Greg Yuel

PIC Investment Group Inc. is a family Office. We own Operating Companies and place equity investments as a minority partner. We work for our Operating Companies by providing financial services, HR support, M&A identification, execution & closing expertise, payroll & benefits, Board Governance and strategic planning. The PIC Group SixPAC senior leadership team consisting of Cara Petrovicz, Craig Bell, Hugh MacGowan, Laurie Dmytryshyn, Terris Chorney and I – provide portfolio management services to each Operating Company and every minority equity investment that we are responsible for. On our best days we are the “anti-Red Tape” committee.

Our acquisitions closed in November for Panther & Round Table Management (RTM) and in January for RTM again as well as Long Lake Insurance (LLI). Adding the Lanigan branch to LLI showed how far our insurance business has come in seven years. The integration process was seamless and enjoyable by all accounts, making Lanigan our second-largest individual branch.

An acquisition impacting Panther, RTM, and ClearTech brought together various opportunities, perfectly reflecting the services our Family Office intends to provide. We acquired the land and business of Robert Rosen, whose company, City Lumber, became part of Panther where all our wood products will now be represented. Panther’s Pallets, along with the construction-grade materials of City Lumber including crane mats, wedges, and other custom-cut materials for the industry, will form a meaningful division for Panther, greatly improving their efficiency in Edmonton. The land is now part of RTM and provides the site of RTM’s next development: a commercial industrial offering in the northwest corner of Edmonton and across the street from ClearTech Inland Way. ClearTech will benefit in the future from the rail spur that was part of the land purchased. This opportunity made a great impact on at least three of our Operating Companies within one transaction. RTM also announced multiple real estate transactions in Saskatoon Riversdale for a future development.

Those Operating Companies remained busy for the rest of the fiscal year, focusing on integration and finding efficiencies while updating their strategic plan for continued growth. All our Operating Companies demonstrated resilience against a great economic slowdown. In their reports, you will hear about organic growth at Caron and CanGas, senior leadership additions in most companies to enable growth and then projects involving robots (Panther) to make hard work easier and IT projects at LLI, CanGas, and ClearTech to improve efficiency and reduce human error.

Effectively, PIC Group’s ninth Operating Company is the collection of 31 equity investments which in aggregate every year, pay a dividend, or return on capital, or one sells, and we receive our return on investment. We always place new investments in existing or new companies for returns in future years.

2024 was a productive year, marked by efforts to enhance our operations and demonstrate resilience. We worked hard to find efficiencies. We made progress wherever we could, often without dramatic effect. We learned a lot and often by teaching or coaching. We look forward to what the future holds as we prepare ourselves and our teams for the next big leap forward.

GREG YUEL