Lift, haul, rent, store, plan – The Myshak Group of Companies provides all these services for the industrial oil and gas sector, on industrial site maintenance projects, when engaged in commercial building construction or module fabrication and more. Whether Myshak is supplying or operating cranes, transporting goods or providing warehousing solutions, each client benefits from a family owned and operated company backed by 25 years of experience.
“Mike Myshak founded what is now the Myshak Group of Companies after the sale of Premay Equipment, a heavy haul specialty trucking company,” says Jeremy Sparks, Vice President and General Manager. “After the sale, Mike had the opportunity to retain and continue the equipment rental portion of the business.”
Mike launched Myshak Sales & Rentals Ltd. on February 23, 1996, founding the brand on the core values of honesty, integrity, excellence, community, equity and respect. On opening day there were four employees: Noel Reilly, Darlene Johnson, Jim Myshak and Mike Myshak. With a desire to provide opportunity for his valued employees to become shareholders, Mike moved forward with the next brand under the umbrella and launched Myshak Equipment Ltd. on September 29, 1999 as an employee-owned corporation. A year later Jeremy joined the growing company.
“My former employer sold their equipment to the Myshak Group,” Jeremy explains. The Myshak Group needed my experience and expertise to manage the equipment they purchased, and the rest is history!”
That history includes rapid growth over the next few years, and employee numbers that swelled from four at the start to the 250 employed today. Now, the Group’s brand includes: Lifting Technologies Inc., co-founded in 2001 to provide rigging and spreading bars with baskets and platforms for labourers and materials; Myshak Crane & Rigging Ltd. (MCR), founded in 2005 as a full service crane company; Myshak Transportation Group, founded in 2011 as a full service trucking company; Energy Crane Service, acquired in 2013 as another of the brand’s full service crane divisions; Energy Wind & Renewables, the wind tower assembly company founded in 2018; and NexGen Transportation Services, acquired in 2019 to provide full service heavy hauling.
The core values Mike instilled in every operation of the company from the start are part of what drives the growth; and, as Jeremy explains, a constant focus on positive experiences for both employees and clients is also key in driving results.
“The Myshak Group of Companies celebrates its loyal employees and its valued customers – each of which, in great measure, have been the foundation of the Myshak Group’s success. The best customers demand competitive, excellent service; the best equipment makes us competitive; the best people make our service excellent; and our people, customers, and equipment together make us successful. Our employees, many of which are shareholders, treat our customers and equipment as it is their own – because it is – and that distinction stands out.”
Myshak Group’s dedicated focus to an exceptional customer and employee experience goes beyond work and into the community to support the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Cross Cancer Institute, alongside a large variety of other local events and charities. It’s all part of giving back to the region they love, as Jeremy notes, “The Myshak Group feels an obligation to serve the community and supports many philanthropic causes. Even though our business opportunities take us to other parts of Canada and into the US, being an Alberta-based company is something of which we are very proud. We do our best to support local businesses and really enjoy the sense of community we all share. We are very proud to call Edmonton home.
Another aspect of pride is the low turnover of the team and the continued input from the man that started it all, Mike Myshak.
“We are proud of issuing shares to employees and having those shares increase in value over time for the benefit of those employees. Today, we have over 130 employee shareholders, including our #1 shareholder Mike Myshak,” says Jeremy.
Yet, it’s not all smooth sailing. Jeremy is quick to admit that Myshak Group suffers from the same issue plaguing many trades and labour-focused companies in Alberta today. As with everything the company does, they turn that challenge into a positive. Jeremy explains, “The biggest challenge is also our biggest success – finding, hiring, rewarding and retaining the best people and providing them an inclusive, equitable, respectful and rewarding workplace. “The second biggest challenge is the Group’s biggest reward: maintaining a reputation of excellence while continually earning the respect of, and right to, serve its valued customers.”
Another aspect that the Group addresses head on is the fact that they are kind of a best kept secret.
“Many people don’t actually know the full range of services and products we supply,” says Jeremy. “We are known as a crane company, but we also build crane mats, provide customized rigging solutions, provide storage and logistics, international trucking and specialized heavy haul services, as well as a wide array of rental equipment including trucks and trailers. Customers benefit from a single-stop solution to all of their needs – the Myshak Group strives to provide that solution. If I could say one thing to our valued and prospective clients, it would be, ‘we’re here to help, whatever the job.’”
