Western Canada’s largest farmer-owned grain company has reported a record financial performance for the 2007 fiscal year.
Weyburn Inland Terminal recorded after-tax earnings of $5.62 million, on gross revenues of $71.3 million, for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2007.
The previous year earnings were $4.07 million on gross revenues of $48.9 million.
Grain handling volumes were nine percent higher at 520,000 tonnes, while crop input sales at $21 million were up 43 percent from the previous year.
Those results prompted the company to approve a record semi-annual dividend of $2 per common share and $1.60 for Preferred A shares, for a total payout of $2.01 million, to be distributed by April 4.
Read Also
Ag in Motion speaker highlights need for biosecurity on cattle operations
Ag in Motion highlights need for biosecurity on cattle farms. Government of Saskatchewan provides checklist on what you can do to make your cattle operation more biosecure.
While the company has diversified its business in recent years to reduce its dependence on grain handling, grain volumes remain the key to profitability for the 107,900 tonne terminal.
“Good quality grain produced by our customers, focus on increasing our oilseed and malt barley programs, excellent pull from our demand side and our ability to execute our sales plans resulted in a consistent grain shipping program in 2007,” said chief executive officer Rob Davies.
A good 2006 crop provided for a good start to the 2007 fiscal year and enabled the company to overcome the negative effects of a smaller 2007 crop and damage from hot weather in July.
The company is midway through a $5 million upgrading program designed to create new separate storage for identity preserved grains and double the capacity of its grain receiving system. The work should be done before the 2008 harvest.
“Farmers don’t like to wait in line and we don’t like them to wait in line, so we’re doing what we can to speed things up,” said Davies.
The company’s handling tariffs were unchanged for the fourth straight year in 2007, keeping them the lowest in the industry.
Davies said the company faces the same cost increases as other grain handlers in areas like energy, labour and insurance, but it has made a commitment to keep costs as low as possible for its farmer customers.
The low tariffs attract more business, which translates into more revenue.
“From our perspective, the more grain we can handle the better off we are,” he said.
“If we can maintain low costs and handle good volumes, we can keep costs low for farmers and still be profitable.”
