By Andrew Macdonald
- John Flemming’s Ocean Contractors Acquires Conrad Bros – A Chat With Kim Conrad
In April, second-generation contractor John Flemming, president at Ocean Contractors acquired the Conrad Group of Companies, which began operations as Conrad Brothers in 1956.
Conrad Bros co-founders, the late H.W. “Jim” Conrad and Fraser Conrad began hauling gravel from the Eastern Shore to Metro Halifax.
Today, Conrad is a leader in the rock quarry business in Nova Scotia. It also operates a trucking division and does remedial soil work.
The Conrad Bros in 1956 set the stage to eventually operating one of the largest rock quarries in the province and in Metro Halifax.
“Trucking with their own trucks, H.W. “Jim” Conrad and Fraser Conrad, did just about any kind of hauling they could,” says the firm’s website.
Conrad Brothers gravel truck. (Conrad Bros website).
“They began screening in the area in the fifties and took a leadership role in the industry. This was in a time when Dartmouth was beginning to develop as a thriving community. Conrad Brothers was incorporated in 1956 and has been one of the largest rock quarries in Nova Scotia ever since,” its website adds.
“As the Port of Halifax began to receive containerized goods, the Conrads were there to haul the first container to its destination. Conrad Transport was incorporated in 1978 as business grew in the transportation industry.”
“The Conrads have also become involved in the environmental industry. SRT Soils Remediation Technologies Ltd. was started in 1995 as a need for treatment facilities increased. SRT treats hydrocarbon-contaminated soil using the environmentally friendly method called “enhanced bioremediation”
Conrad Brothers operates a large rock quarry at Lake Charlotte, one of the province’s biggest crushed gravel suppliers. (Conrad Bros. website).
Fraser Conrad’s son and his two brothers have been the most recent owner/operators. But, they did a deal in April to sell to John Flemming’s Ocean Contractors.
The two entities are neighbours based in Montague Gold Mines, and Fraser Conrad helped Ocean Contractors when it was founded in 1974 with patriarch, Jack Flemming.
Ocean Contractors operates a concrete division, a paving plant, and mainly does municipal work. It is not into provincial road building.
Kim Conrad explains his two brothers wanted to get out of the business, while he wanted to stay. He is only 68 this summer.
Jack Flemming had long sought to buy out Conrad Bros, and as business neighbours the deal between Conrad Bros and Ocean Contractors made sense.
Conrad Brothers operates one of the largest rock quarries in NS. (Conrad Bros. website).
The sale, admits Kim Conrad “was a sad day for me – for me, that was my whole life.”
He explains his dad and Jack Flemming both “started Ocean Contractors 50 years ago. They started out as a small company (in 1974) and Jack (Flemming) took it to where it is now into the second generation.”
The sale of Conrad Group of Companies was part of succession planning for the second-generation Conrad family.
“I have two brothers, they wanted to get out. They figured it was time, and they figured I was old enough I should retire and I do not plan to retire.”
Two cousins, Brian & Scott Conrad ran Conrad Transportation. “We each owned the same percentage of shares in each of the (three divisions).”
His younger brother Brent looked after the soil remediation unit.
“Dad and I always wanted to grow and modernize and Dad would buy property around the (quarry) and bought a couple of hundred acres to use as a buffer zone, with the neighbours,” adds Kim Conrad.
The rock quarry is on Lake Charles.
“The majority rules and when you vote you vote”, he said of the other family shareholders pushing for a sale.
“It’s a sad day, it was a big part of my life,” says Kim Conrad of the sale. “But, I have to look through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. Maybe I can give a little more time to charitable things I do.”
One of his charities, as we reported in The Notebook On Saturday is supporting Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation.
And, since 1981, he has helped out the Kiwanis Club of Dartmouth, and he is a member of the Shriners and the Freemasons.
“I’ll be busy enough, I own some property.”
His mother, now 90, had also been a preferred shareholder with Conrad Group of Companies, and she is a significant property owner.
“I wanted to keep the business until the 70th anniversary.” The business will mark that milestone in 2026 because it was founded in 1956.
Conrad Group “is going from one family to another, it is still a family business.”
Its crushed gravel has been used to build roadbeds and is a main ingredient in pavement.
Ocean Contractors “always wanted to buy us. Jack Flemming always wanted to buy us. It was always in the background that they wanted it and would like to have an opportunity.”
After the lawyers and accounts were hired to organize a sale of Conrad Bros, Kim Conrad said: “Look, all you have to do is walk a thousand feet down the road from our office to Ocean’s office and I am sure we can make a deal that is going to be fair for both. I think it has worked out, gives us the same respect and accommodation that we gave them.”
Kim Conrad says “he is getting used to the idea” that he is retired from the contracting business, but for now, “I am still going to work.”
Besides his younger brother Brent Conrad, the other sibling involved in the family firm was Rodney Conrad.
