BACK ON TRACK: Ralph Wareham, left, and Tony Calafatis see Foremost hopes Bruce Stotesbury, Calgary Herald new opportunities with the armed services' BV206 vehicle ride on contract
CANADIAN FOREMOST LTD. By Christopher Donvilie (Herald staff writer) When Tony Calafatis and Ralph Wareham went to work Thursday, they saw their futures, and those of more than 200 other Calgarians, parked on the lawn in front of their northeast plant. The pair of Canadian Foremost Ltd. employees saw a short, squat, rubber-tracked all-terrain vehicle a Swedish prototype of the more than 800 such vehicles the firm will build here for the Department of National Defence between now and 1996.
"This is going to be a pretty big boost for Canadian Foremost," said Wareham, 38, a 10-year veteran at the Calgary-based manufacturer of all-terrain vehicles and drilling equipment. "It's going to get us out of the oil rut," he said. "There'd been layoffs, we'd get called back. Security was really up and down. This puts us on an even keel for a while." "The bottom line," said Calafatis, 33, CF's publications supervisor, "is that it's a more secure stake.
You know you'll have a job to come to." Founded in 1952 230 employees. 1987 revenue $115 million. Net loss before extraordinary gain, $535,000. Final net income $433,000. 1986 revenue $20.6 million Final netincome $1 million Herald Graphic The good feelings at the plant were the result of Defence Minister Perrin Beatty announcing, on that same lawn, that Canadian Foremost was a key player in a $421-million, 10-year project to equip the Canadian Forces with the northern-terrain vehicle, known as the BV206.
The vehicles will be added to the armed forces' existing fleet of more than 100 BV206s to be used in the defence of Canada and to meet Canada's commitments to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Beatty said. "This announcement is significant to the Canadian Armed Forces, it's significant for Canada"
canadianarmytoday.com
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