Man-Shield Construction

Man-Shield Construction has been notching up a healthy 30 percent growth annually for the last five years. Group president Bill Sharpe tells Gay Sutton how the company has built its business by working in close partnership with its clients and suppliersMan-Shield Construction, one of CanadaÔÇÖs fastest-growing construction companies, can trace its roots back to 1972 when Joe Bova and Terry Ferraro founded B&F Masonry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Expansion was always in their sights, and the modern-day Man-Shield Group of Companies has risen from these small beginnings through the judicious acquisition of strategic business partners, an eye for expanding markets, and by earning the loyalty of key customers. In the late 1970s the two men brought in their first partner, Henry Eismendi, to form Gibraltar Concrete Canada, which gave them depth of knowledge in both the masonry and concrete businesses. In 1989 Ted Nocita joined them to form Man-Shield Construction a year later. The final element of the group was created in 1999, a real estate development company called Laureate Developments.For Man-Shield ConstructionÔÇöthe flagship division of the companyÔÇöexpansion was seriously under way in the mid-1990s. Projects were growing by size and type as well as by geographical diversity. By 2000 the company opened its first branch in Thunder Bay, Ontario, following clients it had been working with in Manitoba. With momentum growing, the company opened Alberta offices in Calgary in 2001 and Edmonton in 2003, and since then it has been achieving an impressive 30 percent growth, year on year.Bill Sharpe, president of the Man-Shield Group, attributes much of this success to the companyÔÇÖs ability to build long-term relationships with its customers and provide them with personal and in-depth service. The business model bears very little resemblance to the bid-spec market model where contractors price on a set of documents and bid against each other to deliver the lowest price. Man-Shield is involved in construction projects from the early planning stage and works in partnership with the customer and consulting team in an integrated team approach to project delivery. The Chartier Property Management Group of Manitoba is one such customer. ÔÇ£We do all their work, and thatÔÇÖs probably a result of ensuring weÔÇÖre there to service their projects as though they were our own,ÔÇØ Sharpe explains. ÔÇ£We help them plan and develop the projects as part of the team, then we carry on and complete the construction for them. ItÔÇÖs essentially a team effort.ÔÇØ Man-Shield also does a considerable amount of work in the construction of retirement residences, working closely with the All Seniors Care Group of Toronto. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs a matter of being responsive to their goals, be it the schedule or working with their design team to help bring costs in line with their budgets. Clients know that weÔÇÖre working on their behalf with their interests in mind,ÔÇØ Sharpe says. ÔÇ£By doing that, weÔÇÖre able to negotiate and secure work as opposed to being just another general contractor whoÔÇÖs trying to put together the lowest-priced bid.ÔÇØ Man-Shield has two strengths, according to Sharpe. ÔÇ£One strength is our people. They are extremely dedicated and hard-working individuals who have the interest of our projects at heart; itÔÇÖs part of the culture of our organization. The other strength is that through our masonry and concrete business we have a large and efficient stable of our own trades people, allowing us a higher degree of schedule control and quality of workmanship on a project.ÔÇØ This factor has been particularly important during recent years when trade labor in Western Canada has been in short supply due to the building boom. Another Canadian growth trend is in the construction of environmentally friendly ÔÇ£greenÔÇØ buildings, and Man-Shield is increasingly becoming involved in this. ÔÇ£We have several projects that will be LEED certified.ÔÇØ All are aiming at Silver certification, though they may well achieve Gold, and they range from student housing to a science complex to office buildings. The company has put its staff through the appropriate training. ÔÇ£But,ÔÇØ says Sharpe, ÔÇ£at the lower LEED certification levels, as long as your buildings are well constructed and you use the appropriate insulation, good materials and building systems, itÔÇÖs possible to get certification without expending additional capital. When you get to the Gold or Platinum categories, youÔÇÖll spend some additional money to achieve it. With any LEED project, there are a variety of design alternatives that help designers and builders achieve the certification objective level, and those decisions need to be balanced between the objective and relative cost of the design solutions to achieve those objectives.ÔÇØThe company, like most in the construction industry, works hard to build solid relationships with its local trade contractors and suppliers. ÔÇ£This is absolutely fundamental to our success,ÔÇØ Sharpe says. ÔÇ£At the end of the day, we need to be able to rely on those independent firms in the same way we can rely on our own concrete and masonry crews. Good working relationships with trades and suppliers only help Man-Shield serve our customers better.ÔÇØSuppliers and contractors are also playing their part in keeping a lid on the spiraling raw material costs, by helping to search out alternative materials or suppliers. ÔÇ£Our strategy is to have the kind of relationship with contractors and suppliers that will enable us to review various alternatives and identify the most cost-effective options for the consulting team or client to consider,ÔÇØ Sharpe says. ÔÇ£The Western Canadian market has seen some significant construction price increases in the last few years, and whether weÔÇÖll see a reversal of this trend with the economic downturn remains to be seen, but it appears likely.ÔÇØThe global financial crisis has hit the North American construction industry particularly hard, but Man-Shield is well positioned. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre very fortunate in a couple of respects,ÔÇØ Sharpe explains. ÔÇ£Western Canada is still rolling along quite strongly, and the impact of the downturn hasnÔÇÖt really hit us yet. I think itÔÇÖs starting to. For ourselves, weÔÇÖre fortunate to have quite a volume of fairly large and long-term projects. So the work we have in hand is going to carry us through the next year. ÔÇ£Additionally, weÔÇÖre building working relationships with new clients in the institutional areas of the construction market, which are still projected to be strong while the private sector work may go through a slowdown in 2009. WeÔÇÖre also undertaking more work in Saskatchewan, which is currently undergoing a construction boom, and several of our clients have asked for our help in that market. WeÔÇÖre quite optimistic about the future of Man-Shield.ÔÇØ ┬á