SASKATOON – Tax breaks and asphalt may not be enough for Flexi-Coil Ltd. to proceed with a planned expansion in Saskatoon.
The city of Saskatoon approved a deal last week, under its business incentive program, that would give the shortline farm equipment manufacturer a five-year tax break on new facilities. The city also agreed to pave an access road from Highway 12 to the plant. The incentives amount to about $1.4 million.
But Flexi-Coil president Terry Summach said there is “quite a high pile” of offers from other cities that are wooing Flexi-Coil’s expansion – including Regina, Medicine Hat, Edmonton and Sioux City, Iowa.
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“The expansion doesn’t necessarily have to take place on 71st Street,” Summach said. “The (planned) plants are pretty efficient stand-alone units.”
Flexi-Coil moved to its present Saskatoon location in 1980 and has expanded twice since then.
Summach said dramatic market growth, driven by strong sales of its air-seeding system, has made another expansion necessary.
“We’ve been running the plant 24 hours a day for two and a half years. We simply need more production space.”
The company has 1,200 employees and the $14-million expansion could create “several hundred new jobs,” Summach said.
In its submission to the economic development authority of Saskatoon, Flexi-Coil estimated between 400 and 500 new jobs.
Sales in the midwestern United States and Australia are fuelling the company’s growth. In 1994, the company estimates as high as 35 percent of its sales will go to American customers, while the Australian market amounts to six percent of sales.
Western Canada still accounts for more than half of Flexi-Coil’s market, but Summach said in a few years the U.S. will likely surpass Canada as the main market.
Even if the company expands elsewhere, Summach said Flexi-Coil will always have a local presence in Saskatoon, where it was founded in 1952. “Our roots are very strong here.”
