Kevin Blair is the third generation of his family to make a living in the crop input business and he is doing everything he can to make sure there’s a fourth.
Blair and six other western Canadian crop input retailers have united in an attempt to stave off competition from the grain companies and fertilizer manufacturers that are consolidating the industry.
The seven partners have formed Grow Community of Independents, an umbrella group that allows them to maintain their independence while working together on joint initiatives that will provide them with more competitive clout.
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“Grow is going to allow us to not only survive but prosper by coming together in unique marketing initiatives,” said the owner of Blair’s Fertilizer, a Lanigan, Sask., business that has five retail outlets in the province.
“It’s going to allow us to sit at the big kids’ table. When it comes to new products that are coming to the marketplace, new technology, you have to be a large enough entity to have a voice.”
Since the mid-1990s, independent crop input retailers have been pressured by grain companies trying to increase their share of the crop input business in Western Canada.
Blair said the initial wave of consolidation was a flop. Most of the businesses acquired by the grain companies were later resold or closed.
A second wave began about five years ago with companies like Viterra, Richardson International, Paterson Grain, Parrish and Heimbecker and Agrium gobbling up independents.
There are those in the agriculture sector who believe independents will disappear by 2015 or 2020. Blair and his partners, who together own 61 retail outlets, do not share that sentiment.
“We never felt that the independents were going away, regardless of what the industry said.”
Owners of the independent dealers live in the communities where they do business and have forged long-term relationships with customers, Blair said. He has served the same clientele since he graduated from university 25 years ago.
But the partners felt customer familiarity was not enough to retain business in the competitive crop input trade.
Grow gives them more buying clout with suppliers, which means they should be able to offer customers exclusive products and better prices under the Grow brand name.
Another advantage will be the Grow Academy, a joint training initiative organized by Layne Erickson, manager of business agronomy, where the 350 staff of the participating businesses will improve their agronomy skills.
“Our biggest focus is to be the best educated and trained and to have the greatest knowledge and understanding of our local areas and conditions. That is what’s going to separate us,” Erickson said in a news release.
