Tracks and Treads - Finning Canada
Tracks and Treads - Finning Canada
Tracks and Treads - Finning Canada
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groundbreaker<br />
A Historic<br />
Sale<br />
A major deal was recently inked between<br />
<strong>Finning</strong> International <strong>and</strong> Suncor Energy<br />
Inc., ensuring that there will be plenty of<br />
yellow iron visible in the rich Alberta oils<strong>and</strong>s.<br />
At the company’s annual general<br />
meeting back in May, <strong>Finning</strong> announced<br />
that it had agreed to a $360-million contract<br />
to supply heavy equipment to Suncor<br />
for work in the oils<strong>and</strong>s.<br />
Suncor will receive 22 Cat 797b mining<br />
trucks, 19 D11T tractors <strong>and</strong> five D8T<br />
bulldozers over the course of this year <strong>and</strong><br />
2009, bringing the company’s fleet of massive<br />
mining trucks to 67 units, 51 of which<br />
will be 797s (the largest mining trucks in<br />
the world) along with 16 model 793 units.<br />
“Growth in mining activity in the oils<strong>and</strong>s<br />
continues to be very strong, <strong>and</strong> <strong>Finning</strong>’s<br />
position as the major supplier of large mobile<br />
mining equipment <strong>and</strong> as the key<br />
service partner to the oils<strong>and</strong>s producers<br />
continues to exp<strong>and</strong>,” Mike Waites, <strong>Finning</strong><br />
International president <strong>and</strong> chief executive<br />
officer said at the time of the announcement.<br />
“There are currently 120 of the 797 haul<br />
trucks operating in the Alberta oils<strong>and</strong>s, <strong>and</strong><br />
in 2008 we are scheduled to deliver more<br />
than 65 additional 797s.”<br />
“You have to be honest<br />
with everybody. We have<br />
a pretty good reputation<br />
in gr<strong>and</strong>e Prairie.”<br />
Building a Reputation<br />
ken Wilson was looking for a new challenge<br />
when the contractor he worked<br />
for in Gr<strong>and</strong>e Prairie closed up shop in<br />
the late 1970s. With one machine, the<br />
Gr<strong>and</strong> Prairie native decided to start<br />
his own company, focusing on roadwork.<br />
“I only planned on running one or two<br />
pieces,” Wilson says. “But the work was<br />
there <strong>and</strong> we grew.”<br />
thirty years later, ken Wilson<br />
contracting Ltd. is one of the most<br />
respected<br />
operations in the area. Wilson’s<br />
company does work on highways <strong>and</strong><br />
roads, oilfields <strong>and</strong> subdivisions in the<br />
Gr<strong>and</strong>e Prairie <strong>and</strong> Gr<strong>and</strong>e cache areas.<br />
It runs about 40 predominantly<br />
cat pieces<br />
now, which is a far cry away from the single<br />
machine Wilson had going in ’78.<br />
the 58-year-old says one of the company’s<br />
biggest jobs in the early days was<br />
building a retaining pond at nearby<br />
IvyLake. But whatever the job, the common<br />
thread for<br />
ken Wilson contracting Ltd.<br />
has always been to do things well <strong>and</strong><br />
be honest.<br />
“You have to be honest with everybody,<br />
telling them if you can or can’t do it or<br />
what it’s going to cost up front,” Wilson says.<br />
“We have a pretty good reputation in<br />
Gr<strong>and</strong>e Prairie.”<br />
www.finning.ca Fall 2008 • tracks & treads
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