Sources: Armtec Infrastructure Income Fund, Guelph, Ontario; CP staff
Armtec, a consolidation catalyst unlike any Canadian precast producers have encountered, has acquired Burnco Concrete Products Ltd., with four plants in Calgary and Edmonton. Those sites will operate under the Con-Force brand, as the seller retains the identity of its core aggregate and ready mixed business, Burnco Rock Products.

The $50 million transaction occurred eight days after Armtec closed on Ontario’s four-plant Brooklin Concrete and two-plant Boucher Pre-cast Concrete Ltd., deals valued at $43 million and $22 million, respectively. Those transactions followed, by just over a month, Armtec’s acquisition of A.E. Concrete, Surrey, B.C., for $19 million. In an early-June, $18.5 million transaction, the firm acquired Durisol Inc., a Mitchell, Ontario, highway sound barrier and precast retaining wall producer.

Toronto Stock Exchange-traded Armtec entered concrete in October 2007, acquiring a giant in North American precast/prestressed, Con-Force Structures, with Calgary headquarters plant, plus British Columbia and Manitoba satellites. “Burnco Concrete is another important step in our strategic growth plan,” says Armtec President and CEO Charles Phillips. “[It] significantly expands the Con-Force division’s standard product offering in Alberta and extends our product diversity. This acquisition, in conjunction with the addition of A.E. Concrete and Brooklin Concrete Products, is a key part of our strategy to develop a stronger precast product base and expand offerings across markets we serve.”

Armtec notes production synergy between eastern and western Canadian operations to be gained under the Con-Force division umbrella. Certain product formerly confined to fabrication in Ontario, for example, can be made at the Con-Force sites, and vice versa. Along with the former Burnco Concrete plants, the Brooklin, Boucher and A.E. Concrete properties have joined the Con-Force division, headed by Ron Adams, president and Armtec executive vice president. Durisol has become a stand alone business for the fund. Separate from Durisol and the Con-Force operations, the Armtec division is Canada’s only national multi-material manufacturer specializing in high density polyethylene pipe, corrugated steel pipe for drainage applications, and engineered structures for short-span bridges and water-management systems.