< Previous10 To satisfy the varying needs of the countless geograph-ic markets it serves as it always has, NCA will, according to Hardman, “rely on the individual branch managers who have a very good knowledge of their local market and they tailor their product offering to the local demands of that market.” Because of the deep knowledge of the behaviour of the markets it serves nationwide, Hardman and NCA are re-evaluating their operational footprint to better understand where growth potential is strong and where resources are being wasted. To be more profitable and to more efficiently and effectively serve its customers across Canada and even into the United States, Hardman and NCA are making strategic decisions to make the most of target markets nationwide. This is the case with Prince George. The Prince George location was established to support a number of major projects that were taking place in the region that have now come to a close, making it a small market that could still be serviced from the Edmonton and Burnaby locations. A year prior to Hardman’s arrival, NCA closed a location in Regina that was operating much like Prince George: it was a small market that was estab-lished to support some large projects but when those projects came to an end, it was the third player in the market. 11 “We closed Regina and consolidated back into Saskatoon and here’s the surprise: our business is actually doing much better without Regina this year,” because its customers can be sup-ported by its existing footprint without compromising service. By the time of publication, NCA will have opened a new location in Whitby, Ontario to take advantage of the growth in the construction market taking place in the Greater Toronto Area. Already located on the west side of the city because of traffic and gridlock, the new eastern location will better serve the market and optimize the company’s resources. “The whole eastern side, I think, is poised for substantial growth for at least the next five years, so there is no way that we can service that market from the western side of Toronto,” said Hardman. “Customers are not going to make that trek across the city and also our trucks – right now they can do two deliveries a day out of here, but to go to the east side of the city, I lose a truck for a day, so we’re going to station a delivery truck out in the east as well.”Last year, NCA opened a Langley location to augment its Burnaby operations for the same reasons that have driven it to establish a presence on the east side of Toronto: traffic, conges-tion and the impact on productivity this has in busy markets. As Hardman noted of the Langley branch, “I would say that “The whole eastern side [of the GTA] is poised for substantial growth for at least the next five years.”12 EQUIPMENTDIAMOND TOOLSCARBIDE TOOLS Lackmond Products Inc., Canada800-850-2044Congratulations to NCAon their 50th Anniversary.Lackmond Products is proudto be a strategic partner.CMYCMMYCYCMYKNCAfeature_ConstructionInFocus_2018-out.pdf 1 2018-08-17 09:51:49it has been outrageously successful. It’s blown the doors off our expectations and we feel the same about Whitby, so we’re looking at other markets like that,” which could be London or Windsor in Western Ontario or Barrie, which would expand NCA’s reach into Northern Ontario.A company doesn’t look at geographic expansions of this mag-nitude and survive for half a century without being innova-tive, and in the case of NCA, innovation takes place in three ways: products, vendors, and expertise. The ideal outcome for Hardman is to lead NCA to becoming a preferred supplier, a pre-ferred vendor and a preferred employer as well. The company can achieve this by remaining focused on safety and quality in its own operations and ensuring it partners with vendors who share this commitment to quality.“We have a rigid quality control department here for our manu-facturing and obviously when we look at the vendors that we distribute, we’re looking at quality vendors,” said Hardman of the calibre of products it carries. NCA represents over 100 different product lines and Hardman and his team scour the world attending trade shows for innovative product lines, new innovations and emerging vendors that it can bring to Canada to help the national construction market remain competitive 13 CMYCMMYCYCMYKNCAfeature_ConstructionInFocus_2018-out.pdf 1 2018-08-17 09:51:49on a global scale with advancements and best practices as time and technology changes. This is also true on the manufacturing side. “We manufacture a lot of our own mechanical concrete accessories ourselves in-house so we’re constantly looking for opportunities for new products, new innovations to drive growth in our business.” The next move innovation-wise for NCA could be the online frontier. Acknowledging that the construction materials market is not yet an online market, Hardman would like to take it there, introducing a classic B2B (business to business) online approach for the market it serves. “The struggle is, this is a relatively low-value, high-volume material; a bag of cement or a bag of repair material is probably $30 and weighs 25 kilos so it doesn’t lend itself to being cou-riered,” said Hardman. “We have to go down the accepted business model for the future which is the online approach and if we can do that, we can really become more cost-effective.” 14 Regardless of whether or not NCA moves online, none of this would be possible without talented professionals behind the scenes. People make all the difference and as Hardman noted, “it’s a real challenge to find people and it’s also critical to make sure you keep your key people because head hunters are con-stantly calling my people trying to steal them.” Securing talent is a challenge for NCA, as it is for so many companies in the sector these days. Hardman identified the irony that he had to come out of retirement to take this job because the demand for expertise is high in the market. One of Hardman’s strengths that NCA can leverage is his ability to find and develop talent, helping them grow internally, espe-cially into management roles, and he will certainly leverage this expertise to grow the company’s human resources base and its future. With the changes that have taken place at NCA, there has also been a marked culture shift. For Hardman it is important that it is a place where talented individuals want to come and take part in the exciting opportunities there and grow alongside the company to ensure talent isn’t a challenge in the long term. He explained that efforts have been undertaken to make NCA “a place people want to work and where the enthusiasm is infec-tious within and to our customer. We want to support them. We want to help them grow.” He has a policy of promoting from within to ensure talent is not lost. “Hardman and his team scour the world attending trade shows for innovative product lines, new innovations and emerging vendors that it can bring to Canada to help the national construction market remain competitive.” “One of my goals is to make sure that there are opportu-nities as the company grows for people to move up, so I look at bringing people in at lower levels and developing them,” said Hardman. “You don’t want to bring people in and block their advancement. If you provide the right envi-ronment for someone to work, people will flourish; they will enjoy coming to work and you won’t lose them,” and the customer will be satisfied when their needs are met which is the real cause for celebration as the company celebrates its milestone anniversary. Hardman believes NCA is turning a corner and he has good reason for doing so: the business will soon be back to levels of profitability and steady above-market growth for the long term. Everything is in place and the groundwork has been laid for future growth. NCA is returning to its full strength and as it grows it will continue to improve its efficiency and the breadth and depth of its service offerings, be it through innovations, acquisitions or new geographic target markets to better serve the needs of the customer as the biggest and the best source of high-end concrete accessories. As featured inSeptember 2018 P: 1-888-777-9272 | E: sales@nca.caSUPPORTED BY Next >