Nu-West
| Public listed on the | |
| Industry |
Real estate development, Petroleum industry, Lumber and building supplies, Consulting engineering, Mortgage financing |
| Founded | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Founder | Ralph T. Scurfield and Chesley J. McConnell |
| Defunct | yes |
| Headquarters | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
|
Area served
|
Canada and United States |
|
Key people
|
Ralph T. Scurfield (President & CEO) Chesley J. McConnell President of McConnell Homes Ltd. Sydney Kahanoff CEO of Voyager Petroleums Ltd. H. Earl Joudrie President of Voyager Petroleums Ltd. Harris G. Field, Q.C. Partner of Field & Field |
| Revenue | CAD619.3 Million (total revenue)(FY 1979) |
| Total assets | CAD1.3 Billion(FY 1979) |
Nu-West Group Ltd. was a Canadian growth-oriented house building company that grew into an internationally diversified conglomerate. In 1957 Nu-West Homes was a small, privately owned, house-building company operating in Calgary, Alberta. In 1969, Nu-West Homes Ltd. became a publicly traded company and was listed on the . By 1981 Nu-West Group Ltd. had become the largest house-building company in Canada, with diversified asset holdings of $1.9 billion, and over 3,700 employees. The company was heavily leveraged with debt used to purchase vast holding of real estate throughout Canada and the United States. This debt, combined with the recession of the early 1980s that saw land values tumble, resulted in Nu-West losing it place of dominance in the industry.
Ralph Scurfield, Nu-West's president from 1957 until his death in 1985, worked long hard hours to build up the near bankrupt house building company into a multibillion-dollar business. Scurfield's route to housing development was circuitous. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Manitoba, he was a school teacher in that province for two years, working the summers on construction jobs. In 1951 Scurfield abandoned his teaching career and drove to Edmonton, lured then, as others are now, by stories of opportunity and wealth in Alberta.
Soon after his arrival, Scurfield got a job working for Cheseley McConnell, a small homebuilder who became one of Edmonton's biggest during the six years Scurfield worked for him. In 1957, two of McConnell's partners, Clifford Lee and Gordon Clark, were saddled with Nu-West Homes Ltd., a 12-year-old near bankrupt homebuilding company located in Calgary. It was rapidly sinking because nobody would buy its poorly constructed houses. Lee and Clark were looking for a manager to replace the one they had just fired.
McConnell knew that Scurfield was eager to become a partner in McConnell's business. It was instead decided that each would buy 25 percent of Nu-West's then $60,000 assets and Scurfield would move to Calgary to revive the company. To come up with his $15,000 stake, Scurfield, in a classic rags to riches saga, sold his Edmonton home for $21,000, recovered the $9,000 home equity, and used $1,500 as a down payment on another house in Calgary. The remaining $7,500 provided half the money toward buying into Nu-West and the rest came from a bank loan. In 1981, Scurfield and his family owned 26 percent of Nu-West, then worth about $50 million. McConnell was the second largest shareholder with 21 percent.
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Wikipedia