Armtec leads in drainage and precast concrete solutions for infrastructure and building construction markets Canadian Design and Construction Report special feature Founded in 1908 as Canada Ingot Iron, Armtec has a long history of supplying products to the Canadian construction market. Today, through 40 locations across the country, Armtec has become one of Canada’s largest suppliers of drainage and precast concrete solutions for infrastructure, building construction, natural resource and agricultural seg- ments. Matt Balfe, precast concrete national sales and market- ing director, says the company started with a drainage focus founded as Canada Ingot Iron and then changed its name to Armco Drainage & Metal Products in 1931. “There were a series of name and organizational changes after that, including the change to Armco Drainage & Metal Prod- ucts to Armtec in the late 90s, but the company remained in steel and plastic with drainage as its core business.” In 2004, Armtec became a publicly traded company through an IPO (initial public offering) and by 2007 the com- pany began making what would be a total of nine acquisi- tions of precast concrete businesses stretching from B.C. to Quebec. “Precast is complimentary to drainage in many ways. Each of the companies we acquired and brought under the Armtec umbrella had different core strengths and different scopes of work and experience.” In 2015 the company returned to being a private com- pany, now owned by Brookfield Asset Management. Balfe says the marriage of the companies Armtec ac- quired included the retention of key client facing staff, many of who today still remain from the legacy companies. “We’re still growing, investing in equipment and talent, but many of those key people remain, or have just recently re- tired.” Today the company offers precast solutions in three main segments: Infrastructure (including bridges, light rail transit and marine structures); building construction (includ- ing landscape products, electrical vaults, parking garages, hollowcore and wall panels) and natural resources and en- ergy (including trenches, utilidors and custom solutions). “We have worked on projects ranging from parking structures to long-term care facilities to providing custom solutions for the natural resources and energy sectors. We work with owners, engineers, architects and contractors to ensure their project’s needs are met.” Some of those needs include building code require- ments. Balfe says precast lends itself well to the National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings for its resilience, sus- tainability and its inherent thermal properties. “We also work closely with our external vendors to ensure we are able to supply non-conductive ties and connectors to fur- ther improve the thermal properties of our building enve- lope solutions.” Precast is also durable and adaptable, meeting other specific needs, and the growing requirements for sustain- ability. Armtec is a member of the Precast/Prestressed Con- crete Institute (PCI), the Canadian Precast/ Prestressed The Canadian Design and Construction Report — July - August 2016 – 31