Strong Enterprises – Belleville, Ontario, Canada

October 11, 2024

Strong Enterprises

Going from Strength to Strength

Building a Legacy in Belleville and Beyond

Based in Belleville, Ontario, Strong Enterprises is a family-owned firm with a positive reputation spanning 35 years and two generations. The original company, Strong Bros Heating, and Air Conditioning, was founded in 1992 by Kevin and Sophia Strong, evolving into Strong Bros General Contracting. In 2012, Kevin retired, and his children, Justin and Natalie, took the reins and continued to build on his success.

“We bought our father out of the business. From there, I feel that we’ve taken it leaps and bounds. We’ve been on a very high trajectory,” describes Natalie

In 2020, Canadian Business recognized Strong Bros as one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada. Today, the company has rebranded under the name Strong Enterprises, growing into a general contracting powerhouse, with projects ranging from local municipalities to nationwide government contracts, and continued expansion on the horizon.

Project Location and Scope

Based in Belleville, Strong Enterprises is strategically located between Ottawa and Toronto, with many projects within a radius of two hours. However, the company has a wide geographical reach, which extends far beyond these local boundaries. Strong has completed work at CFS Alert, a Canadian Forces station located at the North Pole. “We do chase projects pretty far, which I would say is something that sets our company apart from a lot of our competition, with our range of geography,” Justin states.

Primary clients include entities such as Public Works and Government Services Canada, Defense Construction Canada, and various municipal governments. The company also works with school boards and the Canadian Coast Guard. “Most of our clients are government bodies,” Justin maintains. “We do a little bit more these days as our footprint grows with the private industry, but we do stick to the commercial clients.”

Another aspect that helps Strong Enterprises stand out is the capability to perform a wide range of services in-house, reducing the need to always rely on subcontractors. Justin details, “As a general contractor, we also run our divisions. So, for example, we have a civil fleet excavation, we have carpentry, we have concrete finishers.”

Notable Projects

The recent construction of a new company headquarters is a point of pride for the Strong Enterprises team. Located in Belleville, this new 15,000-square-foot facility was completely designed and built by the company. “It was every single inch of the building, from permits to buckets in the ground, right to completion,” depicts Justin. “That building, although it’s not for one of our clients, is probably the key build that we’ve had in the last couple of years. We’ve had some larger projects, triple the value, in the $15 million range that are also very notable, and we’ve also had some that I would call even trickier. But I think that is the most notable project that we’ve had. And it’s a very beautiful build.”

Seven years in the making, this state-of-the-art building is the result of a vision shared by the Strong siblings, representing not only an expansion of space but also reflecting the company’s commitment to quality and innovation.

“I am using this building as a tool,” Justin asserts. “We’re in a location right now between the cities of Ottawa and Toronto, where we don’t have an excess of people that are in our industry. So, what we’re trying to do with our building is say we are the frontrunners in construction, we care about our business, we care about the quality of life within our company, and we went the extra mile to put that statement on the ground as a tangible asset.” He adds that as Strong Enterprises moves operations into this new space, there are already plans for future expansion.

“We’re looking at putting together a campus now because our company is growing just about as fast as we’re putting up our new space.”

Justin shares that Strong Enterprises has recently completed a $12 million design-build project for a new agricultural center in Belleville. “We used the design team that we worked with on our office building. That was Roderick Leahy’s office led by Kevin Reid and some other architects and engineers that we had sourced to put that together,” he relays.

From a design-build perspective, Strong Bros maintains a set of trusted architects for their projects. Justin emphasizes their flexibility in managing labor, describing a dual strategy that adapts to market conditions. “If we’re hungry for work, then we rely more on ourselves to drive our pricing down and self-perform. If the market and the industry is getting flooded, and we take on more jobs than we can handle, that’s when we start outsourcing a lot of our labor to subcontractors,” he explains.

“So, I think there’s two benefits to having our in-house crew. One is when we need to get lean and mean on a job, we have the ability, and two is when a subcontractor isn’t showing up, or we get into a time crunch, we can mobilize our forces.”

Company Culture and Valued Partners

Natalie highlights the family-oriented values that are prioritized at Strong Enterprises. “This is a family company and one of the things that we both value in our business is that we still feel as though we are a small-time family firm,” she portrays. “The people that come on board with us, we want to help them have an enjoyable and high quality of life as well.”

This is exemplified by the dedicated “kid zone”, which was included in the new building to accommodate employees with children. The space is designed as a place to hang out if they have a PA day or are feeling unwell. “We don’t want to prevent people from being able to come to work. And we want to foster that family relationship that says we understand that family is important,” Natalie remarks.

Strong Enterprises value their employees and the many external partnerships that are involved in the company’s success. “Our subcontractors and the people we work with are very important to the growth of our company,” Natalie acknowledges. “We value these relationships. Some of the men and women that our father built relationships with back 35 years ago, they’re still here today.”

In terms of workforce, Justin notes, “We’re looking to hire. That’s part of what our growth strategy has been. We’ve had a lot of very valuable team members come on over the last two, or three years. And we’re looking to continue that growth. We don’t want to slow that down.”

Future Plans

Moving forward, Natalie says the firm is also interested in taking on more work in the private sector, sharing that local enterprises have contacted Strong about potential projects. She recounts. “We’ve had a few calls from companies in the area, who are looking at doing a renovation or a demolition. We have another company that we have been buying from for the last 25 years, and they’re building a new building. I believe they’ve seen what we’re doing for our building, and that’s what prompted them to reach out to us.”

Strong Enterprises has also signed a deal to purchase a long-established aggregate company in the nearby city of Trenton. Justin discloses that the deal includes a building, an aggregate pit, and 35 pieces of equipment. “So, we’ve been looking at expansions along the way. Over the next 18 months, we want to get that company integrated into Strong Bros and get the projects that we’re self-funding out of the way.” Another goal is continued revenue growth. Reporting $20 million in 2023, he says the company is on track to reach 30 to $40 million within a 2-year timeframe.

As Strong Enterprises settles into its new headquarters and embarks on a new chapter of growth and expansion, the Strong siblings continue to build on the family legacy and a future that is filled with possibility.