Murad Al-Katib spent every summer of his youth on European vacations that would always conclude with a visit to the family’s Turkish homeland.
“Coming from a multicultural background my parents always wanted us to know there was a world outside of Saskatchewan,” said Al-Katib, president of Alliance Pulse Processors Inc., one of the largest pulse processing firms in North America.
He didn’t realize it then but those trips would shape what would become a business philosophy for a Saskatchewan company expected to generate $150 million in sales in 2008. The company slogan is, “From the producer to the world.”
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Al-Katib was born and raised in Davidson, Sask., a town of 1,000 located halfway between Saskatoon and Regina.
That surprises a lot of people who assume by his appearance and his name that he’s a foreigner. When he wasn’t as well known a figure in agricultural circles he would get the occasional compliment from growers about his impeccable English.
“I guess I can thank Mrs. Holswick, who was my Grade 12 English teacher at Davidson high school,” was his standard sarcastic response.
Al-Katib’s father, a British-trained doctor, moved the family from Turkey to Saskatchewan in 1965 and eventually set up a practice in Davidson. His mother became a town councillor and eventually mayor of the small community.
After high school graduation Al-Katib received a bachelor of commerce degree at
the University of Saskatchewan followed by a master of international management from the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona. His graduating class in Arizona had 400 students from 68 countries.
“It was a world within a campus,” he said, adding the experience furthered his view that the world is open for business.
While he was attending school in Arizona, Al-Katib wrote a letter to Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow detailing his thoughts on how such an export-dependent province could do a better job on international trade by ensuring exporters are paid in a safe and timely fashion.
The deputy premier followed up on the letter and
Al-Katib soon found himself heading up the international finance division of a new government organization called the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP).
As a graduate of one of the top business programs in North America, Al-Katib had always envisioned himself working on Wall Street. But the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to return to his home province.
“I realized I could come back to Saskatchewan and get an opportunity to do things that I would never have the chance to do in New York.”
He spent the next six years working for STEP, travelling to 65 countries to pave the way for the smooth export of Saskatchewan products.
In his travels he met the Arslan family, owners of Arbel Pulse Grain Industry and Trade S.A., the largest exporter of pulses in Turkey and a big buyer of Saskatchewan lentils. They were delighted to learn that Al-Katib spoke fluent Turkish.
Al-Katib couldn’t understand why Saskatchewan was exporting raw product to splitters such as Arbel when the province could be processing the product straight off the combine.
“Why do we want to make the same mistake with red lentils that we made on mustard?” he thought to himself.
Al-Katib credits his mother, who worked tirelessly on bringing economic development opportunities to Davidson, as the inspiration behind his plan to build North America’s largest red lentil splitting plant in Regina.
He approached the Arslan family about investing in the project.
Saskcan Pulse Trading Inc. became a reality when the two parties consummated the deal at the International Pulses Trade and Industry Confederation convention in Vancouver in 2001.
Jan. 30 marks the fifth anniversary of the first load shipped out of the Regina plant. The company has initiated a series of acquisitions and mergers since then. The new company, Alliance Pulse Processors, operates six processing plants in Canada, the United States and Australia.
As of Oct. 31, Al-Katib was overseeing a firm with a market value of $60 million and 145 full-time staff in Saskatchewan alone.
It hasn’t always been a smooth ride. He came under heavy criticism in the summer of 2006 when red lentil prices were languishing at slightly more than 10 cents per pound, a far cry from where he told growers they would be.
Prices rebounded that fall and haven’t let up. Al-Katib is proud that Canadian red lentil farmers are no longer squeezed by international buyers.
“The proof is in the returns that we’ve shown to growers. When I started, red lentils were always at a discount to green lentils.”
Garth Patterson, executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, said he wouldn’t go quite that far because grower returns are the function of many factors. However, he said Al-Katib did prove that western Canadian growers can add value to red lentils domestically rather than shipping the raw product abroad.
“He really had a vision to be a world leader in red lentils and in a short time period … he has been able to achieve that.”
In addition to what Al-Katib’s business has done for the industry, he has also made significant personal contributions to policy development, serving on various Saskatchewan Pulse Grower committees, as vice-chair of Pulse Canada and as president of the Canadian Special Crops Association.
“He is a pleasure to work with,” Patterson said.
Despite the expanding global presence of his company, Al-Katib has no intention of leaving Regina, where along with his wife, Michelle, he is raising six-year-old twins: daughter Serra and son Tariq.
“I always say, ‘In business, never is a long time,’ but I will never move away from this area. This is home to me,” he said.
And if his son has anything to say about it, the company will be in the family for at least another generation. When people ask Tariq what he wants to be
when he grows up, he says he wants to trade lentils like his daddy.
“I’m not sure that’s going to get him the chicks or anything, but it’s something I’m proud of,” Al-Katib said.
