CEO Report
Hugh Dobbie,  RSD, AScT., MBA.

We are now two-thirds of the way through the year, and the challenges continue. We are still bidding many jobs and are still fighting to remain competitive. Unfortunately many projects appear to be at the budgetary phase and are not proceeding to the detailing and fabrication stage.

One positive outcome of the recession is that stimulus funds are being utilized to build additional infrastructure in the United States. However these are being pursued by many hungry contractors, who are driving prices down by 20 to 30% of budgets.

The Golden Ears Bridge that opened on June 16th between Langley and Maple Ridge has made the journey between the two offices much shorter than the old freeway and Albion Ferry routes. With the shortened journey, we have decided to close the Maple Ridge office and amalgamate the staff into the Surrey office. Malcolm Muir, the manager of the Maple Ridge office, will be the new manager of the amalgamated office.

We have acquired more space in the Langley-Surrey office to accommodate the extra staff. The larger combined staff should make it easier for us to handle larger projects.

Tekla Structures can now be used to detail reinforced concrete. In 1983, Dowco formed a company called Advenco (ADVanced ENgineering COncepts) to detail the concrete guideway beams for Vancouver’s Advanced Light Rapid Transit (ALRT) System. Unfortunately there was not a continuous flow of work in guideway beams and the steel market picked up, so when the project finished, we closed Advenco. Today we are in the process of rebuilding a team to detail reinforced concrete using Tekla Structures. This will be a permanent group. We plan to add detailing reinforced concrete to the services we offer to contractors and engineers. We are preparing now for the turn-around and, with the additional training of some staff members, we aim to stay ahead of the competition. Our staff is to be commended for rising to the challenges of this difficult recession, and for successfully delivering the jobs we have on schedule.

We are one of a very few detailing companies registered to ISO 9000 and who carry Liability & Errors & Omissions insurance. These initiatives set us apart from our competition.