Winnipeg’s Richardson family has been able to create something that no one else has managed:a large Canadian grain company that has grown and prospered over time.
Unlike the three prairie pools, United Grain Growers and more than 100 deceased companies that have tried to live and thrive in the prairie grain economy, James Richardson and Sons Ltd. has not only survived but roared into the 21st century.
The family failed to take over Agricore United in a heated 2007 battle, refusing to attempt to outbid Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s eventually successful offer, but it ended up with a good chunk of the company anyway, doubling the size of James Richardson International, the owner of Pioneer Grain.
Read Also
Canola used in only quarter of Canadian biofuel
Less than one-quarter of the biodiesel and renewable diesel used in Canada in 2024 was made from canola oil feedstock
The present Richardson empire, which includes a grain elevator system, a canola processor, international grain trading, property management, oil exploration and financial management, is a long way from the bag-of-grain trading company that James Richardson founded in Kingston, Ont., in the 1850s.
Richardson was trained as a tailor, often receiving as payment for his services bags of grain from farmers. He discovered he had a knack for grain trading and abandoned his trade and took on the grain business.
He hired his first western representative in 1880, and two years later built his company’s first elevator. It was the first Canadian grain company to ship grain overseas through the Great Lakes.
After Richardson died in 1892, the family eventually emigrated to Winnipeg, where it built a number of prosperous businesses and a reputation as the city’s first family of philanthropy.
During the First World War the family was responsible for getting Canada’s grain to Europe, and in the 1920s became the country’s leading exporter at a time when Canada was the world’s largest wheat exporting nation. In the 1920s it diversified into radio, financial management and aviation, forming Western Canada Airways, Canada’s first national airline.
The family appointed Muriel Richardson to the helm of the company in 1939, creating the rare spectacle of a female corporate leader. She was sometimes referred to as the “First Lady of Canadian Business,” serving as clan chief until 1966.
Since then the family’s operations have shifted, but always at the core has been the grain company, something it has had better success with than its competitors.
In the takeover battle for AU, JRI released financial documents revealing that even in the worst years of the early 2000s, the firm was able to make money even when companies such as Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and AU were losing a lot.
The company bought canola processor Canbra Foods in the late 1980s and is in the process of building another canola crushing plant in Yorkton, Sask.
The Richardson family, now comprising a few dozen relatives, is headed by Hartley Richardson. While usually keeping to the shadows, he and the family have been more visible in the past couple of years as they celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary, sprucing up its flagship Richardson Building at Portage and Main, putting the family name on a handful of local centres and institutions and dedicating artwork.
But if history is any guide, once the anniversary is over, the Richardsons will once more retreat to quietly run their grain empire, enjoying the fruits of an industry that has dashed so many other companies’ hopes.
