BALGONIE, Sask. – A long-standing tradition on the Prairies of referring to ‘the Pool’ when farmers talk about their local elevators has come to a close.
Viterra, pronounced VY-terra, replaces both Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore United on hundreds of facilities across Western Canada.
Company officials and grain industry leaders toasted the new name of Canada’s largest grain handler with champagne at a concrete terminal near Regina Aug. 30.
Chief executive officer Mayo Schmidt said Viterra means “life from the land” and suits where the company came from and where it’s headed.
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After examining possible combinations of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore United, management and the advertising agency AdFarm decided on something completely different.
“Our new name must reflect our commitment to one of the greatest assets we derive our business from – the rich soil of the Canadian prairies and a long-standing relationship with the people that earn their living from this land,” Schmidt said.
The company’s new logo includes blue lettering and a green swish along the V, representing a healthy plant.
For Redvers, Sask., farmer Wayne Truman, a former Pool delegate who now heads Viterra’s Western Farm Leadership Council, the name is appropriate.
“I like the healthy aspect, the land, the people, environment,” he said.
For some the renaming was bittersweet. However, former AU director Alanna Koch said the name is a good choice because it moves the company beyond the past, particularly for those who might find it hard to let go of either of the two parent companies.
“I think the new name was a good first step to take to accomplish that,” she said. “I think Viterra is going to be a very crucial player in the future of Canadian agriculture.”
Schmidt said the company has already acquired some agriproduct businesses and plans further expansion in the fertilizer industry.
“We’re looking to the U.S. in terms of expansion opportunities with businesses that we might acquire there,” he told reporters. “We also have an office in Tokyo and businesses that we’d like to look at that are offshore, as well.”
Viterra, which has seven export terminals and more than half the port capacity at Vancouver and Thunder Bay, Ont., is also investigating opportunities in biofuel. It already is supplying feedstock for that industry.
Reminded that expansion and acquisitions in the 1990s led to financial problems that almost put the company out of business, Schmidt said the times, management and business plan are all different now.
“Agriculture was in a difficult time. They overextended and stressed the balance sheet and in our organization even after this acquisition we have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry in North America today.”
Viterra, which officially becomes the company’s name Nov. 1, will have annual revenues of $4 billion and 58 percent of Western Canadian grain handling capacity.
Market share is expected to exceed 40 percent.
The company will employ about 4,000 people at 276 retail centres and 104 grain handling and marketing centres, once the process of melding the two companies is complete in about 18 months.
It will continue to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under a new symbol that hasn’t yet been announced. Its website is viterra.ca.
Share prices dropped the day of the announcement, closing at $10.65, but closed up more than half a cent Aug. 31 at $11.25.
Schmidt said the company will not have a single head office but will instead have offices in Regina, Winnipeg and Calgary. The registered headquarters will be in Regina.
