that industry. The utilities world is a spe-
cial market, says Smith. It is partially made
up of very technically-minded individuals;
these are the people Stratus has partnered
with. “We come in with the horsepower
to get the job done and let the technically-
trained people do what they’re good at.
We all work together to help each other be
successful,” Smith said.
Apart from utilities, Stratus’s footprint can
be found in anything that involves power
generation and distribution, from substa-
tion construction to wind farms and ev-
erything in between, including oil and gas,
and food and beverage. In a typical year,
the company takes on 40 percent utilities,
40 percent oil and gas and 20 percent lo-
cal construction and maintenance support.
This diversity helps especially when one
industry suffers; for example, Stratus con-
tinues to grow despite downturns in Alber-
ta’s oil and gas sector.
The downturn, however, has created other
problems. “One of the biggest risks and
“We’vemade an extra effort to understand people and companies and get to know
what drives them and form our services around that.” Dave Smith, president
On-site at Fort Saskatchewan north of Edmonton
SEPTEMBER 2016
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