OTTAWA (Staff) – When Reinhard Muhlenfeld of Edmonton strode onto a stage in Toronto last week to accept an award as an exemplary exporter, it was just the latest high point in the extra-ordinary career of this immigrant entrepreneur.
Nineteen years ago, he left Europe for Edmonton with a contract to be project manager for construction and start-up of the rapeseed crushing plant in Sexsmith – a two or three year gig.
That year, he started a rapeseed collection company with a dream, a building and one employee.
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Today, he is president and one of five owners of Champion Feed Service Ltd. of Barrhead, Alta., which sells alfalfa cubes, pet foods and feed to the world.
The work force has grown from one to over 100 in Westlock, Barrhead, Didsbury and Grand Prairie.
Example of the future
As a rural manufacturer using farm products as a base for value-adding, Champion sounds like a page out of the government’s vision for rural renewal.
Last week, his company was one of 10 singled out to win a 1994 Canada Export Award.
Representatives of Winnipeg’s Versatile Farm Equipment Operations, Canada’s only farm tractor manufacturer, and Western Star Trucks of Kelowna, B.C., also won export awards this year.
All were cited for trail-blazing efforts to improve export sales off-shore. They will be, said trade minister Roy MacLaren, “an inspiration for all companies striving to achieve international success.”
Reflecting last week on the journey from his native Germany to the stage in Toronto, Muhlenfeld made it sound almost easy.
“It’s simply a matter of finding out what the market wants and producing it,” he said. “Too many people build a plant and then try to sell the product. People should not build until they have a market secured.”
And instead of hiring a world-travelling sales staff, he has used local sales agents in the market country, from Germany to Hong Kong, Mexico to Russia.
His company sells chicken and pig starter specialty feeds to Asia, pet food and alfalfa cubes to the world.
Could a 1994 version of Reinhard Muhlenfeld do it again?
“I think there are great opportunities in Asia for exports of feed,” he said. “As those economies grow, their livestock herds will grow, but they do not have the land to grow their own feed. There is a market.”
