Simplot announced Nov. 15 it has a deal in place to buy G-Mac’s AgTeam, which owns and operates 15 outlets in the region, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal, which will see the G-Mac’s stores rebrand as Simplot Grower Solutions outlets, is expected to close in January, Simplot said. G-Mac’s 100-odd employees, including over 40 crop advisors, would then become Simplot staff.

The G-Mac’s banner dates back to 2000, when founders Garth and Gayle McDonald bought the former Phoenix Ag outlets at Kindersley, Plenty and Eatonia.

G-Mac’s, headquartered at Kindersley, has since gradually acquired other sites across the region, at Brock, Elrose, Hamlin, Leader, Lucky Lake, Marengo, Milden and Rosetown. In 2020 it bought the Cavalier Agrow business, with sites at Meota, Meadow Lake, Medstead and Spiritwood.

G-Mac’s was also a founding partner of the GROW Community of Independents, which has since morphed into WinField United Canada, providing wholesale products, distribution and other services to independent ag retailers across the country.

Better known in Canada for potato processing and fertilizer distribution, Idaho-based Simplot has also been expanding its retail market share across North America since rebranding its Simplot Soilbuilders business as Simplot Grower Solutions (SGS) in 2002.

Among other acquisitions, it bought sites at Pincher Creek and Cardston in southwestern Alberta in 2017 and the Pinnacle Agriculture business across the U.S. Midwest and South in 2020. The latter deal roughly doubled SGS’s North American network to over 230 stores and made it the third-biggest ag input retailer in the U.S. alone.

G-Mac’s “is an exciting addition to the Simplot team and I look forward to seeing our continued support of the excellent agronomic services, innovation, and customer relationships that these locations and employees have built over the years,” Doug Stone, president of Simplot’s AgriBusiness group, said in the company’s release Nov. 15. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Sollio Agriculture, the agribusiness arm of Quebec-based Sollio Cooperative Group, on Tuesday announced it will start “an orderly wind-down” of its Ontario Grain partnership, which operates six grain elevators in the region.

Those include the Shetland Road elevator at Florence, the Talbotville elevator at St. Thomas, the Becher elevator at Wallaceburg, the former Palmerston Grain elevator at Palmerston, and the elevators at Princeton and Staples.

Describing the decision as “difficult but necessary,” Sollio said the Ontario Grain business plans to continue serving its farmer clients during the 2022 harvest season, but at a “reduced capacity,” after which it will start an asset sale process with “prospective buyers.”

In the meantime, Sollio said, the business “intends to honour all existing contracts and to fulfill its obligations to farm customers, employees and business partners for an orderly transition.”

Sollio — then known as La coop federee — bought into the business in 2018, when it picked up Cargill’s Ontario grain and ag retail outlets as well as Cargill’s 50 per cent stake in grain handler/ag retailer South West Ag Partners. An Ontario holding company, Kent Holding Co., held the other half of the South West business.

Since then, however, Sollio — now the “majority shareholder” in the combined grain handling business — has found that “the financial challenges in the grain sector have made the continuation of Ontario Grain unsustainable.”

“The extraordinary events of the past two years causing global economic disruption led to unexpected, significant business challenges and a volatile commodity market,” Sollio Agriculture CEO Casper Kaastra said in a release Tuesday, adding that the decision follows “an exhaustive analysis of all available options.”

Sollio had telegraphed this move at its 100th annual general meeting back in February, when it announced it would be “entering a consolidation phase in which it will consolidate acquisitions and optimize assets.”

The co-operative said Tuesday it expects the Sollio Agriculture arm to come out of that consolidation process “focusing on the balance of its core business activity: providing innovative crop and livestock production products and services to farm producers across the country.”

“To continue that vitally important function for another 100 years, we must take actions to address the ever-changing challenges we face in the agriculture industry,” Kaastra said Tuesday.

Southwestern Ontario grain and oilseed growers who have questions or “require additional support through the transition” are asked to contact their local Ontario Grain representative, the co-op said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The deal marks Nutrien’s sixth acquisition in Brazil since 2019, when it set a strategic goal to build its market share in a country that is vital to feeding a growing global population.

The buyout will cover 39 Casa do Adubo retail locations and 10 Agrodistribuidor Casal distribution centres, and will expand Nutrien’s footprint in Brazil to 13 states from five.

Nutrien did not disclose the financial terms of the Casa do Adubo deal.

However, Saskatoon-based Nutrien said it expects its agricultural solutions unit’s Latin American annual sales to rise to about $2.2 billion, as a result of additional run-rate sales of about $400 million.

Upon closure of the deal, Nutrien expects to surpass its stated target of $100 million of adjusted core profit in Brazil by 2023, it added.

Once the deal is approved by Brazil’s anti-competition regulator, Nutrien will have 180 commercial units and over 3,500 employees in Latin America, across Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ruhi Soni in Bangalore.

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G3 announced Monday it had completed the sale of the ag input business adjacent to its elevator west of Plenty, Sask., to Saskatchewan input and bulk fuel dealer Rack Petroleum, a.k.a. The Rack. The dollar value of the sale wasn’t disclosed.

The fertilizer and input retail business at G3’s Prairie West elevator had operated at the site since before it became part of G3, the company said. Selling the retail side to The Rack “allows G3 to focus on its core grain handling business.”

The Rack said it will operate the retail business and expand its agronomy offering, and will also make bulk farm fuel delivery available to the area.

“This move ensures that customers have continued and improved access to crop inputs services conveniently located alongside the G3 grain terminal,” G3 said.

Headquartered at Biggar, about 75 km northeast of Plenty, The Rack started in 1984 as a bulk fuel agent and expanded into crop input supply and service, then became a stand-alone independent retail business under its current name in 2001.

