Edmonton, Alberta's PowerComm Inc. isn't afraid to think out of the box to overcome challenges it encounters in its industry.

Coming up with unique solutions to the challenges it encounters is what has kept PowerComm Inc. successful as a provider of electrical, instrumentation and valve services throughout western Canada.

For instance, President Wayne Rutherford says the company jumped into the valve service industry, starting a maintenance and third-party distribution program by borrowing the idea from an American firm. When calls for its services continued to grow, PowerComm took the novel route of television advertising to recruit employee candidates to its company. And instead of obtaining its ISO certification for only one aspect of its business, PowerComm became certified in all four areas.

PowerComm was founded in 1993 and, through strong management and a commitment to personnel training, the company says it has established itself as one of the leading electrical/instrumentation contractors and valve reconditioning companies in western Canada. The company has headquarters in Edmonton, Alberta, as well as area offices in Grand Prairie, Hardisty, Fort McMurray, Edson, Fort Saskatchewan, Rocky Mountain House, Lloydminster, Provost, Nisku, Olds and a sales office in Calgary. PowerComm employs 290, and Rutherford expects that total to climb to 350 this year.

Rutherford took time to discuss recruiting tactics, service developments and the future of the company in an interview with Exploration + Processing.
Exploration + Processing: What services does PowerComm offer?
Wayne Rutherford: We do electrical, instrumentation and valve services, as well as construction. We have nine offices for electrical maintenances, and we offer valve services in all of those offices, including API, PSV and control valve servicing. We're an aftermarket valve-servicing company, so we work with every type of valve you can imagine. We also do electrical and instrumentation in refineries, oil batteries, gas compressors and steam-assisted, gravity-driven (SAGD) facilities, as well.

E+P: Have there been any product or service developments from PowerComm recently?
WR: In 1999, we started a service called the surplus management program. We got the idea from a company out of West Helena, Ark., where we take customer valves from all over, centrally locate them in our facility in Edmonton, repair and recondition and then send them back to the original facility or sell them to a third party.

In 2002, we added electrical and instrumentation products, and we have more than 40,000 products inventoried. It is a niche product, and it is something nobody else is doing in Canada. A few others have tried it, but we probably have 70 percent of clients on board with us in western Canada, so it was a good innovation for us.

Our valve service side is 30 to 40 percent of our business. In 1998, we bought a valve service company, as we were mainly electrical/instrumentation at that time. Their company was doing $2.7 million per year, and now our valve side is doing $12 million per year. The surplus management program assisted in about half of that growth.

E+P: How are you adapting to industry changes?
WR: The biggest change in the market is how much work there is out there and the supply of manpower. The successful companies attract and maintain good manpower and good tradesmen.

We're recruiting through commercials. Nobody ever advertised on TV for recruiting in our industry. The number of resumes we got was very good, and we've hired over 20 people from 350 tradesmen who applied.

They ran on CTV just in northern Alberta, which was a specific area for a test. We do plan to run them in Saskatchewan in the spring because we started a large uranium mine project there. CTV is a nationwide broadcasting company, so we can run them anywhere in Canada. It is easy to make a change, and the way we set up the commercials will work very well from Alberta up to Winnipeg. There are 40 more hires we'd like to make, so we're still interviewing people. And we expect to run other television campaigns.

E+P: What skills does PowerComm seek when it is time to hire, and what training and development does the company offer?
WR: We're trade based, so they either have to be an electrician, instrument mechanic/technician or valve technician. We pay 100 percent of trades training when they go to school we pay, and we also pay for any safety training for our employees.

E+P: Are there any future developments on the horizon for PowerComm?
WR: We are looking at several acquisitions within the next few months. These companies have about 10 to 30 employees that we'll be hiring from the company to add to our staff. This is strictly to increase the quality of our electrical and instrumentation management team.  E+P