GPEC Consulting Ltd. Joins Focus
May 8, 2006

EDMONTON, ALBERTA-Focus Corporation (Focus) is pleased to announce the strategic acquisition of GPEC Consulting Ltd. (GPEC).

Founded in 1984, GPEC is a civil engineering consulting firm comprised of 70 employees working from offices located in Grande Prairie, Peace River, Edmonton and Camrose in Alberta. GPEC provides a range of services to private and public sector clients involved in land development, transportation and highway, municipal engineering, commercial buildings and recreation projects.

"We're very pleased to have a leading engineering firm like GPEC join Focus", explains John Holmlund, Focus CEO and President. "The addition of GPEC will strengthen our engineering capacity in Alberta and their experience in transportation and municipal buildings projects will give us access to these growing markets."

"We are very happy about joining Focus, our clients will benefit from Focus' strengths in planning and legal survey and our expertise in transportation and municipal buildings will compliment their existing suite of engineering services" explains Blake Gemmill, President of GPEC. "Focus brings resources, enhanced credibility and our younger staff will benefit from the career opportunities available in a larger organization," adds Gemmill.

Blake Gemmill and the senior management team at GPEC will continue with Focus and provide leadership to their staff within Focus' Alberta engineering business unit. GPEC staff will continue to operate out of their current locations, with the Edmonton and Grande Prairie branches moving into the Focus offices in the next few months. With the addition of GPEC, Focus now employs more than 400 people in its engineering business unit that operates in Alberta and British Columbia.

Focus completed the deal with the support of its equity partner, KRG Capital Partners (KRG), a private equity firm based in Denver, Colorado. KRG specializes in acquiring and recapitalizing fast growing, profitable middle-market companies that are committed to expanding their business and becoming industry leaders. For Focus, this partnership has created the opportunity for significant growth, additional investment potential and more enhanced services for its clients.

Focus is a multi-disciplinary consulting firm providing a range of engineering, geomatics, planning and project management services to clients involved in oil and gas, oil sands, infrastructure, land development and environmental projects. Clients rely on Focus to deliver world-class technical solutions that optimize their investments, improve their competitive position and increase their long-term success. Focus employs more than 950 staff in 15 offices throughout Western Canada.

BACK - TOP