Bonnyville 鈥撀�It was fitting that Timberwolf Environmental Services Ltd. featured a stress ball contest at its booth during the Bonnyville & District Oil Show.
Just about everyone who stopped by the booth squeezed a ball or two hoping to ease the pain of the downturn in the oilfield and win an iPad 3 mini by guessing the number of balls in the container.
For brothers Reg and Real Rivard who co-own Timberwolf, relief from the downturn is coming from their strategy to diversify.
鈥淒iversify and provide more services,鈥� is Reg鈥檚 answer to keeping busy.
Timberwolf, based in Bonnyville, specializes in secondary containment, lease cleanups and lease and well abandonments, but it is morphing into an A-to-Z lease services provider.
The company serves clients from Manitoba to British Columbia.
鈥淲e work all over the place,鈥� said Reg who rattled off a full list of their lease maintenance offerings and activities for Pipeline News readers.
鈥淲e do secondary containment services, lease clean up, lease mowing, snow removal and sanding, hot shots and picker services, lease/well abandonments, vegetation spraying, Bobcat services, water pumping, gravel hauling, erosion control and labour crews.鈥�
The company added vegetation lease spraying to its mix of services with spraying underway in the region the week of the oil show held June 17-18, at the Centennial Centre.
Previously, Timberwolf launched a lease mowing service as they continue on a deliberate diversification path.
鈥淎bsolutely, you can鈥檛 have all your eggs in one basket and you can鈥檛 always rely on new construction to keep your business going,鈥� said Real.
鈥淵ou have to diversify. We find that maintenance is the way to go there.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e getting into vegetation control and we鈥檙e hoping to do more of that in the years to come. It鈥檚 a good opportunity.
鈥淭here are not that many people who do it and we are pretty much the only local company that does it.鈥�
Real explained that vegetation spraying prevents weeds that grow on lease sites from spreading onto farmer鈥檚 fields.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a relationship that oil companies have to develop and maintain with the agriculture side of it so the weeds do not spread and they are maintained,鈥� he said.
Real signed up a time slot in the oilmen鈥檚 room, a reverse networking opportunity thatenables exhibitors to make face-to-face contacts with decision makers from the area鈥檚 top producing companies.
This year鈥檚 oilmen鈥檚 room participants were Husky Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Devon, Osum Oil Sands and Imperial Oil.
鈥淚t was good. I was hoping to make different contacts with new companies and provide them with the services we provide, and, hopefully have a long term lasting relationship with them,鈥� said Real.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tougher right now for sure. We鈥檙e hoping that the economy does come back up, but in times like this you have to go after every little chance you get.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檒l get through it,鈥� added Reg, who was glad to be a part of the oil show to generate new business.
鈥淢aybe, there鈥檚 some people who aren鈥檛 aware of what we do 鈥� exposure, right? You never know who you might run into.鈥�
Timberwolf was launched in 2011, and has grown to about 15 employers for year-round lease maintenance work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been good. We鈥檙e four years in now so we鈥檙e still a young company, but we鈥檝e come a long ways in four years and hope to continue to grow,鈥� said Real.
Timberwolf has everything from dump trucks and Bobcats to tractors and mowers and water pumps for its lease work.
鈥淲e do road sanding, too. We鈥檙e just trying to get into more things that will keep us moving,鈥� said Real, who gripped a stress ball in his hand for a photo op. 聽
