Unlike most private Quebec engineering firms that have been sold over the past 15 years to foreign groups in the wake of industry difficulties and a consolidation movement, Cima+ has managed to stand the test of time and the trials. Its outgoing CEO, François Plourde, tells us how he got Cima+ back on track.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
Like many Quebec consulting engineering firms, Cima+ was shaken by the revelations of the Charbonneau commission when its municipal infrastructure division was tarnished, like those of several of its competitors, for embezzlement committed during the years 2000 to 2009 .
François Plourde, who joined Cima+ in 1989 as a structural engineer, was named a partner the following year and quickly became responsible for the Transport division of the Laval-based firm. He was appointed CEO in 2014 following the departure of founder Kazimir Olechnowicz.
“We had to reorganize the company, which had grown strongly from 2003 to 2012, to reach a peak of 2,100 employees. There, we had just been affected by the Charbonneau commission, by the austerity budgets of the provinces and by the collapse of the mining sector, ”says the CEO.
In 2014, Cima+ carried out 600 layoffs while its municipal infrastructure division only counted on a few contracts obtained from its offices in Ontario and its mining division, which had completed phase 1 of the Bloom Lake iron mine , has just lost this important contract due to the closure of the site by Cliff Natural Resources.
Upon his appointment in 2014, François Plourde started several parallel projects. He first tackles the establishment of solid governance at Cima+ by bringing together an independent board of directors to replace an executive committee that was not very effective.
We rehabilitated ourselves with the authorities by making a voluntary reimbursement to the municipalities that had been overcharged. We made a proposal to the Autorité des marchés financiers, which audited all our activities for three years.
Francois Plourde
At the same time, to optimize the organization’s potential, the new CEO undertook to reorganize the status of Cima+, which until then had operated as a general partnership.
“The founders had chosen this model for tax reasons, but it was difficult to make acquisitions through share exchanges.
“Except that organic growth has limits and becomes costly when you want to establish yourself in new markets. We finally got incorporated, which allowed us to make acquisitions in the rest of Canada,” says François Plourde.
Solid foundations for the future
Unlike other engineering companies, Cima+ chose to remain a pure engineering firm and did not engage in the construction or partnership of assets, François Plourde being convinced that the company could move on to through the crisis.
“We had experienced a similar crisis at the end of the 1990s and we were able to get through it. We have refocused our activities in transportation, construction, energy and resources, and infrastructure.
“We have made acquisitions in Ontario and Western Canada, mainly in British Columbia, and today we have 32 offices in Canada, including twenty in Quebec, where we are present in each central city of all the regions”, specifies François Plourde.
Cima+, which had only 1,500 employees in 2014, now has 2,650, including 1,900 in Quebec alone.
How did Cima+ manage to get through when its Quebec competitors of equivalent size have almost all been absorbed?
Indeed, Tecsult was bought by the American Aecom, BPR also passed into the hands of an American company, Tetra Tech, Dessau was absorbed by the Canadian Stantec and the SM Group was acquired by the investment fund Thornhill. Capital.
With talent and perseverance, I knew we could get by and even grow. We put the right structure in place, solid governance, and we developed a common vision, which was lacking in the past.
Francois Plourde
“We worked a lot, we used the business network that I developed over the years, in particular by participating in the conferences of the Environmental Financial Consulting Group, which brings together 200 CEOs of engineering consulting firms in America of the North”, considers François Plourde.
Cima+ is now the second largest private engineering consulting firm in Canada, behind the Hatch group.
“WSP and SNC-Lavalin are in a class of their own and operate globally. We mainly do business in Quebec, where we achieve 70% of our turnover, which reached the record level of 400 million this year, and 30% in the rest of Canada. We are more of a niche firm,” explains the CEO.
After 8 years as CEO of Cima+ and 30 years with the company, François Plourde will step down next summer when a new CEO will be named at the next annual general meeting of the firm’s 400 shareholders.
“The Board of Directors has set up a selection committee that will choose between three internal candidates, namely our Chief Operating Officer, our Chief Strategic Officer and our Director of Business Practices and Risk Management. », specifies François Plourde.
The outgoing CEO of Cima+ is convinced that great years of growth await the engineering industry, while demographics, infrastructure needs and climate change will all be driving forces.