A wave of grain company upgrades and farm reinvestments will create a booming market for Westeel products, company officials said.
That’s why it has reached an agreement with FWS Group of Companies to work together to expand each company’s construction business.
“There’s going to be a ton of those projects that are going to continue on,” said Westeel president Andre Granger about the plans of grain companies to expand their handling systems.
“We just think there’s huge opportunity there.”
FWS has specialized in large-scale construction on the Prairies for decades, including some of the newer large grain elevator systems built in the 1990s.
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Westeel has long supplied a large share of the on-farm grain bins on the Prairies, but in recent years has been getting more involved in providing commercial grain storage systems.
Granger said his company had the products to supply the big commercial grain handlers, but was not well-organized to connect to the big companies. The FWS connection should fill in that gap.
“FWS is really well known for working with some of these large commercial organizations and managing some of their projects, and we’ve been left out of that segment of the market because we haven’t had anyone actively servicing the market and promoting our product,” said Granger.
“(Because of this agreement) we’re really working to promote each other’s products and services and to be each other’s first choice in terms of brining solutions to the customer.”
Granger said the ending of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly will prompt many grain companies to rejuvenate their grain-handling systems. Farmers will also likely invest more in modernized bin systems that allow them to handle grains differently.
FWS and Westeel are headquartered in Winnipeg. Westeel is owned by Vicwest Corporation, which trades under the symbol VIC on the TSX.
