Blue Water Concepts Ltd.

We feel the team at Blue Water is deserving of this award for a few reasons. Blue Water started as a business 8 years ago in Squamish with Mike hiring two of his friends to help with labour, a pick up truck full of tools and a computer for designing projects and submitting for permits. Every year from the year the business started it increased it's revenue by a minimum of 50% with most years it growing by over 100%. In 2023 the company had 63 employees on payroll and was completing jobs across the Sea to Sky, Vancouver Island and various remote islands accessed by boat. With a proper management structure in place made up of employees that have been with the company for 5 or more years, it didn't resemble the Blue Water from 6 years prior.

2024 was a challenging year. It was the first year the company shrunk in size, both in people employed and total revenue. Blue Water was able to navigate what was a very challenging construction/development market and was able to keep it's management team and all core employees on the team while seeing a reduction of it's revenue of more than 50% from the year before. Through strategic planning as a management team, taking lessons learned from 2024 and doubling down on monthly and quarterly goal reviews by department and company wide Blue Water's team was able to not only weather the storm, but push through and by the second quarter of 2025 achieve and surpass the numbers seen in 2023 for both revenue and profitability in what some would still consider a very challenging market. Blue Water also branched out into development and has created “Clearwater Developments” which is focused on missing middle housing with it's first 4-plex underway currently.

We currently employ 40+ full time employees. We are a certified living wage employer which we are very proud of. This means everyone on the team is paid what is considered a living wage for our community, with most well above that threshold. We believe the reputation and trust Blue Water has built, earned and is known for is a direct representation of the individuals that make up this company. People are invested, people treat it as their own and people are proud to come to work. We take our company culture quite seriously with quarterly staff appreciation events. Our last one was taking to the team sailing with Canadian Coastal. Each of these events is planned by our “social committee” and is a new activity every quarter. We offer full benefits as well as encouraging and paying for the further education/professional development of our employees. We are currently sponsoring 4 apprentices who will become ticketed carpenters which is desperately needed in todays trades industry.

We believe the google reviews and the fact that 85% of our work still comes from word of mouth is proof that our team delivers exceptional service in an industry where that is unfortunately rare.