Adelt Mechanical makes its mark in the HVAC / Mechanical industry with quality work, customer service and attention to detail
Written by Barbara Taormina
The cutting-edge science that takes place in the labs at Sanofi Pasteur, where researchers are developing human trial vaccines for colon and breast cancer, doesn’t start with the cells in a test tube – it starts with the room itself. And the management at Adelt Mechanical, one of Toronto’s leading HVAC / Mechanical contractors, is particularly pleased with the role the company played in designing Sanofi’s new 45,000 square-foot facility.
“It was a ‘clean room’ lab that involved some elaborate white-glove work,” says Adelt’s CEO Scott Munro. All the mechanical components needed to be rigorously sterilized, there were special requirements for the medical gas piping, and the lab needed a layout that would allow Sanofi’s staff to continually scrub off all the surfaces, including the ceilings and floors.
“It took us some time to really specialize in that type of work,” says Munro. “You have to have quality people with the ability to adapt to specific upgrades and training because you’re dealing with process piping, medical gases and some very precise HVAC
validation requirements.”
But the team at Adelt proved they were more than up to the task of creating a state-of-the-art research environment for Sanofi, and Munro now looks forward to more of those types of challenging projects in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. “New clients such as Novapharm and GlaxoSmithKline have presented great opportunities for our team to continue to demonstrate our ability to excel in this field,” says Munro.
Emphasis on the client
Being in the lead for those jobs is a fairly impressive feat for Adelt, a relatively young company established in 1977 with mechanical contractor Bob Hoare at the helm.
Hoare’s business philosophy involved more than just going out and winning the bid. He envisioned Adelt as a “client’s contractor,” a company that would develop long-term relationships with commercial and industrial customers who had significant plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration needs that required continual service and maintenance. And from the start, Hoare put some serious emphasis on delivering projects on time and within budget.
It was a simple strategy that worked. Since its launch, the company has grown to more than five times its original size with an impressive list of well-known clients.
In 2005, Hoare turned the reins of the company over to two longtime employees, Munro and Don Evans, both of whom had come up through the Adelt ranks.
Munro, who moved to Mississauga in 1977 from Newfoundland, started working at the company in the early ‘80s as a part-time truck driver and as summer help on their larger projects. Back then, his only goal was to earn enough money for college where he was actually pursuing a career in law enforcement. It didn’t take long for Munro to realize that a cop’s life wasn’t always compatible with another longtime goal, raising a family. So Munro took a good look around and with some solid advise from his mentor, Bob Hoare, he realized that getting into the trade with a future at Adelt was the way to go.
“My eyes were opened to see that if you got your C of Q /trade license, no one could take that away from you,” he says. “I could take that education and training to become an estimator, project manager or even an owner!”
The job security that comes with a solid trade wasn’t the only draw for Munro. “Let’s not kid ourselves,” he says with a laugh. “The trades pay very well!.” So Munro actually worked his way up over the years from sheet metal apprentice to foreman to project manager to Vice President and now the company’s CEO, where he works with Don Evans, the company’s Chief Operating Officer and an equal partner and shareholder.
Like Munro, Evans put years of hard work and energy into Adelt as the company was making a name for itself. He signed on back in 1989 as a junior project manager and worked his way up to VP and eventually to COO.
Following Hoare’s lead
Munro and Evans are writing the next chapter in Adelt’s success story by sticking with Hoare’s tried and true script.
On the sales side, Adelt works closely with each individual client, and they absolutely sweat the small stuff. They put as much time and care into the service end of the business as they do the new jobs.
And they remain a soup-to-nuts operation. While other companies have turned to outsourcing to beef up their bottom lines, Adelt runs its own custom sheet metal fabrication shop which allows the company to maintain control as well as its high standards for manufacturing and installing the ductwork for each project.
On the management side, Adelt rarely seems to miss an opportunity to tout its team of roughly 200 highly-skilled union tradesmen. And the company makes no apologies for drawing its talent from unionized labor. Hoare, Munro and Evans have all been in the trenches, and they know their success depends heavily on a well-trained and well-compensated work force. “We are big believers on developing and promoting from within” says Munro. “Our people are what make this company as successful as it is and they deserve the opportunity to grow into the roles they desire.”
“I’m proud of my people, and my people are union,” Hoare once told the Plumbing and Mechanical Professionals, a trade organization based in Ontario. Hoare had plenty of reason to be proud. He was describing how Adelt workers donated their time and worked through plenty of weekends to finish a job for the Rose Cherry Home – a hospice for terminally ill children and their families.
Another guiding principal at Adelt is to enable the end user client to continue their daily activities while the company performs its work. Although Adelt does get involved with some new construction, the majority of the company’s contracts are retro-fits for projects that include everything from commercial office space, corporate headquarters and food processing plants to hospitals and universities. Adelt has managed to make its promise of sticking to time-sensitive schedules and completing jobs without disrupting a client’s daily activities as a solid selling point for their services.
Technological advances
Since Adelt first opened shop 31 years ago, tremendous strides have been made in HVAC technology. Munro expects that he and Evans will see the same types of leaps and bounds during their watch. Green initiatives have been coming on strong and Adelt has been on top of the trend by educating/accrediting their people and has had the benefit of already completing many LEED projects to date.
“There are always new LEED designs and concepts and there’s a lot that goes into that with materials and the way things are installed,” says Munro, who adds the environmentally-conscious work is becoming more labor intensive with some of the recent innovations.
But at Adelt, there’s never been much worry about hard work nor has there been much anxiety about the future. That confidence seems to stem, at least partly, from the fact that Adelt has stayed true to its founding principles of valuing both the work and the worker – which one sees at Adelt from the shop floor to the executive suite. As CEO, Munro not only wants to grow the business, he also wants to grow business leaders.
“I want to pay this forward,” he says. “Bob Hoare saw enough in me to give me an opportunity and I can’t thank him enough. I want to be able to provide the same opportunity for the right person myself one day.”
View Digital Corporate Profile of Adelt Mechanical in Construction Digital January 2009