Brad Fedora
In Canada's western oil patch, there sometimes seem to be as many oil and gas service companies as there are corner stores in Calgary, each of them vying for their share of the business.
When Bradley Fedora, who turned 40 in March, took over the reins of the Canyon Services Group he know his challenge would be to make Canyon stand apart from the crowd.
He appears to have done that. Canyon will report $100-million-plus in revenues this year, more than double the $48.1-million when he assumed the presidency in 2007. Average analysts' estimates also predict the company will turn a $6.3-million profit. In 2007, the company had a loss of $8.8-million.
At the same time he has managed to raise consolidated revenue per job by 25 per cent year over year and revenue per job in the hydraulic division by more than 50 per cent.
But that is what they pay him for, he says. "In 2007 they recruited me from Peters & Co. Ltd., where I was working as an investment banker," he says. "Canyon was looking for someone to lead the company through a financial restructuring and then drive growth.
"We have managed to do that, survived a difficult 18 months are now in an expansion mode."
Canyon already has five offices in four western cities but the next step will be to move into Saskatchewan's oil fields, set up an office there and start doing the things that have won Canyon a loyal following in Alberta and British Columbia.
What Canyon does is move in after a well is drilled and then use its proprietary technology to maximize flow from those wells by fracturing surrounding rock and then pumping in a mix of sand and liquids to force the oil and gas to the surface. Deep, not shallow, wells are the path to the future in Canadian oil fields as are unconventional wells - those drilled directionally and horizontally - he says.
"They require different skills and we recognized that early on and have developed them," he says.
But if Canyon has a single key differentiator, a signature of his own effect on the company, it is service, he says. "We are there when we say we will be there and we do exactly what we said we would do," Mr. Fedora says.
|