Review of 2023 and Vision for 2024 at AGF Rebar

As we close out 2023, a memorable year for AGF Rebar, I wanted to take a moment to reflect and share my vision for the coming year.

The beginning of the year is indeed the ideal time to take stock of our accomplishments over the past few months. Here are a few highlights that we can all be proud of!

A major milestone: Across all our divisions in Canada, we celebrated our 75th anniversary, an impressive milestone for a family business. Everywhere, we felt the affection and commitment of each member of the AGF team. Thank you for sharing this pride with us.
Closer to our clients: Two quality companies with strong values of excellence joined the AGF Rebar family. NACK in Ontario allows us to better serve our sites with its expertise in pre-fabrication of rebar columns and caissons. With Rendan Fabricators in Nova Scotia, we can cover more of the Maritime regions and thus offer more support to our national clients.
Improving operations: Thanks to continuous efforts in managing remnants, more attention to quality, and improved maintenance of our equipment, we have remained attentive to our clients’ concerns, despite market challenges.
Progress in health and safety: We have worked tirelessly to improve our practices in this area, including the deployment of machine guards in our plants at a pan-Canadian level. A comprehensive virtual training program is being developed for an enhanced employee experience and increased prevention.
Promising starts in robotics: AGF Tecnik in India has started a program to robotize part of the reinforcing steel bending operations. The operator enters the bending data, and the robot retrieves the piece and places it in the identified stack. This is a great technological advancement with the potential to help our machine operators in their daily work. Stay tuned for future developments!
Hundreds of projects: From Vancouver to Thanjavur, through Latin America and Denmark, 2023 was filled with projects of all sizes. Wind farms, residential towers, tunnels, bridges, commercial complexes, hotels, hospitals, etc. Our rebar is everywhere!

Looking Ahead

I remain confident in AGF’s participation in great projects this year. However, for 2024, we observe that the construction sector is in a less vibrant cycle compared to the records of the past three years. In this context, more than ever, I wish for us to come closer to our clients with impeccable service, integrating their needs and vision.

That being said, in 2024, our goal is still to become the leader in rebar across Canada. We are also aiming for increased development in the European market through our EMCA division, and continue our strategic monitoring for North American growth.

AGF’s evolution in 2024 also undoubtedly involves changes that mark a new and exciting era for AGF:

• A spirit of innovation developing in all spheres of the company.
• The initiation of artificial intelligence projects.
• The integration of our ESG program (environment, social, governance) into our activities. The AGF Group Foundation is certainly a vector of this program, but also our participation in more “green” projects (wind farms, green energy production companies, battery production subsidiary, hydroelectric dams, etc.).

Thank you to you, our clients, for your trust and the business relationships we build and maintain with you.
Thank you to each member of the AGF team, for your dedication and hard work.
To all, thank you for being part of the story and our great adventure!

Together, we start 2024 with optimism and determination.

Happy New Year to all!