HORIZON NORTH CONTINUES GROWTH TRAJECTORY
Calgary firm led by Rod Graham buys manufacturer of portable buildings
Horizon North Logistics has completed the purchase of C&V Portable Accommodations, a custom manufacturing business southeast of the city in Rocky View County.
The $4-million, all-cash purchase price includes an existing 86,000-square-foot manufacturing plant, as well as employees, equipment, working capital and certain tangible assets.
“The purchase of this Albertabased business is an ideal fit for the growth strategy of the company’s Modular Solutions division, with a facility wellequipped to produce a high volume of commercial product, a skilled workforce in place and a strong baseline of existing business,” said Rod Graham, president and CEO of Horizon North.
Publicly listed Horizon North provides a full range of industrial, commercial and residential products and services through its Modular Solutions division, and its Industrial Services division supplies workforce accommodations, camp management services, access solutions, maintenance and utilities.
Graham served as senior vicepresident at ARC Financial for six years but took time off to earn his MBA at the University of Western Ontario — chosen because it offered a four-month study in Japan. He spent much of his time there touring plants to study lean manufacturing processes. He says it was a definite eye-opener that has helped tremendously in the way he runs his company today.
Graham co-founded Northern Plains Capital, a private-equity firm focused on investing in oilfield and energy industrial companies. One of those companies was Horizon North, and in 2007 he became its audit chairman.
Still residing in Calgary, Graham worked for two years as president and CEO of ZCL Composites. He was responsible for turning around the company that today designs, manufactures and supplies underground storage tanks, used in many gas stations in North America and internationally.
Then, for a year Graham retired to spend time with the family he had spent too much time away from, but became fully involved in leading Horizon North four years ago after it suffered somewhat from the oil crash.
Out of chaos come opportunities, and he conducted a changing of the guard that brought in expertise from many individuals from other corporations in areas such as quality control, supplychain management and software.
The result of what he calls “Disruption for Construction” is a firm commitment that modular is the path forward, a “madein-Canada solution for a global problem” — and today Horizon North is blazing trails with both divisions.
Currently, it has a workforce of 1,800 — 15 per cent Indigenous employees thanks to 24 strategic Aboriginal partnerships — with industrial camps in 30 locations across Canada serving 10,000 to 20,000 meals per day from its own kitchens. They are manufactured in plants in Kamloops and Aldergrove, B.C., and the company has other facilities in Edmonton and Grande Prairie.
The purchase of C&V will enable Horizon North to expand its Modular Solutions portfolio in innovative approaches focusing in the areas of multi-family condominiums and apartments, hotels, student and seniors’ housing, and helping to solve the affordable-housing crisis.
Graham reports that modular-construction hotels are being built in Revelstoke and Oliver in B.C., and plans are underway to open an office and manufacturing plant in Ontario to spread across Eastern Canada, aided by new relationships with Irving in New Brunswick and a teaming agreement with EllisDon to explore greenfield manufacturing.
A key new member of Graham’s executive team is Luke Harrison, who has been appointed vicepresident of business development for Modular Solutions.
Harrison joins Horizon North from his position as director and CEO of the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency (VAHA), where he led the organization’s significant progress in delivering affordable-housing options to the people of Vancouver. VAHA has a large portfolio of housing units either completed or in various stages of development, including more than 600 temporary modular units.
NOTES:
One of the highlights of the Christmas season is the annual Theatre Calgary production of A Christmas Carol in the Max Bell Theatre. And once again, Gordon Hoffman, chair of Project Warmth Society of Alberta, is using it as a fundraiser for the organization that provides for the needy, homeless and underprivileged year-round. Sharing the stage on Dec. 1 at Hoffman’s 20th-annual event this year are Alberta Champions Society in Recognition of Enrichment and Operation Kickstart Society.