Some of the many projects where the Myshak Group’s innovation and expertise are seen include:
- 105-D converter basket change out: Myshak’s jack and slide team removed an old converter and jack and installed a new 377,000 kilogram converter during a plant’s turnaround. The converter was maneuvered through piping with two-inch clearance. Work was completed during day and night shifts to ensure the project’s completion during the 29-day plant shutdown.
- Custom fixed man basket: Myshak Sales & Rentals and Lifting Technologies Inc. custom designed and built a two-man, 1,200 pound capacity fixed basket that fits the boom tips on both the LTM 1050 and the LTM 1500. Upon completion, the basket was shipped to the client in Costa Rica.
- Worley Parsons CORD – Pipestone Gas Plant 2019-2020: Between August 2019-2020, Myshak’s NexGen Transportation division took on the full heavy haul scope for this project. This included 300 oversized loads of tanks, compressors, inlets, coolers, etc. that came from several points of origin across the province; more than 240 hydraulic platform loads; permit and government authority work to clear bridges for traffic management; and much more. This project was completed without any lost time or safety incidents.
- Wind Rise Farm 2020-2021: NexGen continued to be a vital part of Wind Rise Farm in 2020 and 2021, organizing the transportation of windmill blades, some of which spanned 72 metres. NexGen’s Over The Road services battled minimum clearances, two-lane roads, weather and more as they brought these clean energy blades overland from Lewiston, Idaho to Alberta. NexGen used its TEMISKO 5 beam blade trailers, which are the first of their kind in Western Canada.
Projects like these have earned the Myshak Group numerous awards and recognitions. In June of last year Myshak Crane & Rigging Ltd. was honoured to receive a Safety Award from the Crane Rental Association of Canada in recognition of MCR’s high safety standards and outstanding record in 2019.
“We at MCR are committed to continuous investment in both our equipment and our greatest resource—our employees. We constantly strive to achieve our goal of an injury and accident-free workplace. That’s why we’ve branded ourselves with the motto Service with Safety. We provide quality and affordability with our wide range of specialized rigging, and crane service in Calgary and throughout the province to meet our clients’ requirements in both reliability and safety,” said an MCR representative in a press release. The next year, in 2020, divisions MCR, Myshak Sales & Rental Ltd. and Energy Crane Service all earned this same award.
Meanwhile, NexGen Transportation was recognized by the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association (SC&RA) with the 2021 Fleet Safety Award and 2021 Zero Accidents Award, while MCR earned SC&RA’s 2021 Crane & Rigging Group Safety Award along with the 2021 Crane & Rigging Group Zero Accidents Award.
The notable SC&RA awards are exceedingly difficulty to qualify for; the Myshak Group is understandably proud of its team in this regard. Safety culture is a very big part of Myshak’s identity and achieving the awards’ requirements of zero recordable accidents or incidents during the previous year and a property damage frequency rate of 1.0 or less (Zero Accidents Award); and a Workers’ Compensation Modification Rate of 1.0 or less, property damage frequency rate of 1.0 or less and an incident rate of 1.7 or less (Safety Award) means Myshak is exceeding safety expectations on all levels.
“These awards exemplify the Service with Safety motto that MCR prides itself on, as they constantly strive to achieve the goal of an injury and accident-free workplace. We are so proud of the commitment from all levels of the organization to ensure the safety of the teams is put at the forefront of everything they do. Great work, everyone,” praised the Myshak leadership team when they learned of the 2021 honours from SC&RA.
Jeremy and the management team are grateful to the clients, staff, labourers, founders, and the Myshak family. “We are very proud of our staff and their collective accomplishments – we couldn’t do any of this without each other.”
“The future of the Myshak Group is to continue to serve our clients and community while constantly striving to improve our clients’ experience, remain sustainable, and take our businesses to new heights,” Jeremy concludes.
Learn more about the Myshak Group online (myshakgroup.com), Facebook and Instagram (@myshakgroup), LinkedIn, and YouTube.
