Adroit Canada purchases three processing facilities after W.A. Grain and Pulse Solution placed into receivership in April
Adroit Canada continues to expand its Saskatchewan pulse processing presence.
The Surrey, B.C., company founded in 2010 recently purchased all three of W.A. Grain and Pulse Solution’s processing facilities in the province.
W.A. Grain was placed into receivership on April 26, 2021.
Adroit acquired the now defunct company’s assets in Vanguard, Ponteix and Pambrun for an undisclosed amount.
It was also a bidder on W.A. Grain’s Alberta assets but the Bowden plant went to Global Food and Ingredients while the Bashaw facility was sold to 2371394 Alberta Ltd.
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Adroit now owns five pulse processing plants in Saskatchewan.
It started with the 2016 purchase of a grain elevator in Neville. Adroit built a $9 million pulse processing facility on the same site, which opened in 2018.
That was followed by the acquisition of a grain elevator in Shaunavon in 2020.
“We still have plans to grow more and expand more,” said company founder and chief executive officer Yogesh Raipuria.
“Saskatchewan has been very fruitful. It’s the land of opportunity for me.”
The Globe and Mail ranked the company No. 166 on its 2019 list of the top-500 fastest growing Canadian companies based on revenue growth.
The W.A. Grain assets were a good fit for the company because they are all within a 50 kilometre radius of the Neville plant where the firm has an established relationship with area farmers.
“When these assets were available we thought we can easily run it with all the support from producers and it’s easy to manage because it’s in the same region,” said Raipuria.
The company mainly cleans and bags peas and lentils but it also processes other crops like chickpeas and flax. The crops are sold all around the world.
Adroit used to rely on toll processors to meet its growing export demand but now it will be doing toll processing for other exporters.
It ships Canadian pulses all over the world, including to its own pea and lentil splitting plant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that it bought in 2020.
Raipuria has also explored the possibility of establishing a pulse fractionation business in Canada but that is a minimum $100 million investment and he would need outside partners for a venture of that magnitude.
The firm also has a trading office in Winnipeg that exports wheat, corn and barley through other grain companies.
Adroit Canada is part of a larger entity called Adroit Overseas, which operates in Singapore, China, India, Madagascar, Mexico, Tanzania, Costa Rica and Turkey.
Raipuria thinks that is the main reason the company is thriving in a tough environment while other Canadian pulse companies are failing.
“Things are challenging, so people with more global presence are able to compete,” he said.
Having an on-the-ground presence in many overseas markets provides the company with market intelligence and local knowledge, giving it the ability to act faster on that intelligence than many of its competitors, he added.
“When the market is in an adverse situation you can manage your trade positions very well,” said Raipuria.
