Agricore has been busy changing signs in Saskatchewan this fall.
The co-operative has bought 10 farm supply companies in that province in the last two years, but only in the last two months has the ownership change become visible.
Dave Anderson, who owned one of the companies and now supervises all 10, said the name changes were deliberately gradual.
“We started the change slowly. At first we started to answer the phones, say, Custom Ag Agricore. Now it’s Agricore. Our radio ads started to say Agricore, then farmers started getting their statements with Agricore on them.
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“It has been slow, but we didn’t want to upset the customer base. But now we’ve got our signs up and that will help farmers identify the co-op.”
Agricore said the acquisitions are part of a plan to fill the co-op’s service gap in Saskatchewan.
Anderson said staff and management has remained mainly the same, with the addition of some agronomic and grains marketing staff to the existing businesses.
“These were very competitive, healthy businesses and their day to day pricing and (supplier relationships) haven’t changed much. Just the ownership, and that members can earn dividends.”
Agricore officials said the company hasn’t repeated the practice to the same extent in Alberta and Manitoba because it already had established operations in those provinces.
“We were pretty selective in choosing our locations in Saskatchewan,” Anderson said.
“Despite that, some of these spots have become pretty heated markets as all the (grain companies) are now trying to compete for farmer business. But we think we held our own.”
Agricore has bought farm supply businesses in Saskatoon, Viscount, North Battleford, Melfort, Ethelton, St. Brieux, Middle Lake, Wolseley, Grenfell and Montmartre.
It has also built or plans to build Saskatchewan elevators in the Herbert-Morse area, Grenfell, Loreburn, and the Plenty-Dodsland area. As well, it is involved in the Community Marketing Initiative elevator at Naicam.
“Agricore has kept its grain and agricultural supply businesses separate over the years and these elevators and agro centres are the same, separate,” Anderson said.
“It means we don’t have to build an elevator to do business.”
