SAANICHTON – Benson Cabinetry & Millwork (BCM) has grown consistently in the past number of years under owners Natalie and Tim Benson, and their decision to add a partner is expected to take the company to new heights.
KV Capital of Edmonton has bought into the company, which Tim’s father founded almost 50 years ago, in 1976. BCM focuses on building cabinets primarily for multifamily projects, and their clients are general contractors and developers. They don’t have retail customers or have a showroom, but they now have 110 employees spread out amongst their locations in Saanichton, north Vancouver Island, Vancouver and the Okanagan.
“Part of the main driver for bringing in an investor is that we’ve grown this business between 12 to 20 percent year over year for the past 6 years, and folks are used to this from us” Tim explains, noting that he and Natalie purchased the firm in 2019. “We’ve had tremendous growth, even though that was never our objective. Our goal was just to do a really good job at what we did, treat people well within the company, give them great opportunities for career advancement and skill sets in front of them, and provide a great product to our customers. Our goal was solely a satisfied internal and external customer.
“When you do that, things grow. Winning produces winning. Natalie and I grew the business to a size where it was appropriate to bring someone else in. It was a logical move. We didn’t have any external pressures to find a partner, so we were in a position where we could take our time choosing a partner that would be an exceptional fit for us, which KV Capital is. This is a significant milestone in our journey.”
Their decision to focus strictly on business-to-business and multifamily projects has paid dividends. They are currently working on 4-6 storey townhouses and concrete high-rises.
“We work with a host of different developers and general contractors, many of the biggest names in the province,” he states. “We’re not the most expensive, but our goal isn’t to be the cheapest, either. Our goal is to be the best: The best product, the best price, and the best service in the multifamily sector.”
BCM’s growth across the province has been due to a couple of factors, including their people. Once they had the people, they started to build the client base.
For example, they returned to the North Island and reached out to former customers to re-establish connections, and they’ve added new ones. In Kelowna, existing clients wanted them to work on their projects, so they decided to enter the Okanagan market.
“We have an outstanding team. . . it’s a phenomenal group of people that have shared values and aligned visions for what’s important to them as individuals and what’s important to the company,” says Tim. “We were intentional in having strong unity around the same purpose and direction, ‘around the north star, so to speak’, so we have put a lot of work into that.
“A lot of our success comes back to the fact that when Natalie and I took over the business, our goal was to show up and execute well, and we’ve redeveloped the whole culture of the business. As a result, we’ve ended up with exceptional people, and when you get a group of exceptional people rowing in the same direction, you can accomplish great things.”
This content was sponsored by: Schibli Stedman King LLP, Lynxedge Solutions and Henley & Straub LLP
