PAGE OCR 6 – May 2009 – The Ontario Construction Report
DIVERSIFICATION
keeping Reid & Deleye Contractors strong through hard times
MATTHEW DESROSIERS – The OCR Construction Report Special Feature
In an economy where your next job is never a guarantee,
it’s always nice to have a backup plan.
Well, Reid & Deleye Contractors have several.
The company formed in 1978 as an agricultural builder.
By the early 1980s, they had expanded into commercial con-
struction. Currently, the company completes projects in all
Bonnie Place II Seniors Apartment Building, 500 Claridge Rd, Burlington
sectors, including agricultural, commercial, residential, in-
dustrial, institutional and municipal.
“We have our hands in all market segments,” said com-
pany vice president Greg Eyre. “They’re all different, and
they’re all challenging.”
The real benefit to being so diverse, however, is the abil-
ity to adapt to rapid changes in the economy. This has been
one of the keys to the company’s ongoing success.
In the late 1980s, the Ontario government was funding
numerous social housing projects. It became a very valuable
source of work for contractors, as new projects were being
announced nearly on a daily basis. However, with a change
in provincial government came a sudden stop in the funding
of these projects. When Eyre saw that market disappear, he
knew diversification was the only way to stay protected.
“If you were focused on that (social housing) market, you
had a problem,” he said. “We were participating in the social
housing market, but we also were keeping our hand in in-
dustrial, design/build, water treatments and other varieties
of residential. When social housing stopped, we weren’t
happy about it, but it was just a blip for us. We were moving
on to other things.”
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