Daniel Campo is in search of the next challenge

Daniel Campo’s entrepreneurial spirit was formed as a young boy watching his parents operate Campo Electric.

Their dedication to listening and meeting the needs of their clients is what made the industrial electrical company so successful, Daniel recalls, a lesson that left a lasting impact on him.  He used those lessons to help grow his own business, Campo Equipment, into a leading designer and manufacturer of portable construction heaters. Now, after a successful two decades at the helm of the company, he is stepping away in search of new opportunities.

“I’m an entrepreneurial freak,” he admits. “I’ve always thrived on the challenge of building something from nothing. I set a goal for myself as a teenager to create something of real value that I could one day sell.”

His entrepreneurial career began when, as an 18-year-old, he began buying and selling forklifts. That led to him importing and exporting heavy equipment.

“But by the time I was 26, the dynamics of the import/export market had shifted. NAFTA was no longer the untapped opportunity it once was, and I knew I needed to pivot. I’d always dreamed of building something of value, something I could grow and eventually sell.”

He tried a few different ventures before landing on designing and building equipment with Aquablaze hot water pressure washers. The company was competitive, he explains, but didn’t have the growth potential he was seeking.

“I began looking at the components we were already using, like pumps and burners, to see what else could be developed for the construction equipment space,” he recalls. “I’ve always believed that if I focused within the industry I knew best, my odds of success would be much higher. After some research and a conversation with one of our burner suppliers, I zeroed in on portable construction heaters as a new opportunity.”

He designed and built a 400,000 BTU indirect-fired oil heater and, by the fall of 2007, had his first 50 units assembled and tested. Armed with a list of rental companies he picked up from the Canadian Rental Association’s directory, he faxed out details to several stores.

It was met with silence. For weeks, he didn’t hear back from any of the companies he reached out to.

“Then, in the second week of December, the phone lines lit up, and I sold all 50 units in a single week. That’s when I knew I had found something real.”

From there, Campo Equipment grew.

And much of that growth was due to the lessons he learned from watching his parents years earlier.

“Many of the major players in the heater industry had been around for decades, but customers repeatedly told me their pain points were being ignored,” he says. “I made it a priority to address those issues directly, and we introduced major innovations as a result.”

A series of impactful innovations helped set a new benchmark for the industry. Among the most significant were variable frequency drives, which eliminated power inrush and provided greater flexibility on job sites; groundbreaking recirculating capabilities — an industry first for 200,000 and 400,000 BTU models; and the adoption of backward-incline fans, which significantly boosted efficiency and performance.

The result, he explains, was a transformation of 400,000 BTU heaters.

“Prior to our entry, the market standard could barely push 50 feet of ducting, drew 20 amps on startup, and had no recirculation,” he says. “Campo’s heaters could push 150 feet of duct, run on just 8.5 amps with no inrush on a 120V circuit, offer recirculation that saved 30 to 50 per cent in fuel, and operated quietly enough to hold a conversation next to.”

He points to the integration of backward-incline fans with integral motors as a game changer.

“It took indirect-fired heaters in North America out of the stone age and brought them into the 21st century,” he says.

The genesis of the technology came about as a result of Campo handling technical support calls. He discovered about 90 per cent of service calls were connected to power supply problems on the jobsite.

“Either the voltage was too low or occasionally too high. The legacy heater designs, which used NEMA-motor axial fans, were extremely sensitive to these fluctuations and offered very little in terms of efficiency or ducting performance,” he explains. “By introducing backward-incline fans — where the motor is integral to the blade — we achieved a compact, highly efficient and quiet system that completely redefined performance standards.”

Campo’s 400,000 BTU units’ ducting capability improve from 50 feet to 150 feet due to the fan’s higher static pressure capacity. As well, full load amperage fell from 13A to 8.5A while power inrush was eliminated.

“They made our heaters quiet enough that you could comfortably have a conversation standing right next to one, something unheard of with older axial fan units,” he says.

Another innovation was the ‘power leveller,’ which was designed by his father Jorge, a master electrician and, in Campo’s words, an absolute electrical genius. Incoming voltage is adjusted automatically to ensure a steady 220V supply.

“Whether the voltage at the job site drops as low as 180V or spikes as high as 245V, the power leveler corrects it. This has made many of our models extremely reliable and virtually bulletproof on even the most inconsistent job sites,” he says.

However, he notes Campo Equipment didn’t stop with equipment innovations. The company also offered 24-hours-a-day seven-days-a-week technical support, interactive troubleshooting guides and a dedicated training centre.

“While rental technicians are highly skilled, they’re not always HVAC experts. This level of support bridges that gap and gives our customers the confidence to rely on our equipment,” he says.

He believes the combination of product innovation and after-sales support has built a loyal customer base. Of course, his drive to find new ways to do things helped propel the company forward.

“At one point, just to keep my team working during the slower seasons as we were growing, I even set up a mini ducting operation in-house — renting industrial sewing machines, cutting tables, and rivet equipment so we could make our own heater ducting. It was all part of that relentless drive to keep moving forward.”

In 2023, that success resulted in Campo selling the company to Calgary-based Engineered-Air. Campo stayed on as president and CEO, but now, two years later, has made the decision to transition into the next chapter of his entrepreneurial journey.

“I had six businesses since 1998, and this ended up being the winner,” he says. “I feel I’ve done everything I can for the portable heating industry, and now it’s time for the next chapter in both my life and Campo’s. The company is in a strong position, and I believe it’s ready to benefit from new leadership and a new vision.”

Of course, stepping away doesn’t mean slowing down-it simply marks the start of Daniel Campo’s next great adventure.