Shawcor’s CEO says the company is now in a much better place nearly a year after launching a rebrand and reviewing its operations.

In September 2022, the Canadian materials company announced it would change its name to Mattr Infratech pending shareholder and regulatory approval and conduct a strategic review of its oil and gas business. Since then, the company has divested away from the oil and gas industry, including having sold its pipe coating business to Tenaris for US$166 million earlier this week.

In June, Shawcor officially changed to Mattr, though the Shawcor name will remain as the brand name for its pipe coating business. 

Shawcor president and CEO Michael Reeves told BNN Bloomberg Wednesday that the changes started even earlier than last year’s announcement, and the company is now seeing results.

“It’s a transformation that’s been going on for about two and a half years,” Reeves said in a television intervew.

 

“The Shawcor company was too complicated, trying to be too many things to too many people, at many times in its history had too much debt and certainly was too volatile for its size.”  

Since announcing the rebrand and strategic shift, Shawcor stocks have climbed roughly 150 per cent.

“The actions we’ve taken over the last two and a half years to sell businesses that don’t align with our future vision of high margin, high growth infrastructure technology has allowed us to simplify the portfolio, substantially less volatility, put cash on the balance sheet and position us to invest,” Reeves said.

Reeves said his company found itself in a position where it was “a little too bureaucratic” and thus moving too slowly.

“When you’re trying to drive fundamental change, speed is your friend,” he said. “What we’ve really focused on culturally is empowering people throughout the organization to make quick, but informed decisions.”

Reeves said the company is now focused on materials for infrastructure, such as those meant to deal with storm water and wastewater, along with maintaining a portion of its oil and gas business.

“In all cases, (these are) products that have nice margins, a good protective moat against competition and very large, addressable markets,” he added.

With files from The Canadian Press