The builder on that project was Saywell Contracting, an award-winning construction company based in Nanaimo. According to Robin, they are a company “we’ve known for years,” and he highly values that familiarity. As much as possible, he says they strive to use the same consultant teams from project-to-project. In general, when it comes to contractors, Robin says they have very specific criterions they look for. They have to be the right size – “large enough to have economies of scale, but not a huge corporation” – they have to have the right reputation, and they have to still be controlled by the original founders. That last part is important, because the goal of Groupe Denux is to build longstanding relationships, and that’s only possible if there’s continuity in the people they’re working with. “If you can’t get the ownership on the phone, it becomes extremely problematic because you’re just relying on the site supers and project managers who often can be hired guns,” he explains. “They don’t have a stake in the business and they might not even be there down the line.” “In the past, we’ve worked with some companies that are much larger, and they can be machines. They can work really, really well. But four or five years later, we’ll find that we have no real relationships with anyone there. Every person we actually really liked working with is gone. That can be a bit of a challenge. We really want to develop relationships, but sometimes, with certain companies, the relationships are only as JUNE 2025
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