Dynamic Materials sees BOOM times ahead: Corporate Growth Award winner likes to blow things up.

• Author: Lewis, David

Dynamic Materials has been blowing things up for 40 years and has dominated the explosive welding market for much of that span.

The history of this year's ACG-Denver Corporate Growth Award winner is interesting and fun--it included the mid-1970s adoption of its stock symbol, "BOOM."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But it wouldn't mean much if the Boulder-based company's growth hadn't been on an explosive trajectory the past five years. Revenue rose at the end of 2007 to $165 million from $35.8 million at the end of 2003, while net income rose from the negative range to $24.6 million in 2007.

In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately category, company revenue continued up at a hearty clip through 2008, while net income flattened.

And when it comes to Wall Street's "What are you going to do for me in the coming quarter?" mentality, President and Chief Executive Officer Yvon Pierre Cariou seems comfortably assured of his company's continuing success.

One reason is his company's "hot list," which is its means of keeping track of every project worldwide that might be of interest. The hot list tells him there's still plenty of the type of work Dynamic Materials needs: the design and construction of refineries, chemical plants and the like.

"We are not a large company--we have fewer than 500 people worldwide--but we are truly global," Cariou says. "We keep a pretty close tab...