Every year Business in Vancouver compiles a ranked list of British Columbia’s top 100 companies in both the private and public sectors.
On Tuesday, June 14, senior leaders from among B.C.’s biggest companies gathered at the Vancouver Club to be recognized for their hard work and to discuss with their peers the remaining struggles being faced in this recovering financial climate.
In a speech to the audience, Paul Harris, president of BIV Media Group, noted that in examining the lists many companies across a variety of sectors continued to exhibit flat revenue growth between 2009 and 2010.
“There is still a long shadow over B.C.’s economy from the recession. While many of the province’s largest companies continue to recover from the shocks of the financial crisis, the recovery has not been as swift, nor as uniform, across the province’s diverse corporate landscape as many might have hoped,” Harris said.
Harris remarked however that 2010 saw the turnaround of B.C.’s forestry sector, with the 12 publicly held forestry companies collectively posting their first increase in revenue in more than four years.
Keynote speaker Henry Ketcham, chairman, president and CEO of West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (TSE:WFT), was quick to check any overinflated expectations that may derive from these increases.
He spoke candidly about the current state of forestry in B.C. and his statements contradicted greatly the list’s findings.
“The premise that things are getting better is wrong,” said Ketcham.
He intimated that things were perhaps positive for a period of four to five months, but shot down the notion of a perceived recovery when he noted that his company is currently “selling lumber at the same dollar price as it was in 1981.”
Ketcham was, however, optimistic about the industry’s future and spoke hopefully about the next five years, with China and its foray into lumber construction playing an integral role in the ultimate recovery of the once booming sector.