Established in 1989, Westridge is one of Saskatchewan’s leading general contractors, contributing to over $1 billion of construction to the province throughout their 34-year history. Just as it approaches each project, the Westridge team’s growth has been steady and concise, building its reputation as a well-known and respected general contractor with a diverse repertoire of experience and a track record that speaks for itself. Westridge has built, renovated, and expanded facilities of every kind throughout Saskatchewan, placing its signature on a myriad of projects in both the commercial and civil industries.
Westridge’s Origins
Westridge’s founder and current President and Chairman of the Board, Leon Friesen, is a true entrepreneur who saw an opportunity to start his own company when the owner of the company he was working for at the time decided to retire. Leon brought on his younger brother Harley, as well as two others who worked in the previous company, and Westridge was born.
The construction landscape was extremely difficult to navigate in the 90’s in Saskatchewan. Despite limited government spending on infrastructure, Westridge prospered. Along with competing on the commercial work that their previous company concentrated on, Leon and his partners saw an opportunity to grow by competing on bridge, water treatment plants, and pump station projects where they noticed there was less competition in the market at the time. This proved extremely beneficial for Westridge and this civil infrastructure market is a huge part of the business to this day.
Over the first decade, Westridge has continually generated revenue growth and was completing approximately $20M in average revenues at the turn of the century. Over the first 10 years of the 2000’s, the company experienced significant growth and more than tripled the average revenues to well over $60M annually by 2010. Since 2010, Westridge has continued to experience growth and is now recognized as a leader in the Saskatchewan construction market and competes with national and multi-national general contractors on large and mid-sized projects on a regular basis. In 2018, Westridge crossed the threshold of completing more than $1B worth of construction work in the province.
Saskatchewan Pride
Business Elite Canada spoke with Colin Olfert, CEO and General Manager, about Westridge’s contribution to the province, and what Saskatchewan means to the company.
“We are rooted in the local economy and culture and have a deep understanding of the needs and preferences of the people who live and work in the area,” says Olfert. “Being a Saskatchewan success story means we have reached a high-level of success by achieving significant accomplishments, overcoming challenges and learning from our failures. Our prairie roots, prairie ethics and prairie pride mentality are the foundation in which our company was formed and we continue to be dedicated to this great Saskatchewan community that we call home.”
“Being able to grow and prosper in our province where your word is your bond and where your reputation stays with you for a long time has been a great honour. Over the last three and a half decades of working in Saskatchewan where all of our employees live and play has afforded us the opportunity to build some great infrastructure that our employees can drive by while they are taking their child or grandchild to hockey practice or a dance competition and be proud to tell them “I built that”.
Indeed, Westridge’s contribution to the Saskatchewan construction industry runs deep. Notable Westridge projects include Regina Police Services Campus Development (RPS) (previous STC building), the Raw Water Supply System Intake Pumping Station in Saskatoon, Arcola & Douglas Park Schools, Regina, and the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant Lake Pump Station Renewal, to name a few.
Community-Minded
One of Westridge’s core values is being supportive of the community. It is Westridge’s mission to be involved in local groups, foundations and charities whose strength and resources make Regina the worthwhile community it is. This community involvement has evolved in a wide variety of ways over the years, led constantly by Westridge’s belief in the objectives of the chosen groups. “We are proud of Westridge’s position in the community and are grateful for the privileges we have been afforded,” says Olfert.
Westridge’s donation based charitable organizations within Saskatchewan were recently recognized by the 2022 Regina Chamber of Commerce Community Involvement Paragon Award, the 2020 Canadian Construction Association Community Leader Award, and the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Philanthropist award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals—all great honours for the company.
Perhaps Westridge’s greatest strength is its diversity. Westridge has operated in the civil, commercial, and industrial sectors of the construction industry building everything from bridges and water treatment plants to office buildings and schools and everything in between.
“We have built, renovated and expanded facilities of every kind throughout Saskatchewan,” says Olfert. “Our services include general contracting, construction management, integrated project delivery, and design-build.”
“On our projects, we self perform a significant amount of work,” says Olfert. “The most significant scope of work that we self perform is concrete work. We take great pride in delivering high quality work in every area of the projects we undertake, but with our concrete work, we always take it to another level. Our diverse, experienced, and skilled field staff have undertaken some of the most complex concrete projects in Saskatchewan.”
Westridge’s working partnership with SaskPower is illustrative of the role the company plays in the Saskatchewan construction landscape. The Westridge and SaskPower partnership began in 1993 on the $4.6M Island Falls “A” Dam Restoration project and since then, Westridge has completed many small and large projects with them.
“Although we completed many projects over the years for SaskPower, our relationship began to strengthen starting in 2018 when we completed three mid-sized projects for SaskPower over two and a half years,” says Olfert. “Through the delivery of these projects, the new construction management resources within SaskPower were able to witness Westridge’s honest, collaborative, and respectful way of delivering their projects and were very happy with the quality of the end product that we were able to turn over.”
The most recent project with SaskPower and Westridge—SaskPower Logistics Warehouse—is very significant to Westridge. This $100M+ project was more than double the size of any other project Westridge had completed. Westridge partnered with another Saskatchewan-based general contractor with very similar values to that of Westridge to form a joint venture for the pursuit and delivery of the project. The strong Saskatchewan-based team that formed was looked at very positively by SaskPower, and the project is now 75 per cent complete.
Clients such as SaskPower continue to seek out Westridge for its reputation of being fair and honest and delivering value and outstanding quality. Openness, honesty, collaboration, teamwork, integrity, community, family, relationships are all words that can be found within Westridge’s core values. “And when our people exude these values, it makes it fun and rewarding to execute a project,” says Olfert.
The outlook for work for Westridge over the next few years is very positive, and the company is very well positioned in the market with their team who are ready to take advantage of the investment into the province.
“Building with Teamwork (Westridge’s corporate motto) to me means working collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal,” says Olfert. “It involves bringing together people with diverse skills, backgrounds, and perspectives and creating an environment that fosters communication, cooperation, and mutual support. You can see this motto at work when you walk around the office or walk into one of our jobsite trailers. There are always people working together as a team and using each others knowledge and experience to solve complex problems and work through challenging situations.”
For more information, please visit www.westridge.ca
