Independent fertilizer retailers taken over by Agrium Inc. resent the implication that they walked away from their businesses.
Agrium recently acquired the fertilizer assets of Ross Agri, ServAgro and Heartland Agro Services.
It was the latest in what Dale Anderson, president of Sunalta Fertilizer, characterized as the consolidation of Western Canada’s fertilizer business into the hands of three or four large companies that will soon control the manufacturing and retail end of the business.
Agrium spokesperson Richard Downey said earlier this month that was not the motive behind the recent acquisitions, which gave a company with $10 billion (US) in net sales in 2008 another 14 retail outlets in Canada.
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“We now own those sites because they basically walked,” he said.
Heartland president Darwyn Boucher said that leaves the mistaken impression that his business was faltering.
“The bottom line is Heartland was a very successful business and I did not, in any way, walk,” he said.
The company amassed $60 million in sales last year and was recognized by the Regina Leader Post and Saskatchewan Business Magazine as one of Saskatchewan’s top 100 businesses.
Heartland operated three crop input outlets, starting in Moose Jaw, Sask., in 1992 and later expanding to Lumsden, Sask., and Regina. As of Oct. 1, those three seed, fertilizer and crop protection businesses have been operated by Crop Production Services (Canada) Inc., which is owned by Agrium.
On solid ground
Downey’s comments also upset ServAgro general manager Mitch Bonertz. He worried that suppliers would assume the company had gone bankrupt.
“We didn’t walk away,” he said. “It was a conscious decision to exit the business.”
The Alberta company sold its fertilizer assets at Foremost, Bow Island and Milk River, but retains the Esso and lube parts of the business at those sites.
Bonertz said it wasn’t a decision he wanted to make, but he took care of all his commitments and responsibilities on the way out.
“We just chose to get out of that high-risk commodity game,” he said.
Ross Agri and Agrium were contacted for this story but didn’t respond in time for deadlines.
Boucher, who still owns the Heartland Agro name, agreed with Anderson that there will be massive consolidation in the crop input business in the future, including more moves likely coming from Agrium.
“I can’t speculate on their future but it wouldn’t surprise me,” he said.
