Cooper Equipment Rental’s Trench Safety division has been rapidly growing since its launch in 2017 and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down! We sat down with Cameron Dougherty, General Manager at Cooper Trench Safety, to learn more about what’s new for 2022.

In 2021, the Cooper Trench Safety division expanded into western Canada, increased fleet offerings, added a new engineering shoring manager role, and moved into a new larger facility in Ottawa. These developments, in particular the opening of a Trench Safety branch in Edmonton, allow the team to better serve national customers while nurturing business relationships in the western Canada market.

Expanding into Western Canada

“In January 2021, Cooper Trench Safety expanded into the Edmonton market with the opening of a new branch.” says Dougherty. “With entering a new market came the investment in additional product lines. We now have GroundWorks Lite Shield and Air Shores in our fleet available for rent in Edmonton.”

The growth of the Trench Safety division by expanding into the Western market has also helped strengthen its service offerings alongside Cooper Equipment Rentals. It enables both divisions to provide a full turnkey solution to their customers, as they can source general rental equipment and trench safety equipment from one company, acting as a one-stop-shop for their project needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing the Trench Safety Fleet

In 2021, Cooper Trench Safety significantly expanded their slide rail fleet, which has proven popular in Ontario as well as Edmonton. In addition, Cooper invested in the TWF slide rail to complement the pre-existing Efficiency Production slide rail fleet, providing customers with more versatility for their shoring solutions.

Trench Safety Ottawa is Expanding

Due to their successful growth, the Trench Safety team has moved into a new larger facility in Ottawa. They previously shared a branch with the Cooper Equipment Rentals Ottawa East team.

“It was a new facility about three years ago but both businesses have now outgrown the shared space.” says Dougherty, “The expansion of our Ottawa branch has resulted in us moving to a six-acre facility located off Bank Street, close to the highway and downtown Ottawa, allowing for Cooper Equipment Rentals Ottawa East branch to utilize a full location too”.

Investing in the Cooper Trench Safety Team

Another key contributing factor to the division’s growth is a strong and growing team. “We’ve been busy adding some new faces to the Trench Safety team roster and we are excited for them to join!” says Dougherty.

“This year we’ve added 3 new Sales Representatives to cover the Mississauga-Hamilton territory in Ontario, another to manage the Hamilton-London-St. Catharine’s territory, and lastly Ottawa West – Belleville territory. We are very excited to welcome the new additions to our expanding team, as well as the continued development of our current Cooper team members by creating new roles such as our Engineering Shoring Manager position.” explains Dougherty.

The development of the new Engineering Shoring Manager role positively impacts customers. They now have access to a Trench Safety expert who is knowledgeable in complex shoring projects and provide site specific shoring solutions. This valuable resource helps customers manage the job from start to finish, and acts as a liaison between the customer, sales, engineer, and the branch servicing the job.

The Trench Safety team has no plans of slowing down and its growth has made a positive difference already in the form of improving customer service, strengthening business in new regions, and further stabilizing growth and developing long term success within and outside the company!

To learn more about how Cooper has grown their Trench Safety division, listen to the Counter Talks podcast episode where Cameron Dougherty talks about his experience in launching and building the specialty division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To stay up to date with Cooper Trench Safety news, visit their LinkedIn and Instagram pages for leading shoring industry projects and visual examples of the amazing work they do. You’ll get some good ideas of different configurations to provide innovative solutions for your next project!