bcbusiness.ca october 2016 BCBusiness 57
with the increasing reliabil-
ity of wireless technolo—y,
the company remained com-
pact—now boasting just a
couple of dozen employees.
"It was a knock against us
early on, companies thought
we were too small."
Cypress handily put
that misconception to rest,
with expansive contracts
that include 3,000 units
across eight departments
for the City of Calgary and
outtting 1,600 vehicles
for the Ontario Provincial
Police. The company's
recent acquisition of Agilink
Systems Corp. has also
added another product to
the mix: a backup cellular
communication system used
for clients in the banking
and retail space, including
heavyweights such as
Starbucks. —J.B.
V
italus nutrition has changed
considerably since Philip
Vanderpol's grandfather
started the business in the
1950s. From a roadside stand
selling eggs and fish, the family
company added a dairy division in
the 1970s–right around the time
north american milk consump-
tion rates started a 30-plus-year
decline.
under Vanderpol's leadership,
the company has undergone a rad-
ical shift to become a major sup-
plier of milk protein, isolates and
other nutritional components for
use in everything from infant for-
mula to supplements. With a cli-
ent list that now includes Danone
nutrition and abbott nutrition,
the company has positioned itself
as a leader in food technology and
is poised to benefit from emerging
health trends such as prebiotics.
earnings for the company have
nearly doubled since 2014, from
$3.5 million to $6 million. that has
the company confident its goal
of earning $20 million by 2020 is
within reach. "it's in our
Dna to
always look at how we can get
more value out of things than our
global competitors."
–J.B.
B
igger isn't always
better, and Casey
O'Neill has the proof.
After starting Cypress
Solutions Inc. in 1997 as an
engineering services rm,
he pivoted the company in
2003 to focus on design-
ing, manufacturing and
servicing "rugged" wire-
less devices designed to let
machines—think police and
safety vehicles, or oil and gas
™eets—connect to back-end
systems and upload data
such as
GPS info or whether
a siren has been turned on.
But even as demand grew
Casey O'Neill
Founder and CEO, Cypress Solutions Inc.
r u nn e r - u p
Philip Vanderpol
President and Founder,
Vitalus nutrition Inc.
r u nn e r - u p
E m E r g I n g T E C h n O L O g Y
