SASKATOON (Staff) – People trying to raise money to build inland terminals can listen to the voice of experience:
“I’m sure they’ll make it, but it’s a tough, tough, tough grind,” says Ed Arndt.
He was in a group of farmers from the Wadena area who began selling shares in North East Terminal Ltd. in the fall of 1990.
Their goal was to raise $2 million by the end of February 1991 and build an 800,000-bushel terminal.
Twelve months and four missed deadlines later, they finally closed the books with a little less than $1.8 million in the bank and scaled-down plans to build a 500,000-bushel facility.
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Arndt said last week the people now trying to raise funds for similar projects around the province don’t know how easy they’ve got it.
“Today farmers are in a little better financial position than they were back then,” he said. “There’s a little more optimism in the industry.”
The Wadena group was working unbroken ground, he said, while the new groups have some idea of what to expect given NET’s experience.
That doesn’t mean he has no sympathy for what the new groups are going through as they try to convince farmers to open their wallets.
“It was a tougher experience than we expected,” Arndt said, recalling 18-hour days with no remuneration.
“We didn’t know what we were getting into. We had a unique group of individuals and we really had to work and hustle.”
Only a last minute decision by directors and advisors to put up more of their own money put the Wadena project over the top.
