The local engineering firm, which was established in Collingwood more than three decades ago, now includes offices Bracebridge, Guelph, Orillia, Ottawa and Barrie — which recently opened its new 15,000-square-foot space on Veterans Drive, just south of Mapleview Drive West.
“The company was founded by Charlie Tatham as a small little engineering firm in Collingwood and focusing in that area. And obviously over the last 35 years we've grown it from that small shop to over now, which is just under 200 people,” said Nick Millington, who works as the manager of land development as well as manages the Barrie office.
The company is a consulting and engineering firm, and often serves as a “one-stop-shop” for clients, he said, which can range from private developers for subdivisions, commercial site plans and industrial plans to municipalities.
“We cover all of the civil disciplines,” Millington said. “We do municipal work … road renewals, infrastructure improvements, road reconstruction. We also do structural engineering … so we do bridges and buildings, transportation planning (such as) transportation master plans and traffic impacts studies.
"It doesn't work exactly the same way on the municipal side, but on the private side you kind of need all a lot of those disciplines to execute your development projects," he added.
Being completely employee-owned, he noted, is one of the key things that sets the company apart from others in the industry.
“We've got about 200 staff and about a third of those — so 60 to 65 — are owners of the company and have shares. That promotes everybody being part of the big picture. Everyone wants to drive success and also it helps to drive the culture,” said Millington.
Now that staff are settled into the new south-end space, the company hosted an open house on Thursday. The new building includes a mixture of open-concept workstations, offices, a space for recreation and games. There's even a ping-pong table.
Millington says this helps foster a "fun but professional environment."
As for what the future holds, Millington said the company hopes to continue to grow and expand.
“Our tagline is 'enhancing our communities,' so we really try to focus our work on where we live," he said. "I think we are excited to, specifically in the Barrie office, continue contributing to the growth of Barrie both on the private side and helping out the municipalities with their kind of infrastructure and road projects. There's lots of excitement there."
And with Barrie's population expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, "we hope to be a part of that," Millington said.
