growing high technology sector but is recognized globally. And its success is reflected in its revenue; Slater has reported its best quarter ever with a Q3 total revenue of $4.7 million, up 109 per cent over the same period last year.
NOTES
Investment continues in Calgary’s industrial real estate sector, as Jason Cottle and Tosh Findlay of RBC Capital Markets have completed the sale of a CanFirst Industrial Realty Fund portfolio of three buildings — one in Greenview Park N. E. and two in Foothills Industrial S.E. — amounting to 176,000 square feet to Anthem Properties Group for a total price of $21.35 million.