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New Strongco president shares goals for company and concerns on COVID-19

The new president and CEO of Strongco, Oliver Nachevski, is looking forward to running the company and is hopeful of an even stronger economy if the COVID-19 pandemic eases and industry returns to normal.

“My main goal right now is to get through the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a very difficult time,” says Nachevski. “Trying to keep everyone employed right now as the government is making constant changes. No one really know what’s going on. We need to be ready and willing to adapt.”

Nachevski was made president and CEO of Strongco on the heels of the recently completed acquisition of Strongco by Nors on March 18, 2020. Nors is a Portugal-based transport solutions and construction equipment company.

“We’re looking at everything on a regional basis. As far as the future of Strongco, it’s something that you’ll find will grow in Canada over time. That’s something we think Nors brings to the operations in Canada.

“Really right now with the economy and uncertainty of the situation, our goal is to do what we can to keep everybody safe, and then we work with the Nors team.”

Safety measures

Nachevski said the Strongco team will have its first official board meeting with the Nors team on March 24 via Skype. And in the meantime, Strongco is taking steps to keep its workplaces safe.

“I’m having conversations with my regional teams daily. My regional vice presidents report to me daily on what’s happening in their workplaces. We’re allowing people to work from home. We have our workers who are fixing cranes and machines spaced out from one another as much as possible. We stagger our lunches and breaks and we have new cleaning processes in place,” he said.

“Depending on what the provincial and federal governments do, we will follow all the rules in place. We’re watching each market separately.”

Looking ahead

Nachevski said if the virus stops spreading and manufacturing can return to a somewhat normal pace there is still a concern for a slowdown but is hopeful there won’t be.

“It’s all going to depend on how it moves. A lot of our product is built in other areas of the world right now—we have experienced no slow-downs yet. That turns in to a potential problem down the road depending on the affected areas of the world which manufacture our products.

“The biggest concern once we get past this is there may be a slowdown in getting some of our products from our manufacturers, but that’s something we will deal with then,” he said.

Nachevski said it took the team a long time to solidify the deal with Nors, but the Nors teams was one of his top choices if he could have picked the future partner himself future partner.

“I was part of the discussions with the finalist and Nors was my choice. We’re really excited to be a part of this,” he said.

The combined entities now share a global footprint that spans over 17 countries on four continents Nachevski joined Strongco in 1996, and in that time, he made a significant impact on many facets of the business, from finance and credit to crane operations and construction equipment. He is a chartered professional accountant (CPA) and has held many titles, including most recently vice president and chief operating officer.

Follow this link for a list of events cancelled or postponed due to the virus.

The Canadian Construction Association has also compiled a number of resources on the topic. You can access that here.