In late May 2023, Australian-based Worley divested its maintenance, turnaround and power services group.
The buyer, CAM Industrial Solutions (CAM), acquired these service lines to inject talent, state-of-the-art systems, fresh ideas and improved methods for efficiency into the ongoing enterprise. CAM is an industrial solutions company specializing in industrial maintenance, turnarounds, outages, small capital project work and a component of power operations and maintenance. It provides both union and non-union services with over 5,000 employees in Canada and the U.S. and is new in name only.
BIC Magazine recently spoke with CAM’s leaders, CEO Donovan Boyd and President Mick Kaefer, to learn more about the company’s current standing and plans for the future.
BIC: What was the nature of the acquisition and its expected effect on the ongoing business?
Donovan Boyd, CEO, CAM Industrial Solutions
BOYD: As any company matures, certain subdivisions of its structure may no longer fit within the overall company vision going forward and this often results in a “carve-out.” This was the case with Worley. The buyer of such a carve-out obviously views the enterprise differently and becomes excited about the opportunities to modernize and gain value for employees, the company and customers: a win-win-win if you will. In this situation, CAM’s new owners, Cross Rapids Capital, came to this acquisition enthusiastic about the fact that meaningful cash infusion and a service-specific focus would be the catalysts CAM needed to upgrade all facets of the enterprise and march forward into industry leadership.
BIC: Tell us about the changes and progress you’ve made in the past seven months.
Mick Kaefer, President, CAM Industrial Solutions
BOYD: Most importantly, the first several months of ownership have allowed us to affirm what we believed to be true from the start — the safety processes of the company are firmly in place and the corresponding statistics are industry-leading. All other characteristics of an industrial services company are secondary to the safety of workers, customers’ assets and the environment. Kaefer’s team can boast of dozens of sites and thousands of people exhibiting multiple years without a single OSHA recordable injury.
KAEFER: In addition, we immediately contracted a systems integrator to build and install an entirely new information system utilizing the latest technology that is designed specifically for a daily services business, not engineering or construction. This new system is near completion. Investing millions of dollars, in addition to the company’s purchase price, this owner investment allows us to streamline our in-plant and overhead processes to eliminate errors, which translates into improvements of great value to employees, the company and customers. From the accounting system down to field data entry, “the simpler, the better” guided our design process.
BOYD: We also completed the installation of a high-performing, lean corporate team. Our focus was to attract super-performers. Like many companies post-COVID-19, we see examples of “hardly working” versus “working hard,” but we also see many employees relieved to enjoy the office-based esprit de corps — group spirit — developing once again, and as a result, productivity is climbing.
I must add that when changes in ownership take place, rumors often abound in service industries, and they are fundamentally bogus. Much of the early-month work we accomplished to establish a high-performing culture stirred up such chatter, but I assure you that CAM is in solid financial condition. Early on, a few customers awarded some of the historically Worley market share to others, but this amounted to less than 10% of our revenue stream. Ebbs and flows are to be expected in any service business. We remain and have always been cash flow positive, and we continue to invest in multiple improvements.
BIC: As you move forward in time, how is CAM investing to position itself to compete?
KAEFER: It is important to inject here that CAM is not a new enterprise. We already hold a commanding market share in Canada, where we operate in nine facilities, in five provinces and have successful customer relationships that are 30 or more years old. In the U.S., we continue to mature but have a lot of work to do, especially with name recognition.
We recently hired a high-performance business development team to market and sell CAM services, but our continuously improving success in the field will ultimately earn us a leadership position across the entire continent.
With that in mind, we want the marketplace to know that we are an alternative to incumbent maintenance companies. The CAM name may be new, but we are already offering competitive compensation, market-leading benefits and an employee well-being approach to employment and safety.
CAM is resourcing a “full-court press” on formalizing relationships with trade schools and high schools to identify young people who are inclined to work with their hands and enjoy the upward mobility of a craft career. In today’s economy, these tradespersons command earnings far exceeding those of average college graduates, and professional respect as well. We will assist in paying for their training, then place them on customer sites, establishing the craftsperson flow continuously requested by our customers.
Folding this all together is an expression we like to use: “Be big, act small.” The size of our established base and the capital strength of our ownership allows us to invest in the things we’ve mentioned and more. Because industrial maintenance is our only business and we are no longer incumbered by a large corporate structure and the distractions of multiple business lines, we deliver this level of attention. Yet, we have the critical mass needed to fund progress and develop enterprise-level capabilities while delivering local client focus. We are committed to one and only one endeavor: to safely deliver the highest quality of industrial services at a good value to all, one customer at a time.
BOYD: There is a lot of “smoke” about site metrics in our industry, but not enough fire. We are fueling metrics to reality. At the sites, information processing will move entirely to a tablet infrastructure. On the same tablets used for basic timekeeping will be the customer efficiency metrics that are long overdue. The resulting dashboards of understandable and actionable efficiency data are already partially deployed at certain CAM sites across North America. A more extensive roll out with continuously improving content is already in the works. Our research has proved data that illustrates opportunities to improve site processes, eliminate delays, or “barriers” to time-on-tools, improve scheduling opportunities, drive the reduction of customer downtime on repetitive work scopes and other activities — ultimately delivering change to our clients far more valuable than billing rates.
BIC: What are your thoughts on the future?
BOYD: It is easy to run a company in the best of times. We are most challenged as leaders when it’s tough out there. The process industries we serve are currently under constant pressure from all directions: global supply and demand fluctuations, politics, environmental movements, labor shortages — the list goes on. They pass this pressure onto their suppliers, but we accept this pressure and artfully balance the tug-of-war between customers, employees and shareholders. We respect our customers greatly, happily remain in this niche and are confident it will last. Granted, we must be experts in balancing short-term needs for efficiency while continuing to invest in the future. But we are investing time, money and commitment to all the plays necessary to inevitably earn our position as the North American employer and contractor of choice in an irreplaceable service industry.
KAEFER: Organizations like ours have to be solution finders, so we are continuously seeking advancements in order to be effective in our work executions. But we also realize we have to utilize both digital and technology solutions in order to get there. That’s what our primary focus is on as we invest in the future. We really seek potential growth in four particular areas: product innovation, operational improvements, expanding into new markets and possibly some complimentary mergers and acquisitions.
BIC: What is a lesson learned from your experience?
KAEFER: I’ve learned this in both my personal and business life — there will be good times and there will be bad times. Remember that when there are good times, enjoy them, but realize that they will not last forever. And equally, when there are bad times, they too shall pass. What’s most important in either of those lessons is to learn from both experiences.
For more information, visit camindustrialsolutions.com.
