When did you reach the $7 million mark, and when did you hit $80 million?

Negotiating with TerraVest was tough. They were fair but had a clear idea of what they wanted. However, we were in a good financial position and didn't need to sell, which gave us some leverage. We were willing to wait until the right time or the right buyer came along, and eventually, TerraVest bought us.

Have you been keeping track of how MaXfield has been doing since the sale?

What they brought to the table were their operations in Eastern Canada and the US, which also manufacture pressure vessels. When building pressure vessels, like we were doing, anywhere from 60% to 75% of the product cost is the material. If you have substantial funds and can leverage buying, you can save a significant amount. We used to buy our steel from Algoma in Western Canada. However, if you can purchase internationally and buy three times the amount of steel, you can save considerably. They've done a good job leveraging that.

That's fascinating. Could you tell us more about the business? What does it take to successfully grow sales? What does it take to be more attractive than others in the market from a buyer's perspective? What do the buyers look for? Obviously, price is one factor, but what about the quality?

You need to have a good quality product and a solid reputation. TerraVest retained the MaXfield name because we had a strong reputation in the industry for delivering not the cheapest, but a quality product.