It’s not often that an industrial manufacturing company can trace its origins to a love story, but that’s exactly how CVS Controls Ltd. began. Almost 50 years ago, in 1978, Lyle and Marie Kurtz first met while working at a company that represented a valve manufacturer in Edmonton. She was a summer student going to school to be a teacher; he had been there five years already. He chased her; she eventually relented. They were married within the year.
Newlywed, the young couple decided to start their own business.
“My dad Lyle is very much an entrepreneur,” says Melanie Kurtz-Gibson, daughter of Lyle and Marie and current CEO of CVS. “They incorporated Continental Valve Services on August 13, 1978, specializing in valve servicing.”
They soon shortened the name to CVS after the Continental name created some unexpected confusion. With Continental engines commonly found in lawnmowers and rototillers, people were constantly calling looking for engine repairs, often tying up the company’s only two phone lines.
“It was pretty much a two-person show at that time,” Kurtz-Gibson explains. “My dad would do the service work and mom would do the administration stuff. They grew the business together.”
In those early days, Lyle would do service calls in his little green Toyota Corolla: “He’d go to production facilities, bring his blanket and pillow, and sleep on the production floor to make sure nothing would go down. Or he’d sleep in his car. Just to make sure everything was working.”
Lyle revealed that customers felt sorry for him sleeping on the floor and driving his old beater of a car, so gave him more work. “There were some rough times,” Kurtz-Gibson recounts. “We ate macaroni and wieners a lot. But my parents’ hard work and perseverance definitely paid off!”
While originally a service-only company, CVS eventually became the representative of a German pressure gauge and bi-metal thermometers line in Alberta. “Lyle just kept growing the lines that we represented,” Kurtz-Gibson says.
In 1992, the company was slapped with a lawsuit from the Kurtz’ previous employer, alleging CVS was passing off its control valves as new and not identifying them as refurbished. Soon enough, the competitor realized its mistake (CVS was only refurbishing the valves) and withdrew its lawsuit. “But my dad, being stubborn as he is, actually sued them back for one dollar more than what they sued CVS for, just to put it on their books,” she says.
The lawsuit was also what pushed the Kurtz’ to expand their business into manufacturing control valves. A couple of years later, when a U.S. centrifuge manufacturer that CVS represented began selling directly to CVS’s Alberta customers, Lyle decided to start manufacturing centrifuges as well. “We took all their Alberta business from them,” Kurtz-Gibson says.
From there, growth continued. “We started manufacturing chemical pumps and hand pumps,” she explains. “And in about 1997 we started ordering product from China. That was our push to go international and begin to outsource some of the product internationally.”
Kurtz-Gibson grew up in the family business from the time she was in diapers. “My mom would take us to work with her,” she recounts. “There was a supply closet in our old building which they put a little table and chairs into so my brother and I had a playroom. We spent days off from school, summers and lots of time there. My parents worked long hours, so we were part of those hours.”
As she grew older, Kurtz-Gibson began to help her mother with paperwork and running errands around the office. She took business programs in high school, anticipating she’d one day be involved with CVS, and attended NAIT after graduating, where she took business administration majoring in finance.
She began working at CVS after graduating from NAIT while simultaneously starting her own rodeo gear company called Bee Kwik Rodeo Gear (the Kurtz family is a big rodeo family). “I was running that on the side, having a lot of fun with it, but then I realized that what I sold in rodeo gear in one month was equal to what I could sell at CVS in an hour! So I decided to wind down the rodeo gear company and focus on CVS.”
About 15 years ago, Lyle asked Kurtz-Gibson if she could step into the CEO role. Though semi-retired, both Lyle and Marie still help out with the company. Kurtz-Gibson’s husband, Chris Gibson, is president.
Today, approximately 60 per cent of CVS’s business is the manufacture of control valves, and the other 40 per cent is ball valves, for the process production control markets across Western Canada and beyond. About 80 per cent of its products go into oil and gas applications, predominantly production facilities. Other applications include in pulp and paper, HVAC and even some tequila factories in Mexico.
CVS’s products are interchangeable with its competitor’s valves and are COR and ISO 9001: 2015 certified.
All of its products are assembled and tested at its 144,000 square foot facility, located on 10 acres in Nisku, into which the company moved last year. It sources parts and products from around the world. “We have a foundry in India that exclusively pours our products, and we deal with foundries in Canada, the U.S and China,” Kurtz-Gibson says. “We have our own machine shop and deal with multiple machine shops in the Edmonton region. We try and source what we can from Alberta.”
Approximately 80 per cent of CVS’s business is in Canada while the other 20 per cent is from around the world, including the Middle East (UAE), Latin America, the U.S. and China. Some customers require 100 per cent Canadian product – which CVS can provide – while others are more cost conscious and will accept products from other parts of the world.
Quality is paramount, and the quality control team works from the moment the product arrives in the facility to once its shipped. CVS also has a few team members who travel around the world and inspect products before they are shipped to Canada.
“We have multiple checks throughout the process,” Kurtz-Gibson explains. “From when we receive the product, during assembly and after its completely assembled. Then our shipping department is meticulous to make sure the product is shipped in the best state possible so that it doesn’t get damaged.”
CVS’s facility runs five days per week and produces approximately 8,300 valves per year. “Our 10-year target, set in 2021, is to sell 12,000 valves per year by 2031,” she notes.
The company has 165 employees. “About two-thirds of that is within the manufacturing scope, and one third is on the corporate side,” Kurtz-Gibson explains. Apart from its facility in Nisku, CVS has 60 sales representatives in 47 different countries with offices in Singapore, China and Mexico.
In 2021, Kurtz-Gibson implemented an entrepreneurial operating system (EOS) at CVS. “It’s a people operating system that harnesses human energy through simple tools and principals,” she explains. “Through that you develop your core values for the company. Our core values are working together, winning together, growing together, embracing change, doing what we say, being humble and kind, and always improving.”
“We have our core focus – which is to build a great company, products and with great people – and that breaks us down into what we call our ‘Uniques’ – quality product, exceptional service and outstanding value,” she continues. “EOS has helped us dial in our marketing strategy and our one-year plans, which we also break down into quarterly goals and are measurable.”
Each quarter, everybody in the company comes together for a big group meeting to go over the last quarter, current status and future plans.
The company has a long history of supporting the local communities, including the Leduc Rotary and Food Bank. The family is also big rodeo supporters. “My dad was actually one of the key people to get team roping implemented into the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association,” Kurtz-Gibson says proudly. “We support numerous athletes and rodeos across the Western provinces, including 21 cowboys and cowgirls right now.”
CVS also supports Tools for School, a United Way program which aims to reduce barriers preventing children and youth from successfully learning and participating in school.
Looking forward, Kurtz-Gibson is focused on the people, processes and systems for sustainable growth. “We’re trying to invest in our people and expand our product offerings,” she closes. “We have new products coming out and we’re strengthening our manufacturing capabilities by embracing more technology.”
A love story for the ages, or at least, the Alberta manufacturing sector.