McCaine

When John Schubert first became a business partner in McCaine Electric, he hired Allan Grant to do his accounting. Looking back and realizing that it has been almost 11 years since they first started working together, Schubert starts to chuckle. “Boy, we’re getting old,” he said. “But it’s come to the point where I no longer see Lazer Grant as strictly accountants; they’re a business partner.”

McCaine Electric, 630 Erin Street, was founded in 1928 and will be celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. Having grown from a small enterprise into one of Winnipeg’s largest electrical companies, McCaine Electric now employs more than 115 people and has recently expanded its services to include voice, video and data communications.

Schubert says that Lazer Grant has always kept up with the company’s growth since he and partner Frank Mutcher took ownership. Schubert first met Allan Grant in the early 80’s when Allan was a young accountant working for a different company. When Allan Grant and Joel Lazer decided to leave the company to venture out on their own, Schubert did not hesitate to follow him. “He always returned calls promptly and took care of everything right away,” said Schubert.

Grant and Lazer formed their own practice, Singer Lazer + Grant which eventually became Lazer Grant + Company. Schubert says he is impressed with how much the company has grown over the years, particularly with the addition of their new business consulting service. McCaine Electric made use of these new services two months ago when they had Lazer Grant facilitate a client advisory board to get feedback from McCaine’s customers. “We knew that if we tried to do it, we might get some biased answers,” said Schubert. “Lazer Grant was able to give it a different approach.” The results gave McCaine Electric the feedback they needed and they are now focusing on the importance of the staff they have working for them.

When speaking of staff, Schubert says that he is extremely impressed with one of Lazer Grant’s accountants, Garry Chan, who has been working with McCaine for the past three years. “Garry is a great guy to work with,” said Schubert. “He is very capable and complements Allan very well.”

Other staff members agree. Bev Schubert, accounting manager for McCaine Electric, says that Garry is great to work with. “I have never had a problem with Garry,” she says. “He always takes the time to thoroughly explain things whenever I have a question.”

With McCaine Electric entering into an exceptionally busy season, they are glad to know that competent people are working alongside them in their business. “We have a very strong loyalty to Lazer Grant and always will,” said John Schubert. “They have always been able to meet whatever our needs were.”