Profile Stories

GROWTH AWARD / SMALL BUSINESS Sandy Shores Resort & Marina

Fast Growth at Sandy Shores Resort

Have you heard of Sandy Shores Resort yet? Well, you’re in for a treat. And if you’ve heard of it, I bet you’ll still learn a thing or two about this 2022 SABEX Small Business Growth Award recipient! investment with 60 homes and cabins, beautiful parks, shoreline trails, sport court and playground and a 200 slip full-service marina opened in 2022!

The idea of the development of a resort community on the shores of Lake Diefenbaker first emerged in the 1960s. Back then a few trees were planted and that was all. Twenty years later, in the 1980s, a tourism study identified that there wasn’t enough cabin development on the lake, still not much happened. Fast forward to 2014, the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Environment began a tender process to sell the land with the stipulation that it was to be developed into a full-service resort community. In 2015, Rauncie Murdoch secured the land parcel and launched her Sandy Shores Resort project.

Rauncie split the project in phases. First, in 2015-2016, she invested over $1 million in infrastructure, which set the foundation for attracting buyers for the first ten lots that included services such as quality roads, underground power and later potable water. By 2018 phase 2 was underway with the building of the water treatment plant and a total of 44 lots sold. In 2021, Rauncie launched phase 3 and today, the Sandy Shores Resort community represents a $4 million To accomplish this phenomenal growth, Rauncie focused on establishing effective relationships with not less than seven government agencies and several local organizations, including Ministry of Environment, Water Security Agency, Heartland Health Region, Department of Highways, Ministry of Parks and Recreation, Rural Municipality of Coteau, and Danielson Provincial Park. The goal was to secure the extensive list of permits required in a timely fashion. Her ability to find win-win solutions was also instrumental in her dealings with the many construction contractors, services providers and suppliers involved in the project. And she implemented a powerful marketing campaign to promote the resort, inform neighbouring communities and attract potential residents, in particular people living in Saskatoon who are only an hour away from the resort, and taunt the benefits of a beautiful, relaxed and fun lake life experience. Her tenacious work and skillfully executed strategy worked and earned Sandy Shores Resort a well deserved SABEX Small Business Growth Award.

SREDA presents the Growth-Small Business Award to Sandy Shores Resort & Marina

GROWTH AWARD / BIG BUSINESS DIAS Ground & Airborne Geophysics

Achieves Big Business Growth

With over ninety employees and offices in two of Canada’s largest cities, Toronto and Vancouver, as well as locations in Chile and Mexico, Saskatoon headquartered DIAS Ground & Airborne Geophysics has become big business in its eight years of operation. This year, and rightfully so, their sustained growth earned them the SABEX Big Business Growth Award. The boom in mineral exploration and mining to source what the world needs such as battery minerals, bodes well for DIAS. The adage “if it’s not grown, it’s mined,” has never been truer than today. DIAS offers the robust data for 3D models that mining companies need to discover what’s below the subsurface. DIAS’ is poised for continued growth.

Indeed, for the past five years, DIAS has experienced double and triple digits growth in sales and revenue. This year alone, they are slated to achieve 114% growth. That’s no small feat for a business that started eight years ago with a single patented ground survey technology, the DIAS32. Today, they perform some of the world’s largest 3D resistivity surveys through both ground and airborne technologies. From gap analysis to data delivery, and design to manufacture, Dias controls its own destiny for its products. They’ve also developed proprietary software, CARAVEL, which allows their clients to access dedicated purpose-built hardware using a simple easy to access interface. Their growth in sales rests squarely on their ability to focus on research and development and continuously improve their products and services. DIAS’ current growth is best illustrated by the list of countries in which they have performed commercial surveys. They include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru, Mali, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United States. To ensure continued work with some of the largest mineral exploration and mining companies in the world and to deliver their revolutionary survey models , they acquired a new and larger facility in Saskatoon, with room to grow.

DIAS’ success is Saskatoon’s success. Aside from their contribution to the local economy through high-paying jobs and contracts for goods and services, the success of DIAS’ technologies worldwide helps shine a spotlight on Saskatoon, potentially enticing other companies and individuals to establish themselves here. That’s big business growth we can all be excited about.

SREDA presents the Growth-Big Business Award to DIAS Ground & Airborne Geophysics