Burnaby manufacturer Weatherhaven aims to use its successful bid on a $130 million federal government contract to promote international sales.
Weatherhaven teamed up with Ontario’s DEW Engineering to win a contract in August to provide mobile shelters for the Canadian military.
The two companies are splitting the contract so that Weatherhaven gets $60 million worth of work whereas DEW will get the remaining $70 million.
“There were bidders from the U.K., Europe and the U.S.,” Weatherhaven CEO Ray Castelli told Business in Vancouver. “We were going to partner with a U.S. company, and DEW was looking to partner with a European one because the project was too big for either one of us to do on our own. We sat down with DEW and said, ‘Why are we each playing second fiddle to a big international company? Let’s join forces.”
The partnership was successful not only for the two Canadian bidders but also for 47 smaller B.C. companies to which Weatherhaven plans to subcontract work (see sidebar).
Weatherhaven plans to add 20 B.C. employees to its current 100 staff in the province. Worldwide, Weatherhaven employs 160 people and has tripled its staff in the past five years. “We’ve gone from being a company that had $20 million in sales five years ago to one that had $60 million in sales last year.”
Castelli said Weatherhaven’s one-third ownership stake in several subsidiaries added another $20 million to its sales.
The company is now aiming to win a second $20 million federal government contract related to mobile shelters that’s expected to be awarded by year’s end.
In the early 1990s, Weatherhaven developed the design for shipping containers that have expandable walls that can pop out on each side, using fabric extenders.
It won the global patent for the design and has since sold 200 of the containers to the Canadian government and a total of about 2,000 containers to 20 military customers around the world, including to governments in the U.S., U.K., Brazil and Japan.
“Our goal,” said Castelli, “is to be a $100 million company within four years.” •
