Campbell Construction

Source: Exec Digital Canada

Date :8/4/2007 4:19:34 PM

As a family-owned construction and general contracting firm, Campbell Construction Ltd is riding the real estate booms and busts with an emphasis on quality, relationships, and skill-building

Written and produced by James Buchanan & Michael Townsend

With its decades-long focus on building quality edifices and relationships with customers, Campbell Construction Ltd. has managed to thrive in the sometimes boom, sometimes bust, world of general contracting and construction.

The 43-year-old company, located in the now bustling Victoria Island region of British Columbia, continues to build on the family values of its three co-founders: William Campbell, Ken Farey and Archie Campbell — journeyman carpenters who worked their way from the ground up.

The founders’ hands-on knowledge of fine woodwork became the foundation for Campbell Construction’s growth, says Wayne Farey, general manager and operations manager, and son of current company president Ken Farey.

Campbell Construction credits its ability to move rapidly between the construction needs of residential, commercial and government building — as well as its ongoing investment in creating a skilled workforce — for its long-term survival in the competitive construction market, says Wayne Farey. And since the majority of contracts come from existing customers or via word-of-mouth, the business has not needed to expend many resources on advertising its skills and availability, he adds.

Multiple Choices

Campbell Construction — which changed its name in 1976 from W. Campbell Ltd., — fulfills the building and general contracting service needs of a diverse range of clients, including its current $32.5 million (Canadian) contract with the University of Victoria, as well as the recent ground-breaking on its fifth condominium construction deal with Concert Properties.

“Right now, we’re looking good through 2009,” Farey says. “We have enough business on the books to get us through the next two years.”

Today, approximately 75 percent of Campbell Construction’s customers are multi-residential, with the remainder coming from government, education, and commercial sectors, he says. This could change in the next couple of years, says Farey, noting the construction market’s ongoing ebb and flow.

“We’ve done a lot of residential and multi-residential building over the past few years. Before that, it was mainly commercial and institutional,” says Farey. “It just depends on the market and what’s around.”

Being able to flip between the two worlds — one year, primarily building condominiums and co-ops for private developers; and then switching to erecting government or educational facilities — enables Campbell Construction to grow its business, no matter which type of market prevails, Farey says. By focusing on one market or the other, some of the firm’s competitors miss out on the opportunity to expand their reach during a residential or commercial construction down-turn, he explains.

Team Work

This ability to offer construction services to multiple clients also cements Campbell Construction’s relationship with its sub-contractors and employees, since they are more likely to be working than not, he says.

To ensure the company continues to meet is focus on quality work, Campbell Construction returned to its family-oriented legacy of growing from within, and has a very active apprentice program to develop skilled carpenters. The program began from necessity about six years ago. Over the past 10 to 15 years the high-tech industry lured potential carpenters into other careers, says Farey.

Campbell Construction has approximately 55 apprentices today. Eventually, these individuals become journeymen and then carpenters, he says.

“We’ve brought on a lot of young people,” says Farey. “We’ve been proactively grooming apprentices in volume for the past six years or so to make sure we have a supply of skilled carpenters on staff. Our biggest challenge has always been finding people to do the work. This program really helps us develop qualified carpenters.”

Between 1991 and 2002, it was extremely difficult to attract younger people to the construction trade, due to the lure of information technology, he says.

“Now it’s done a full reversal and we are finding easier to recruit people to the construction business,” Farey adds.

Adapting to Change

Although most carpentry tools have changed very little over the past few decades, clients’ needs have become more stringent.

Local buildings now must meet an array of earthquake-resistant code improvements, says Farey.

“We’re in a seismic zone,” he says. “Building codes have changed quite a bit; not only seismically, but we now face building envelope requirements.”

Also, many customers today are steering away from the region’s traditional wood frame buildings, preferring the improved security, fire-resistance and longevity of concrete-framed facilities. The cost and difficulty of finding increasingly rare wood-sidings has also changed the appearance of newer buildings, Farey notes.

“It doesn’t really make a big difference to us what we build buildings out of,” he says. “But we do prefer to build concrete buildings. It’s sturdier. In fact, a lot of the changes we’ve seen are in materials and the cost of construction. The actual work performance on-site hasn’t really seen any huge advances in the last 20 years or so.

There have been no massive leaps or bounds. Some of the tools have become more efficient, but a hammer is a hammer.”

Customer Satisfaction

Of course, the right tools and the right crew are meaningless without business.

Campbell Construction has built a reputation for quality work, delivered on deadline, says Farey. This has, in turn, enabled the company to play a consultative role in many contracts. Rather than winning most of its contracts through a bidding process, a large percentage of its customers come directly to Campbell Construction for the services they can provide.

With the company’s expertise, says Farey, the company brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and is not only involved in the construction, but also provides advice on constructability and cost savings throughout the process.

“A lot of work we do is with repeat customers, developers we’ve done work with for years and years,” Farey says. “Quite frankly, we used to tender most of our work, but in today’s market clients are looking for the right contractor.”

The firm’s consultative approach allows it to determine the viability of a customer’s job.

“Usually, now people give us to achieve a workable budget. We look at the building plans and determine quite quickly whether it will work or not,” he says. “We build a relationship with customers. They know they’re getting quality work at a fair price that meets their deadline. We have expertise throughout the whole building system so we can deal with scheduling and construction.”

Although many of its jobs involve building new apartment complexes or office buildings, literally, from the ground up, Campbell Construction is also small and adaptable enough to take on smaller or more intricate contracts.

“We have a custom millwork shop, which works very well for both our small and large projects,” he says. “The more aspects of the work we control, the better control we have of the schedule. But we are careful about the number and type of project we take on so we don’t get over-extended.”

Whether it is modernizing an historic structure or building a gleaming new high-rise condominium, Campbell Construction is banking on its craftsmanship, attention to quality and ability to adapt to changing needs and a changing market continue to create a sound foundation for growth.