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'A significant investment' in Ontario manufacturing
Hamilton, Ont.-based Bermingham Foundation Solutions Ltd. has secured "a significant investment" from the world's largest construction company, chairman and fourth-generation owner Patrick Bermingham has announced.
Its new strategic partner, Soletanche Freyssinet, is part of the VINCI group, a Paris-based, publicly traded company that employs 180,000 people in about 100 countries.
Bermingham, founded in 1897, is Canada’s oldest foundation and marine specialty contractor, with a focus on the transportation, energy and mining markets. It also manufactures specialty foundation equipment and provides engineering services under the trade name Berminghammer. It currently exports equipment and services to more than 40 countries. Bermingham’s senior management will continue to run the business and remain shareholders.
How did a company with about 150 employees attract such a large foreign investor? Five years ago, Bermingham brought in a private equity investor that allowed the company to recapitalize its balance sheet and build out its strategy. Bermingham subsequently repurchased 100 per cent of the business, returning the company to the family and employee ownership. Toronto-based investment banking firm Loewen & Partners, which advised the company in the private equity transaction and the VINCI one, says strong processes and reporting structure subsequently made it easy for a large firm to do its due diligence.
Backed by Soletanche Freyssinet, Bermingham now has a mandate to grow. It intends to expand its overseas operations with increased equipment sales and rentals, and enter into joint-ventures on large scale projects at home and around the world.
Bermingham's long history of innovation over multiple generations of family ownership, and the fact it has achieved continued success in manufacturing - an industry long considered on the wane in Ontario - makes this announcement significant on a number of fronts.
The integration of Radian6
Salesforce.com has unveiled what its partnership with New Brunswick-based social-media-management company Radian6 will look like, FastCompany reports. Cloud-based enterprise Salesforce.com acquired Radian6 for $326 million (U.S.) in May. The product allows businesses to keep tabs on their customers, to monitor positive and negative online dialogues about their brands, and to respond in kind. "If you're a large brand," a Salesforce.com rep told the magazine, "that can be tough to scale - tens of thousands of conversations happening every day - a problem lots of brands are having a hard time keeping up with."
Chocolate company wins natural-foods award
Giddy Yoyo, an organic artisan chocolate company based in Orangeville, Ont., won the 2011 People's Choice Award from the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), the country's largest national trade association devoted to the natural foods industry. The company was selected from a pool of 550 exhibitors at the CHFA's Expo East in Toronto. Giddy Yoyo's raw dark chocolate bars are made from non-roasted organic cacao imported from Ecuador. The company, run by Mark Handy and Bridgitte Longshore, now has products in more than 125 health and specialty food stores, web-based retail stores, yoga studios and select restaurants and cafes across Canada.
EVENTS AND KEY DATES
Calling all Canadian student entrepreneurs
The 2012 Student Entrepreneur National Competition, operated by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), is currently accepting nominations for full-time university or college students who also operate a business. Anyone can nominate a deserving student entrepreneur until 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 2. The competition "celebrates the commitment, determination and achievements of student entrepreneurs." Young business leaders get a chance to showcase their businesses on a regional and national stage to top executives, and they also get an opportunity to receive training, to network with like-minded students and to leverage valuable guidance from mentors.
Calling current and former American postdocs
