We submit for your perusal a selection of press release headlines, dated from May 11 through Sept. 27, 2001:

* Churchill first-quarter earnings up 52 per cent;
* Churchill awarded $57 million of additional work;
* Churchill second-quarter earnings up 22 per cent;
* Churchill awarded $125 million of new work.

Snappy blurbs, and they speak volumes. They sum up a spring, summer and fall of good news surrounding the Churchill Corporation, which maintains a modestly low profile within a modestly appointed suite of offices in an industrial district of northwest Edmonton.

The Churchill Corporation’s TSE share price, as of the middle of last week, was chugging along at a modest $2.70, down from a 52-week high of $3.49.

Chruchill Corporation photo
Churchill subsidiary Stuart Olson quarterbacked the $21-million renovation and expansion of Commonwealth Stadium in time for last summer's Worlds.

Say what?

Check the ROB Magazine stats. Churchill (TSE-CUQ) was the 12th sturdiest performer among the 50 top-performing stocks, during the five-year cycle which concluded last Dec. 31.

“Our stock price has just about doubled every year during that time,” nodded Bill McKenzie, the company’s vice-president of corporate development.

Not only do such results impel canny brokers to nudge clients to take a tumble on Churchill, but they supply the best kind of motivation for the 80 per cent of employees who participate in the company’s share-purchase plan.

Still, the mystery lingers. Why is this growing yet undersold performer still soldiering on in anonymity?

“We are not intentionally trying to keep a low profile,” McKenzie said.

“But it is a real challenge for a smaller capitalization company, in an industry that may lack sex appeal to the investment community, to attract attention, regardless of how well it performs,” he continued.

The industry is construction. And Churchill’s family of Western Canadian subsidiaries – Stuart Olson Construction, Triton Projects, H&H, Fuller Austin Insulation and Northern Industrial Insulation – is busier than Phyllis Diller’s plastic surgeon.

In a late-September release, Churchill tub-thumpers listed nine recent contracts awarded to Stuart Olson, three more apiece for Triton Projects and Fuller Austin Insulation, and a brace for Northern Industrial Insulation.

A well-established name in the B.C. and Alberta construction industry, Stuart Olson has placed an indelible imprint on Edmonton’s superstructure over the years.

Founded 62 years ago by a builder whose name, funnily enough, was Stuart Olson, the company is responsible for refurbishing the 85-year-old Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, and for quarterbacking the $21-million renovation and expansion of Commonwealth Stadium in time for last summer’s world championships of athletics.

In 1999, Stuart Olson wrapped up the $94-million Crystal Project, a Vancouver-area commercial development jointly tackled with a U.S. company. Since then, the studly construction company has landed an $80-million contract for redeveloping Alberta Hospital Ponoka, as well as a $50-million plum for an upgrade on Calgary’s SAIT campus, and a $45-million contract for work on B.C.’s Coquitlam Centre Mall.

While Edmonton’s economy sizzled last year and is expected to lead the country in 2001, Stuart Olson was raking in $206 million in revenue, and Churchill’s cumulative total of $314 million was up 38 per cent.

This future superstar is hotter than microwaved jalapenos.

For evidence, we summon an expert witness: analyst Anna Beukes, of Edmonton’s Roche Securities. Beukes has been following Churchill’s performance for two years, and practically swoons at the sound of the name.

Her testimony comes from the heart. Churchill is not a Roche client, and the securities company doesn’t own a single share.

So you can take Anna’s word when she says: “A fantastic company.”

Construction may be dull, but in turbulent times, investors with foresight prefer to moor in a safe harbour rather than the eye of the hurricane.

Churchill management seems justified in believing company shares to be undervalued, trading at liquid tangible net book value, and less than four times trailing earnings per share.

Bang on, Beukes says.

“They have no debt, and the company is extremely well-managed. They’re squeaky clean, almost strait-laced,” she says of CEO Hank Reid and his team.

“Sometimes when a company’s shares are underperforming, it means the market has picked up something shady,” Beukes elaborated.

“But not with Churchill – no insider deals, no funny deals. They’ve got a record as clean as a whistle.”

Um, you may step down, Ms. Beukes.

The “strait-laced” cogitators at HQ have also noticed the company’s shares are not widely held. So they’ve launched an effort – modestly, of course – to make some dignified noise on their own behalf.