Valard powers up for bigger challenges
Edmonton-based Valard, founded when telecom lineman Victor Budzinski bought out his partners in a struggling Grande Prairie firm in 1978, is Canada’s largest power-line contractor.
“The firm is 35 years old and we recently gave out some 35-year certificates,” said president Adam Budzinski, adding employee retention is due to his father’s attitude toward staff.
“Victor values his employees, and they stayed. We were a small company, but now have close to 3,000 employees across Canada and the growth since 2003 has been exceptional,” he said.
Valard was purchased in 2010 by Texas-based Quanta Services, America’s largest power-line construction, maintenance and telecommunications firm, which was founded by four family-owned firms similar to Valard.
“We needed to move to another order of magnitude with our capacity to deliver projects, and Quanta offered us that,” said Budzinski. “When they bought us we had 900 employees, and now we have close to 3,000 — and a lot of that was growth from the big projects we have been able to capture.
“They get us access to additional people and equipment, but the biggest thing is access to capital.”
With projects that are worth more than $1 billion these days, bidders often asked to supply their own cash, so Valard had little choice.
“If you want to be the quarterback of the project, you need that kind of backing,” said Budzinski, who said the alternative is to simply be a contractor, a role which it maintains on many jobs, including the Eastern Alberta Transmission Line (EATL).
But the trend, especially with private firms like oil companies, is for bidders to supply their own financing and own the power lines. And the power-line business is booming as utilities across North America upgrade and improve their reliability by adding new interconnections. Alberta has seen three large projects span almost 1,000 kilometres in the last two years — the Heartland line and the western and eastern transmission lines. Valard is building the eastern line with Atco.
“But that big build out will come to a grinding halt in less than 12 months, and we are extremely focused on the far side of this boom,” said Budzinski.
Valard belongs to one of the five groups vying for the upcoming Fort McMurray transmission project, which will be designed, built and owned by the winning consortium under the new formula being used by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO). Valard also recently won new projects for lines in the oilsands and Labrador.
Budzinski said Valard is “a collection of about 30 internal and external businesses” that come together for the big projects. Valard purchased Phasor Engineering, a leader in substation design; as well as companies that specialize in foundation and pile work, like Sharp’s Construction and Northstar.
“And we are starting development of a line design group and geotechnical engineering, so we can offer the complete services on a project,” he added.
While other construction firms bidding for power-line work must contract for the array of services needed, Valard figures it has a big advantage by having all the skilled people needed already on staff.
“I think we provide fantastic opportunities for staff to grow, to define their own culture. On EATL there is such a positive work environment, and they have built it all themselves. There is a lot of room for innovation, and we find people who want the challenge and adventure,” said Budzinski.
Valard is also a major maintenance contractor with utilities across Canada, with offices and large teams in many cities.
“We will open in St. John’s because of the Labrador work, and we just opened in Quebec, where we were just awarded our first contract.” said Budzinski.
And Europe is a contender, with three staff based there and confidence of a project being awarded this year.
“European utilities are outsourcing work for the first time, and they are concerned about the safety and quality of the contractors they have. We offer our skilled people, and our corporate expertise and values, namely safety and quality,” he said.