Red Deer Advocate, 2005 

Crimtech Founder Credits Family for Teaching Valuable Business Lessons

The founder of one of Red Deer's fastest-growing companies credits a water hauler, a farmer and a hardware store owner for much of his success. Crimtech Services Ltd. President Craig Nykyforuk explained that his father Dennis, his uncle Larry Saik and his father-in-law Harry Humeniuk taught him valuable lessons that helped him build the business.

Dennis, said Nykyforuk, was an "inspiration" because of his work ethic - spending 14 to 16 hours a day on his water-trucking business. As for Saik, he encouraged his nephew to develop his mechanical skills and to not be afraid to tackle any project. And Humeniuk illustrated the importance of customer service. Nykyforuk described how one Boxing Day his father-in-law received a call at home from a customer in need of paint. "He left the house, went and got the paint, and delivered it."

The company Nykyforuk started with his wife Kim in 1993 has become a familiar name across Western Canada. Employing about 100 people, it provides a variety of services to the oil and gas, petrochemical and pipeline industries: field engineering, electronic measurement, and design, drafting and drawing management. It also fabricates oil and gas processing equipment.

For Nykyforuk, the business is simply one of converting ideas into products. "It's the fabric of the company," he said.

This year, Crimtech received the Alberta Society of Egineering Technologists' Technical Excellence Award.

Nykyforuk revealed a penchant for problem-solving after graduating from high school in Vegreville and completing a hydrocarbon engineering technology program at NAIT. Working at Imperial Oil’s Judy Creek gas plant, he was inspired by the company’s “Coin Your Idea” program – through which staff were rewarded for coming up with ways to improve plant efficiency.

“I would think of these ideas and I would just submit, submit, submit. I probably had close to a hundred CYIs over a course of time,” said Nykyforuk. It persuaded the company to give the young operator more technical responsibilities, and eventually the position of facilities technologist at a small plant near Blackfalds. “It was a great job,” he said of the opportunity to transform ideas into reality. “I really enjoyed it.”

In the early 1990s, when Imperial Oil began concentrating its staff to Calgary, Nykyforuk decided to remain in the field. He left the company and joined Bunch Welding of Lesleville. There, he did contract work for oil companies through Bunch Prihects. “It became very successful.”

Soon after, Nykyforuk and Kim – a chemical technologist – launched Crimtech Services as a home-based business. “We took a bedroom, converted it into an office, got a computer and that’s how we started,” he said. Soon after, a draftsman and another project tech were required.

And the fledgling Red Deer business took the intimidating step of relocating into a 500 square- foot office in Northlands Industrial Park. "I'll never forget, we couldn't sleep at night," recalled Nykyforuk. "We had to take on this lease." More staff came on board, and by 1995 Crimtech had to move to a bigger building on Riverside Drive.

It also evolved into two distinct divisions: engineering and drafting. Specifically, the company developed a reputation for "field engineering" –looking after maintenance and related projects on site. Its big break came when the head of engineering for Pan Canadian Petroleum (now EnCana), intrigued by the concept of field engineering, decided to give the little Red Deer company some of the work being performed by big engineering firms in Calgary.

"Boom, we take off - and we're still with EnCana," s.aid Nykyforuk. Husky Energy, ConocoPhillips and a number of other companies have since joined Crimtech's client list.

The drafting division grew out of Nykyforuk's frustration with out-of-date or non-existant drawings for the facilities he worked at. He began encouraging clients to create and update these materials, with Crimtech going on site to verify drawings or hand-draw new ones if necessary.

The timing was good. Liability concerns were pushing the industry away from "midnight engineering" - the practice of building projects without drawings or engineering input. "I didn't really realize it at that time," said Nykyforuk. "It was more maybe a selfish thought; I just hated working from old drawings." Crimtech won the drafting work for the likes of Imperial Oil, Petro-Canada, EnCana and Nova Chemical's Joffre plant.

"Our engineering work and drafting work is all over the Western provinces," said Nykyforuk. "It's not just Central Alberta."

Measurement services is a relatively recent addition. Crimtech transfers well site data via a wireless or satellite signal to a central server, and then makes these available to clients online. "We have well over 300 wells on this service," said Nykyforuk. Crimtech's fabrication work grew out of its highly successful FloDrip wellhead separators. The company now also manufactures traditional separators, polyethylene and steel tanks, and metering packages - with more than 300 coal bed methane measurement packages produced in just over a year.

The fabrication business, said Nykyforuk, is a big reason Crimtech is preparing to move into a new 35,000-square-foot building south of the city in Red Deer County. Its existing facilities in Edgar Industrial Park, despite being just five years old, have proven inadequate. "Before we even finished the design and started construction, we outgrew this building," he said. "With the new facility, we'll be able to do bigger packages."

Looking back at Crimtech's relatively short history, Nykyforuk acknowledged that much of its growth has been reactive rather than proactive. "If you went to Business 101, which I never did, you'd probably try to go and raise all the capital you need and you'd have a marketing plan and a business plan and things like that. That's probably one of the things that we've learned." He's also come to appreciates the importance of focusing on the products and services where your expertise lies, and marketing yourself.

"You've really got to have a sales program if you're going to go into business." For Nykyforuk, Crimtech's growth has transformed his role from technologist to manager. "I miss it," he said of his old work. "I love being in the field. That's where you think and that's where you get most of your ideas."


Farming provided inspiration

Eliminate the farm from Craig Nykyforuk's background, and one of Crimtech Services most successful products probably disappears with it. When he jury-rigged a makeshift wellhead separator in 1996, Nykyforuk was taking advantage of the mindset he developed while working on his uncle's farm.

A former boss from Nykyforuk's days with Imperial Oil had summoned Crimtech's founder to Medicine Hat to help find a way to extract liquids from the gas drawn from shallow wells. He had a bulky separator from the United States, and wanted it modified to meet his needs. Nykyforuk assessed the situation and suggested a simple alternative: plastic siphon strings inside production tubing that would increase gas flow velocity and push the water to the top for easy separation.

“I said, 'I will bet you supper and a beer all you need is something to grab that water. You don't need what you've got there.'''

Nykyforuk drove into town and bought a collection of fittings and pipe wrenches. Then he went to work.

"I put this thing all together on the endgate of my truck. I built this separator out of four-inch fittings." To the amazement and delight of the Imperial Oil official, water was soon dripping out of the crude device. "That's where the FloDrip separator was born," said Nykyforuk. "And the FloDrip has changed Crimtech totally."

Imperial Oil ordered 150 of the separators. After unsuccessfully trying to find a fabricator to tackle the project at a reasonable cost, Crimtech assembled the devices itself.

That winter, Nykyforuk showcased the FloDrip at a Calgary oil and gas show. Soon after, Renaissance Energy (now Husky Energy), Canadian Natural Resources Limited and Pan Canadian Petroleum (now EnCana) were all using the product.

"Those were the stepping stone companies for our products division," he said. FloDrip has since evolved and grown into a range of products. But its origins can be traced to the lessons Nykyforuk learned on the farm.

"It's just taking a problem and breaking it down into simplistic things' and not being scared to tackle anything."



Back to News Articles