When most people think of a scale-up they picture a tech company. What they don’t picture is a 75-year-old engineering and architecture firm. And yet, WalterFedy is in growth mode, significantly increasing its national footprint and headcount. We asked WalterFedy CEO Garth Cressman about what’s driving this growth and how they’ve preserved what makes the company special.
The WalterFedy story starts in 1951, when the company was originally founded as HK Walter & Associates. Over the following decades, they grew through acquisition and partnership, to offer electrical, mechanical, structural and civil engineering, architecture and construction management services.
Garth Cressman, CEO, WalterFedy
“In the early days, there were a lot of industrial projects, and as the economy started to evolve, the firm had to evolve along with it,” says Cressman. The company became what the Waterloo area needed it to become.
Post-COVID is when things really started speeding up, with the company doubling in size between 2021 and 2026, to approximately 350 employees. This coincided with Cressman becoming the company’s chief executive.
“I’m not going to take credit for that, but a lot of success is equal parts hard work and equal parts luck,” says Cressman.
Growth was driven, and continued to be driven, by competition. In an industry where companies like Stantec – with 10,000+ employees – are bidding on the same projects, a company like WalterFedy simply can’t stand still.
The key is growing to meet the moment without losing what makes the company special.
Key Takeaways
- Age is just a number, even for businesses. WalterFedy shows that having a growth mindset means that even a 75-year-old business can be a scale-up.
- Maintaining the culture that made WalterFedy successful is a key to the company’s national expansion.
- The unique technical talent available in Waterloo has helped drive WalterFedy’s growth from day one and continues to be a competitive advantage.
- Embracing new opportunities in new industries – as WalterFedy is doing with nuclear – can be a driver of growth and competitiveness.
The WalterFedy way, coast to coast
First and foremost, WalterFedy knows what it does best.
“We tend to do really well on projects that have a lot of complexity,” says Cressman. “We want to focus on projects where what we do best is valued by the clients.”
That’s how the company competes with architecture and engineering industry giants and how it made its name in the Waterloo area. It’s also the philosophy behind its national expansion.
“The whole strategy from a firm standpoint is that we want to take what we’ve done well historically at the regional level and step up at the national scale and be able to service our clients across Canada,” says Cressman. “But through that lens of really purposeful focus on delivering consistent and excellent project experiences for our clients.”
The growth process hasn’t been an all-at-once leap, but a steady build of success on success. The company started closer to home and then expanded outward.
“In 2020, it was just Kitchener and Hamilton. Then we opened an office in Toronto. Then we expanded into Western Canada, and we now have close to 50 employees in Alberta,” says Cressman. “A year ago, our Edmonton studio had three people. Today, we have 16.”
And it’s all built on the culture that the company built over 75 years in the Waterloo area.
“We feel like Canada needs a little bit more WalterFedy.”
WalterFedy wants to win the talent war
One theme that Cressman kept revisiting was the value of people in an industry built on problem solving rather than hands-on work.
“We don’t have machinery, we don’t have equipment, we have people.”
And that understanding fuels the approach Cressman and his leadership team have taken to growing the company. It needs to be talent-first.
“I believe for the next 20 years that the competition is not necessarily going to be for projects, it’s going to be for talent,” he continues. “If you really orient your firm around recruiting, attracting, retaining, developing top talent, you’re going to win in the marketplace.”
That isn’t a surprising insight to tech founders, but the idea that talent needs to be your North Star for competitiveness is central to WalterFedy’s success. And it doesn’t just end with recruitment – it’s also about deployment, too.
The firm relies on a multidisciplinary model to help their teams collaborate, think creatively and solve complex client challenges. A typical building project requires an architect, as well as structural, mechanical and electrical engineers. They are separate disciplines that could work independently, but at the expense of the new ideas that come at the intersections of different expertise.
“We can innovate in the gray areas between the disciplines — and there are a lot of gray areas,” says Cressman. “That’s where I think we really shine.”
" If you really orient your firm around recruiting, attracting, retaining, developing top talent, you're going to win in the marketplace. "
Garth Cressman
CEO, WalterFedy
Embracing emerging opportunities like nuclear
Another driver of WalterFedy’s growth is a willingness to apply the company’s skillset in new settings and industries. For example, nuclear is experiencing rapid momentum right now, and while it isn’t the firm’s core competency, it does present an opportunity.
“We are not nuclear engineers. There are companies like AtkinsRéalis and Hatch and others that specialize in the engineering inside the fence, so to speak — and that’s not us,” says Cressman.
Instead, WalterFedy is getting involved in related projects that fit the sweet spot of their experience and expertise.
“We fit within the nuclear ecosystem in what I would call peripheral support projects,” Cressman explains. “Maybe it’s a training facility or an office space or an assembly yard. Maybe there is a nuclear manufacturer that’s looking to set up a new facility close to where a new nuclear plant is being built — that type of work is right up our alley.”
It’s important to find ways to apply the WalterFedy skillset to new industries, because that’s where the future business is going to be.
The lesson is that you don’t need to change who you are, or what your company is, to sustain growth. Instead, you need to know how you fit into the new opportunity and where your unique strength gives you a competitive edge.
In WalterFedy’s case, the competitive edge is the expertise and client service standard that made them successful in the Waterloo area for 75 years.
Putting a spotlight on succession planning
What do business growth and succession planning have to do with one another? According to Cressman, they’re more linked than you might imagine.
“A lot of firms struggle to shift from generation to generation,” he says, explaining that the company has always put a lot of focus on making a clean handover. “We even had a thing in our ownership policy that you had to sell your shares by age 60, and just having that baked in forced previous generations to be really purposeful.”
It means thinking differently about client stewardship. WalterFedy has worked with some of the same clients for 40+ years. The company’s reputation – which is a critical lever in developing new business during their expansion – is tied directly to their ability to maintain client relationships even when leadership changes occur.
Company experience is also important. Having lived the culture and values as a long-time employee supports continuity, which in turn supports reputation and brand. Cressman started his career at the company and then worked his way up over 20 years – with a seven-year gap working elsewhere – before becoming an owner.
Waterloo is still home – and a huge advantage
Cressman made it clear that WalterFedy’s location has played a clear role in its growth story.
“The company has always had a very service-oriented, practical mindset, and I think that’s aligned with the DNA of the community,” says Cressman.
Talent is a big part of the Waterloo region DNA, too.
“We’re really fortunate to have a lot of multi-disciplinary University of Waterloo and Conestoga College grads that work for our firm, some that have even become Partners.”
The talent connection starts early, too. Cressman is the case study for why locating next to Canada’s top engineering school – where all engineering students take part in co-operative education – is such a competitive advantage.
“I was hooked from my first co-op term here,” he says. The firm currently has about 30 co-op students from local post-secondary institutions.
Last, but probably not least, Waterloo isn’t just a great place to build a business.
“It’s a good place to raise a family. We’re making big investments in our healthcare infrastructure here. Strong arts and culture scene, good restaurant scene — and you’re only an hour away from Toronto.”
Want to learn more about WalterFedy? Visit their website.
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