By Roman Hayter
Kitsaki Management Limited, the economic development arm of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, has acquired a 51 percent stake in AGI Envirotank.
AGI is a privately owned manufacturing firm in Canada that manufactures and sells ecologically friendly steel storage tanks and distribution equipment for the oil, gas, and mining industries and employs approximately 85 to 150 tradesmen each year.
“I’ve been talking to them for about a year now, just possibly working together with Kitsaki, understanding their business a little bit better, and then recently we’ve moved that into a formal relationship where we moved to purchase 51 percent of the company,” said Kitsaki CEO Ron Hyggen. “This acquisition is quite unique for us; we’ve never really been in the manufacturing space, and it also brings us into the agricultural aspect of our economy, so generally we’re more focused on mining companies, and recently we have been diversifying more and more into this area, so it’s exciting for us. It’s a new space, and we’re excited to get into it and work with the team to go after new work.” Hyggen said that as part of the acquisition,
Kitsaki will support AGI through governance and business development. “Because we don’t work in that space, it was also really important to maintain the current management team as well as the staff, so they’re staying on board. We’ll support them in the ways we know best, which is governance and business development; of course, we’ll want some aspects of training and employment for Lac La Ronge Indian Band members and beyond, but as far as their day-to-day it will be business as usual,” said Hyggen.
AGI Envirotank is a family-owned firm that’s located in Biggar, and has been in operation for almost 30 years.
(Photo courtesy of Kitsaki.)