Richardson Oilseed Ltd. plans to double the capacity of its canola processing plant in Lethbridge, raising its daily handling to at least 2,400 tonnes per day.
Richardson senior vice-president Pat Van Osch said today that the company will use what it learned in building its new facility in Yorkton, Sask., to increase efficiency and automation at its older plant in southern Alberta.
“Our operating costs in Yorkton, as an example, are quite a bit lower than what they are in Lethbridge. We plan to kind of mirror the two and capture as much of that spread as we can,” Van Osch said.
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The company has acquired additional land to the north of its site and it is studying traffic options and its rail spur operations to address potential traffic congestion issues in the city’s busy industrial area.
Van Osch said the plant site will grow in physical size by about 25 percent as a result of the expansion. Construction is expected to start early in 2014 and be completed by late 2015.
Some operations will be further automated, and new technology is expected to improve efficiencies so there are unlikely to be any staff increases as a result of the expansion.
Richardsons completed a $15 million expansion in Lethbridge last year to its packaging plant, which also increased the size of the facility by 40 percent.
