CERF Inc., owner of 4-Way Equipment Rental, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, as well as waste-management and oil-and-gas equipment rental segments, posted a 63-percent overall revenue jump in the third quarter to CDN $12.7 million (about U.S. $11.9 million) compared to CDN $7.76 million in the third quarter a year ago. For the first nine months of 2013, CERF jumped 52 percent to CDN $34.2 million in revenue.
The equipment rental segment soared 79 percent for the third quarter, adding $2.5 million in revenue, $2.1 million of which came from TRAC Energy Services, an oil-and-gas equipment rental business that CERF acquired in October of 2012. The equipment rental segment added $8.5 million for the first nine months of the year.
CERF’s construction and industrial rentals business posted revenue growth of $418,000 or 10 percent for the quarter compared to the third quarter of 2012. For the first nine months of the year it increased by $2.1 million, a 17-percent jump year over year.
The company waste-management segment increased 62 percent in the third quarter of 2013 and 33 percent for the first nine months of 2013, compared to the same periods in 2012.
“The business environment in Alberta and Western Canada remains brisk,” said CERF president and CEO Wayne Wadley. “The unemployment rate in Alberta is still only 4.3 percent so there remains a lot of activity in most industrial sectors. Albertans worked an average 5.9-percent longer in July than the Canadian average of 30.3 hours per week as employers may be requesting overtime to avoid hiring more workers who are in scarce supply. Alberta remains one of the strongest construction markets in North America. The province is expected to see average growth in real GDP of about 3.7 percent in 2013 and 2014 compared to the national forecast of 2.3 percent.
“With cold weather arriving on schedule, our construction and industrial rentals business experienced very strong demand for heating and other winter-specific equipment. Utilization of our heater fleet is near 90 percent. Customers continue to be bullish on their projected workloads and this translates into strong current and future demand for our equipment and services going into the winter months.”
Wadley was equally bullish about the company’s oil-and-gas rentals business. “[The segment] had a strong summer and fall as a high percentage of equipment was dedicated to active drilling rigs and long-term horizontal drilling and SAGD drilling projects. In response to the demand for oilfield rentals we have invested $2.7 million in well-site rental equipment. The oil and gas rentals business has diversified its customer base through this fleet expansion over the past year and has increased its sales force by 25 percent.”
Wadley added that the company invested $8.1 million in new equipment for the construction segment in the past 21 months. “We believe that this investment will return increased revenues throughout the remainder of 2013 and throughout 2014,” he said.
4-Way Equipment Rental is No. 85 on the RER 100.
