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In 1863, Canada’s first diamond on record was found in glacial debris in Ontario. However, it wasn’t until 135 years later, in 1998, that Canada’s first diamond mine officially opened in the Northwest Territories. Despite this slow start, the Canadian diamond industry has seen aggressive growth over the last 14 years.
Leading the growth charge is Crossworks Manufacturing, the operator of three Canadian-based (Vancouver, Sudbury and Yellowknife) diamond polishing...
Popular media tell us the baby boomers are looking forward to retiring, playing golf and spending winters in Arizona. However, my experience with business owners is entirely different.
I had a client who wanted to buy a supplier. The merger would create tremendous synergies and provide capacity for future expansion. The vendors, a husband and wife, were in their late 60s, and after 30 years building the business, had admitted they were tired of running the day-to-day operations. They...
Most people will reach a certain age and slip quietly off into retirement. However, for those businesspeople and entrepreneurs who have built a company from the ground up, retiring is not always as simple as clocking out on a Friday afternoon, never to return to work.
When the owners of Tetrad Computer Applications—a leading provider of geographic information management software (GIS)—decided it was time to hand over the reins of the company they helped build, they wanted...
After almost three years of recession, things were really looking up for Canadian companies. By mid-2011, business confidence was on the rise, employment had been given a shot in the arm, and commercial lenders were starting to loosen their purse strings.
Accordingly, the small business sector—one of the economy's top contributors—anticipated easier access to credit, as evidenced by the responses to a survey conducted by the Canadian Financial Executives Research...
In today’s economy, public stock markets may be suffering, but it’s a seller’s market for private company transactions.
“There are four to five qualified buyers for every one private company we sell,” says Brent Cunningham, managing partner at Sequoia Business Brokers. Cunningham acts on behalf of owners of companies with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of half a million to ten million dollars, and he is seeing a...
When First West Capital was established in October 2010, we set out on an ambitious journey to become the leading provider of subordinated debt financing to small and mid-market companies in Western Canada for deals sizes of $500,000 to $7,000,000. We envisioned expanding our reach geographically and in a manner that is consistent with First West Credit Union’s own expansion plans. Notably, as a result of our successes over the past year and the many trusted relationships we have been...
First West 2011 annual report
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