Shelters from the storm

Just outside Kabul, Afghanistan, is Camp Julien, the base for about 1,700 Canadian Forces. Troops there live in temporary structures, complete with sleepers, kitchens, offices, gyms, showers, vehicle repairs stations and more. The designer and provider of this incredible camp is Vancouver-based Weatherhaven, a company of about 150 employees that has been providing temporary structures in remote and challenging regions for almost 30 years.

The company was started by Brian Johnson and Jim Allan—one in construction, the other in the expeditions business—who were looking for a better way to protect people in harsh climates and difficult to access areas. They developed new fabrics and insulation and ultimately found their niche—first in mining camps in Arctic areas, then in military projects and then for the United Nations. Now the company has a presence in about 50 countries. “It’s a pretty rapid success story,” says Ray Castelli, Weatherhaven’s CEO, “certainly by Vancouver standards.”

Until about five years ago, Weatherhaven only had offices in Vancouver and would sell all over the world through a network of agents. The business grew significantly then started to retract a bit, according to Castelli, as the cost of raw materials and fuel increased. “Basically we were trying to sell to a customer 10,000 miles away and make a product and ship it at a time when the world market was hot,” says Castelli. “We found ourselves becoming less and less competitive.”

About five years ago, the company changed its strategy, opening up offices in Brazil, Peru, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. “Being able to make the product locally, support it and deliver it locally dramatically improved responsiveness, time to market and cost,” he adds.

For Castelli, it’s important to remember that Weatherhaven is very much serving a niche market—serving areas including Antartica (75 percent of the scientific installations there use Weatherhaven products), the Amazon, Sahara Desert, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, the High Arctic and more.

“If somebody has a product where there’s a big enough market in there are, where they can grow their business, of course they’re going to fully exploit their home market before expanding,” says Castelli. “We have a very niche market. We have to find that same niche all over the world and service that niche better than everyone else.”

Doing that has had big payoffs for Weatherhaven. In the past three years the company has doubled in size at time when the world economy was heading in the other direction. And they’re not finished yet: Castelli says they’re fully expecting to double the size again over the next five years. “By having local manufacturers and having very, very knowledgeable people on the ground, we’ve developed opportunities we didn’t even know existed.”