ATCO opens anchorage office: Alaska presence key to company growth.

• Author: West, Gail
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: BUILDING ALASKA

Cementing Alaska as a focal point for company growth, ATCO Structures and Logistics opened a branch office in Anchorage in October 2009. People familiar with resource extraction in the state will remember ATCO's long history of providing company housing--more than 50 years on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, for the U.S. Post Office and for operations and camps for mine and offshore drilling sites. During the '70s and '80s, the company had an office in Alaska, and Boris Rassin, executive vice president of business development for ATCO Structures and Logistics, said the ATCO brand has been strong over the years.

"We have had a long commitment to Alaska," Rassin said. "When we opened this branch, it was like coming home. I saw lots of units while I was in Alaska, and they're still in use from the '70s."

According to Rassin, ATCO started business in 1947 as Alberta Trailer Hire. Its mission was to create offices and housing through modular construction.

"It was a regional business; but from that background, it grew and diversified in different directions," he said.

Today, ATCO Ltd., with more than 7,700 employees and approximately $9.9 billion in assets, comprises a family of companies providing utilities, energy, structures and logistics and technologies. ATCO's utilities group is focused on the transportation and delivery of natural gas, electricity and water, primarily in Alberta and the northern Canada. The company's energy group owns and operates hydroelectric, coal and natural-gas-fired power plants. The structures and logistics group includes ATCO Structures and Logistics Ltd., which was formed July 1, 2009, with the merging of ATCO Structures, ATCO Noise Management and ATCO Frontec.

The new ATCO Structures and Logistics builds on the complementary skills of the three former companies to provide services to clients around the world, according to Rassin. He said ATCO has the project skills to allow it to operate and cater to camp facilities, and the noise-abatement component provides clients the ability to build industrial buildings on the same site as housing and other camp facilities.

"It's a more holistic approach to our business," Rassin said. "One company has the ability to provide everything from site preparation to operation of camps and industrial construction. We understand the whole project, and clients don't have to do all this piecemeal anymore."

SHIELDING PEOPLE, WILDLIFE

The Anchorage branch will have the entire scope of...