A Business Point of View

Marco Group Has Become one of Atlantic Canada’s Largest Construction Companies

The Marco Group was founded in St. John’s, NL in 1979 by the late Tom Hickman, whose family still retains majority ownership of the company. The company decided to expand into the rest of the region in the early 2000s. That is when Allan MacIntosh, the company’s President join the company as a co-owner and set up offices in Halifax. MacIntosh was our guest recently on the Insights Podcast and talked about the company’s growth over the past couple of decades. About 60% of the company’s work is now outside of Newfoundland & Labrador. Marco as over a hundred employees with the majority at its head office in St. John’s. Since its inception, the company has built billions of dollars worth of buildings across the region.

Since moving into the regional market, its revenues have grown from $30 million to $300 million a year. The company often works with major national companies like PCL and Ellis Don and is involved in long-term care facilities, multi-residential buildings, schools, recreational facilities and commercial buildings.

Evolution of the Company

In 2000, Christopher Hickman, the founder’s son, assumed the role of President & CEO of the company, marking a change in strategic direction for Marco. The expansion of the company beyond Newfoundland & Labrador began with the opening of a Halifax office in 2003, allowing the company to extend its reach across Atlantic Canada and pursue larger, multi-jurisdictional projects. Around this time, Marco also began to secure major national retail contracts with companies like Walmart.

Recently, Christopher Hickman relinquished his CEO role to Ron Ackerman, a long-time executive with Marco, and became the company’s Executive Chairman as part of a planned transition.

Over the past two decades, Marco has evolved into one of the region’s largest general contractors, using a multiple of delivery models including design-build, construction management and private-public partnerships. The continued development of the company’s leadership over the last decade or so has positioned Marco for success.

The company was ranked by Onsite Magazine, the construction industry’s national magazine, as the 36^th largest in Canada in 2025.

Business Focus

Over the years, Marco has developed a wide range of capabilities. It is one of the companies in the region able to undertake large construction projects on its own, those with budgets of $50 million or more. The biggest projects the company has been involved in was the $600 million construction of the acute care hospital in Cornerbrook and the $700 million construction of the Grand Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s, NL where the company partnered with PCL.

For large scale Triple P (Public Private Partnerships) projects, Marco mainly competes with the large national companies like PCL and Ellis Don. Other large regional competitors include Lindsay Construction, Avondale and RCS.

The company has built many large commercial infrastructure projects around the region including recreational facilities, schools and hotels.

Given the nature of the construction market in Atlantic Canada, the ability to pivot has always been important for Marco. As an example, the company has been recently more involved in the multi-residential market. The company has already completed 550 units, has 400 units currently under construction and another 1,400 units in pre-construction. The same is true for long-care facilities. The company has completed 770 units, has another 300 units in construction and 370 units in pre-construction.

Importance of Reputation

Over the years, Marco has built a strong brand in the region. This has been especially helpful on large infrastructure projects, with the reputation of the builder is helpful in financing a project and obtaining the bonds needed to build these large-scale projects.

Most major construction projects are competitive and require both a technical proposal and a costing proposal. Marco has prided itself on the technical scale capabilities and MacIntosh believes that has been the company’s competitive advantage over the years. He acknowledged however with the advent of AI, his competitors have narrowed the gap on the technical side of bids, and this will push the company to higher levels of competitiveness in response.

Looking Ahead

As MacIntosh noted in our podcast with him, the company is looking beyond Atlantic Canada and has already completed projects in Alberta. The company’s expertise is in the design and management of large projects with its strong technical staff capabilities. The company’s permanent staff is 110 employees, split 60/40 between their head office in St. John’s and Halifax. The company subcontracts in most cases, with up 90% of the onsite work to sub-contractors and will directly hire up to 250 workers for any given project.

One the key challenges faced by the construction and one acknowledged by MacIntosh is the shortages of skilled workers and a rapidly aging workforce. MacIntosh talked about the challenges of recruiting skilled workers and the opportunity for direct entry into the workplace for those interested in the trades, as well as some of the company’s efforts to retain employees. The work of the community colleges to increase the number of skilled workers is key to addressing this shortage according to MacIntosh, as is the recruitment of immigrants with these skills. Marco was recently named “One of the Best Managed Companies” in Canada for the seventh time. Having a reputation as a good employer is certainly helpful in the both the recruitment and retention of employees.

The company has high hopes that Prime Minister Carney’s Build Out Canada will provide new opportunities for the company, specifically identifying the defense sector infrastructure opportunities recently announced in the region. The future seems bright for the Marco Group of Companies.