ENTREPRENEUR
Roynat Capital presents a series of business profiles celebrating the success of Canadian companies When he looks back on it, 1989 was probably one of the worst years in recent memory to start a business — especially a business that drew its life’s blood
That year, they opened the doors of Unicon Concrete Specialties Ltd. in a 2,000- square- foot outlet in Edmonton. Unicon specializes in concrete construction products: Items such as floor hardener, curing compounds and special concrete treatments; anything a builder needs to improve the quality, finish and strength of poured or block walls and floors.
The immediate problem, however, was keeping the doors open. In late 1989, the stock market began a roller coaster slide downhill, interest rates soared into the double digits and construction projects dried up. Dean Desroches allows business was slow.
“ Some months, it kept us hopping just keeping the doors open,” he says. “ There was always something to be sold somewhere in the province.” The Desroches focused on a couple of core values, ignored the naysayers and just kept plugging away.
“ We were fixed on two things,” Mr. Desroches says. “ We carried quality products and we delivered the best customer service in town. That combination gave us a core of very loyal customers, most of whom are still with us today. We just tightened our belts and didn’t take any shortcuts with service.”
That service included free delivery within 24 hours if the project was within city limits, and the Desroches’ help with solutions to tricky problems. Two things the pair had going for them were father Ernie’s experience running similar ventures and son Dean’s hands-on years working for the same companies that now supplied many of the products they sold.
In 1991, Dean was joined by his brother Brett. They started to expand the business, moving in 1992 to a 4,000-sq- ft facility. Just four years later, the Edmonton operation again doubled in size.
“ The goal right from the beginning was to be the best in the city to deal with,” Dean Desroches says. “ We have faced companies that tried to compete on price. Trouble is, they promised the moon and didn’t deliver.”
Now, 16 years later, Unicon has not only survived but prospered. Ernie semi-retired in 1996. Today, Dean and Brett preside over three Unicon locations in Edmonton, Calgary and Kelowna, B.C. The Calgary branch opened in 1995, just as construction was beginning to pick up in Alberta.
Since then a flood of new condominiums and office projects and a boom in singlefamily and row housing in Calgary has propelled business forward at a brisk pace.
The Kelowna branch was launched three years ago. The Desroches saw an opportunity in British Columbia with a newly elected, more business- friendly government. They quickly ruled out Vancouver.
“Geographic servicing from a single location in Vancouver could have killed us,” says Mr. Desroches. “Kelowna, however, is a nice niche market for us. There is nothing else there that carries the range and quality of our lines, nor of the service we provide.”
Kelowna, too, is prospering, he says. The home base of Edmonton fares equally well. The oil sands boom has helped, as has a rush to build warehouses, commercial and residential projects to support the oil industry. Unicon recently opened a 10,000-square-foot showroom in a renovated warehouse. Here, Unicon has taken a page from glossy showrooms more akin to lighting fixtures and ceramic tile makers than to the much more humble concrete products industry.
“ The customers love it,” Mr. Desroches says. “ What it says to them is that we recognize what they do is a profession these days. That it is about use of technology and skills. It is a true profession and deserves to be treated as such by suppliers like us.”
Granted, it may be a profession, but it is a profession slow to adapt to the latest in communications technology. While Unicon is considering creating an online order and tracking site, Mr. Desroches says most of his customers still like to deal “belt buckle to belt buckle.” But that intimate personal contact is what made Unicon a success, he says.
The downside is expansion. The cost of establishing new outlets in new markets is prohibitive for a company the size of Unicon, he says. Instead, their plan is to fuel expansion through acquisition.
Even there, finding appropriate companies to acquire presents considerable challenges. They have to fit the Unicon profile, he says — outlets in the concrete construction supplies business that have a strong hold in a local niche market.
“ We want markets where we can dominate through our combination of service and quality,” he says. “ I can tell you they are hard to find.”
Hard but not impossible, he adds.
Mr. Desroches, at 41, has decades ahead of him and a proven formula for success. “ Besides,” he adds, “ After those early days, everything else is smooth sailing.”
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as of October 3.