Profit magazine's annual list of Canada's fastest-growing companies listed Calgary-based RedPoint Media at number 88.

Anyone who’s been out to the Alberta Magazines Conference knows how vibrant the publishing scene is in the tar sands province, so we weren’t surprised to see Calgary-based RedPoint Media Group Inc., on Profit magazine’s list of Canada’s fastest-growing companies for the second year in a row.

The five-year-old company ranked 88, with growth of 690% over five years. In 2007, RedPoint earned $9,546,663, compared to $1,207,773 in 2002. Profits last year were in the 0-10% range.

Executive vice president Gary Davies credits a strong creative team for the company’s success. “Our staffing costs represents almost half our costs,” Davies said. RedPoint employed 67 people in 2007, up from 18 in 2002 (when RedPoint was still two separate companies).

“Being in a competitive market like Calgary, we’ve made a lot of efforts to improve the full compensation plans,” Davies said. “We’re concerned about keeping up with salary increases and cost of living in Calgary, so we’ve added things like an end of year bonus for staff, a gym membership plan, pizza Fridays and staff parties every couple of months.”

RedPoint formed in March of 2003 with the merger of Avenue Media Group and Calgary Publishing.  Things got off to a shaky start,  culminating in a power struggle between the two owning partners that ended in May 2005, when Don Graves (Calgary Publishing) successfully bought out Dan Bowman.

Today, the company produces both consumer (Avenue, Wine Access, CalgaryInc) and custom titles. At the end of 2005, RedPoint won the contract to produce Up!, WestJet’s in-flight magazine, which had revenues in the $3 million area last year.

Related links

• Alberta Magazine Publishers Association