Saskatchewan’s business of the year for 2014, and the first time ever, is a Yorkton company.
At the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce (SCC) Annual Business Excellence Awards (ABEX) held in Regina November 1, Yorkton Plumbing and Heating (YPH) took the top prize of the evening from a pool of 46 nominees.
“It was a pretty unreal feeling,” said Justin Yawney, YPH president. “You’re up against some pretty big, amazing companies, so I guess that puts us in a pretty good category.”
Steve McLellan, SCC CEO, explained that the Chamber has been impressed with Yawney and his company for several years. The judging panel considered how he had left Yorkton to learn his trade, then came back and built the company from one person serving residential customers to 62 employees that can take on any scale of project in just seven years.
McLellan attributed much of the company’s success to what he characterized as “stellar service” to customers.
“That’s a great Saskatchewan success story and one we wanted to celebrate,” McLellan said.
Yorkton Plumbing and Heating also won the Service Award at this year’s event. In 2011, Yawney was honoured with the ABEX Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Yorkton’s NL Construction also picked up some hardware in Regina winning in the Growth and Expansion category.
A couple of years ago, NL Construction was high school pals Dustin Nehring and Taylor Lang, a truck and some tools. Today, it is a company of a dozen employees, state-of-the-art offices on Ball Road with a large shop and a rapidly growing client base.
McLellan said the panel felt like NL can compete with anyone in Saskatchewan.
“These guys are goers,” he said. “It’s a pat on the back to these two young guys.”
Two other Yorkton businesses were also finalists this year. RH Electric was nominated in the Community Involvement Category and RCM Safety Services qualified for New Business Venture.
Juanita Polegi was very proud of Yorkton’s showing in the provincial competition.
“The Yorkton Chamber of Commerce was very pleased to learn that four of its members were ABEX finalists,” she said. “As the Yorkton companies were judged against others from all over the province, this is evidence that Yorkton has astute business people who know how to establish and expand their respective businesses.”
In general, McLellan was impressed with both the geographic distribution and quality of the competitors.
“The success of Saskatchewan’s growth is not just in the big cities,” he said. “Yorkton Plumbing and Heating is a great example of that.”
He also believes the 2014 crop of finalists bodes well for the future.
“This is a good time to be an entrepreneur in Saskatchewan and Yorkton, particularly, is very lucky to have an entrepreneurial culture in the past and for the future,” he said.
