The De Gasperis Brothers
Building a Family of Companies and of Multi-Generational Entrepreneurs
by Dana Lacey
This story starts nearly 60 years ago, in 1954, when a pair of teenaged Italian brothers immigrated to Canada. Fresh faced and eager to carve out a living, Alfredo and Arcangelo De Gasperis were ready to make their mark on this country.
In the early days, neither of the brothers imagined what their first business venture would eventually become. “The honest truth is that we were so busy doing what we were doing that the only time I really thought about the size of the company was when I was on holidays,” Alfredo says. “It has been a lot of fun but it has also been a lot of hard work. A lot of our business was created by handshakes and honesty. Your word was your bond.”
Following the advice of their cousin, the pair decided to launch their own company. It wasn’t easy, both being new to the country and to business, but their determination, work ethic and strong entrepreneurial spirit got them through that first tricky year. In the early years the company had only one employee and limited work experience, and was run out of a bungalow in Toronto near Highway 401. The family lived on the main floor, and the rest of the property was dedicated to the business: basement office space, backyard pipe storage, and truck maintenance in the single car garage.
In 1960, the pair was joined by a third brother, Antonio De Gasperis, and the company was ready to grow in a big way. So began Con-Drain, a small concrete and drain business. You almost wouldn’t recognize the company today: it employs over 2,000 people and commands a multi-billion dollar market share across several different industries. “We grew it little by little,” Antonio explains, “we picked up expertise in each project that we did, because we really didn’t know much about sewers back then.”
It’s now one of the largest sewer and watermain companies in Canada, boasting a host of subsidiaries that include road development, electrical and gas line installation, community and neighbourhood development, all operating under the Con-Drain Group of Companies umbrella. Con-Drain operates in the GTA, Golden Horseshoe, Western Ontario, the Ottawa region, other provinces and the U.S. And, in honour of its Italian heritage, the family also owns the Vineland Winery in the Niagara Escarpment.
The family’s most important legacy? A long, dedicated lineage of entrepreneurs. “My parents are living their life with a constant positive attitude coupled with an invigorating work ethic,” says, Antonio’s daughter Christene De Gasperis, who works for family subsidiary Aspen Ridge Homes. “They have constantly stressed that the little details in life are as equally important as finite decision making.”
In addition to their business empire, the brothers built a large, closely knit family. Nearly all of the granddaughters have attended The Bishop Strachan School. “We choose to send the girls to BSS because we wanted to create a great tradition within the family,” says Alfredo’s daughter, Carla De Gasperis. “BSS has a world class reputation and trains girls to become leaders in their chosen field. This parallels fundamental family values: ‘Do what you love to do and do it well.’”
Antonio and his wife Theresa have five granddaughters. From their daughter Carla and her husband Chris, there’s Alessia (Class of 2008), Cassandra (Class of 2010) and Arianna, who is currently in Grade 11. The couple’s son, Jim De Gasperis, and his wife, Lina, have two daughters who went to BSS: Stephanie (Class of 2001) and Amanda (Class of 2004).
Alfredo and his wife, Helga, have one young granddaughter, Laya, the daughter of Christene De Gasperis and her husband Sandro Colavecchia. Laya is currently in Grade 2 at BSS.
A lot of sacrifices were made to make Con-Drain what it is today, Alfredo says. It’s not always easy being an entrepreneur, especially as a new Canadian. The brothers are very much Old Country, and learned English on the fly from the tradespeople they encountered along the way.
Those sacrifices have paid off: Con-Drain focuses on residential greenfield development and has ventured into commercial and municipal business as well. It got its first big break in the 1970s, when Con-Drain was hired to clear the drains of chicken feathers in a west Toronto community. The company had been plucked from the yellow pages, and the community was impressed by their honesty and willingness to work around the clock. When the man who first called them went on to found Cadillac Fairview, he hired Con-Drain as his sewer and watermain contractor as it built the now flourishing 7,000 acre Erin Mills community. Word spread, and soon Con-Drain boasted a healthy stable of clients.
Their timing was impeccable. Canada was in the middle of an infrastructure growth spurt, and Con-Drain was at the ready to help the GTA grow. The brothers’ core philosophy no job is too big or too small played a large role in getting the company through the startup phrase. Even a small opportunity has potential to grow, the brothers point out. This philosophy, paired with their customer first commitment, helped attract loyal customers who preferred the brother’s quick turnaround and more personal, hands on approach to business.
Since the 1950s, Con-Drain has expanded through new subsidiaries and acquisitions, and now there are several businesses under the umbrella of the Con-Drain Group of Companies. The first addition was Metrus Properties, which quickly grew into a large player in the design, building and leasing of industrial buildings within the GTA. Today, the company boasts over 12 million square feet of industrial, commercial and office space. Next was Con-Elco, which found a niche in the reconstruction market by refurbishing older subdivisions and providing upgrades for utility companies, and Con- Strada Construction, which specializes in road work construction and spawned three companies of its own, all of which allowed the company to take on larger projects (and earn a larger cut of the profit).
The brothers weren’t done yet. The next subsidiary to launch was land develop expert Metrus Development. The company acquired Crowle Fittings, which provide the fittings and valves for the sewer and watermain industry, in which Con-Drain was already a major player, helping launch it into the industrial and municipal markets.
The subsidiary list goes on (and on), including Con-Cast Pipe, Con/Span Canada, Sky Cast Inc. and Concrete Products. In its first year, Aspen Ridge, the firm’s residential construction arm, built 20 homes. Now, it builds over 1,200 a year. The acquisition of Fellmore Electrical Contractors added roadway lighting, traffic lights and temporary construction site power to Con-Drain’s arsenal.
These subsidiaries all popped up organically, building a strong, vertical company. Now, the umbrella company can take a piece of undeveloped land, move the earth, install the pipe and storm water systems, the roads, the hydro and utilities, and even build the homes that go on top.
Of course, the brothers didn’t go it alone: both credit their success in part to their wives, who provided a strong support system. “My wife did an excellent job raising our children and understanding why I was never at home,” Antonio says.
All along, the De Gasperis family made sure to involve their family members at a very young age. Their children were expected to take on entry level jobs, and get to know each aspect of the company before climbing their way up the ranks. “We let them make what we hoped were small mistakes so that they would eventually learn how to make the right decisions,” Antonio says. “That’s one of the reasons we were able to grow so much. We’ve got some great kids doing some really good things.”
The second generation of De Gasperis leaders has since taken over some of the day to day operation of the Con-Drain Group of Companies, but the founding brothers are still on hand as the principals of the company. The kids (now adults) carry on the founders’ entrepreneurial spirit, and have each developed their own niches within the company. The siblings and cousins meet regularly, but they trust each other to follow their fathers’ ambitious footsteps.
“Family is everything,” Antonio says. “If you don’t have a family, then a business like this will disappear. All that I have done, sure, I have made money but in the end, I am doing this for the kids.”
And now, as the next generation of the De Gasperis family grows up in the shadow of entrepreneurism, you have to wonder what empires they will build.