Along with its Biggar and Plenty operations, The Rack today has retail offices in nine other western Saskatchewan communities.

“The Rack is focused on being a leader of innovation and offering science-backed knowledge and we look forward to gaining the trust of local producers to meet their needs as we continue to support rural Saskatchewan,” Rack CEO Dennis Bulani said in G3’s release.

The Plenty elevator and retail operation came to G3 — then known as CWB — in 2014, when it bought full control of farmer-owned grain handler Prairie West Terminal, which built the concrete terminal there in 1998. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

CORRECTION FROM SOURCE, July 20, 2022: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified The Rack’s CEO.

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Lake Country Co-op and Prairie North Co-op announced Tuesday they have agreements in place to buy the assets of Melfort-based Paragon Ag Service from owners Sherman Boland and Don Nash for an undisclosed sum.

The terms of the deal, expected to close mid-month, call for Prairie North to take over Paragon’s sites just west of Melfort and at Brooksby, about 35 km northwest of Tisdale.

Lake Country, meanwhile, will take up Paragon’s dealership at Kinistino, about 30 km west of Melfort, and an anhydrous ammonia site near Gronlid, about 20 km north of Brooksby.

Taking up the Paragon business “will strengthen these local co-ops by growing their footprint and adding dry fertilizer and anhydrous ammonia assets,” the co-operatives said in a release.

Paragon’s full-time staff will be offered “similar employment” with the local co-ops, which said they will continue to deliver fertilizer, seed and crop protection services to customers in the area.

“Finding a partner who shares our values and could keep our business local was important to us,” Boland said in the co-ops’ release Tuesday.

Paragon has operated in the Melfort area since 1999, selling a “full complement” of crop input products and services including crop protection products, canola seed, dry fertilizers and anhydrous.

The co-ops noted they’ve made “strategic investments” to build up their ag businesses over the past year.

Most recently, Lake Country announced plans in December to build a new agro centre at Shellbrook, about 45 km west of Prince Albert. A fertilizer facility is already under construction there, the co-op said, with the rest of the site work due to begin in the spring. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The federal Competition Bureau on Wednesday announced an agreement with Federated Co-operatives (FCL) and the ag retail arm of the Saskatchewan-based Blair’s Family of Companies toward approval of their proposed joint venture.

Blair’s and FCL in February had announced the joint venture to own and operate the seven Blair’s ag retail outlets at Lanigan, Nokomis, Watrous, Liberty, McLean, Lipton and Rosthern.

The joint venture will now start operating effective July 31, the companies said Wednesday.

The bureau said Wednesday its agreement with FCL and Blair’s will “preserve competition for the sale of crop inputs in the area of Lipton,” about 90 km west of Melville.

If it were approved with no conditions, the proposed venture would “likely substantially lessen competition” in retail crop inputs such as fertilizers, ag chemicals and seeds, leading to “higher prices and lower service quality for local growers” in the rural municipalities of Cupar, Kellross, Lipton and North Qu’Appelle, the bureau said.

Melville-based Prairie Co-op, a member of the FCL group of co-operatives, also operates ag retail centres in the area, including one at Lipton and others at nearby communities including Ituna, Cupar and Kelliher, as well as at Melville and Strasbourg.

Other ag retailers in the Lipton area are not “vigorous competitors” to Prairie Co-op or Blair’s, lack the “infrastructure and ability to effectively serve anhydrous ammonia customers,” and aren’t likely to expand services in reaction to the FCL/Blair’s venture, the bureau said.

Thus, FCL and Blair’s must sell the Blair’s site at Lipton, along with Blair’s anhydrous satellite sites at Lipton and nearby Balcarres, once they find a buyer acceptable to the federal Commissioner of Competition.

Until then, the Lipton site will operate under “an expanded preservation order, including an information firewall, in order to protect and preserve the divestiture assets.”

In its ruling, the bureau said the joint venture was otherwise “unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition” at the six remaining Blair’s sites. It sees “effective remaining competition in those areas” and/or a “low degree of competitive rivalry” between Blair’s and nearby Co-op stores.

The sites operating under the new joint venture “will offer a broad range of crop input and animal nutrition products and services to continue to meet the business needs of local area farmers and ranchers,” FCL and Blair’s said in February.

The six sites will continue to operate under the Blair’s banner and Blair’s staff will “continue to manage the day-to-day operations.”

The retail businesses going to the new venture include Blair’s AgIntelligence ag consulting services, its proprietary PerforMax line of beef cattle nutrition products, and other feed products for the poultry, hog, sheep, horse and dairy sectors and companion animals.

Other Blair’s-owned businesses — such as its Texcana Logistics fertilizer terminal near Hanley, Sask., and its farming operations, including Blair’s Ag Cattle Co. — are not part of the joint venture. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Blair’s and Federated Co-operatives (FCL) announced last week they’ve reached an agreement to set up a joint venture which, pending regulatory approvals, will own and operate the seven Blair’s ag retail outlets in central and southeastern Saskatchewan.

The seven locations, at Lanigan, Nokomis, Watrous, Liberty, McLean, Lipton and Rosthern, “will offer a broad range of crop input and animal nutrition products and services to continue to meet the business needs of local area farmers and ranchers.”

The retail business includes Blair’s AgIntelligence ag consulting services, its proprietary PerforMax line of beef cattle nutrition products, and other feed products for the poultry, hog, sheep, horse and dairy sectors and companion animals.

Other Blair’s businesses, such as its Texcana Logistics fertilizer terminal near Hanley, Sask., and its farming operations including Blair’s Ag Cattle Co., will not be part of the joint venture with Saskatoon-based FCL, the companies said.

Blair’s management and staff will continue to lead the day-to-day operations of the ag retail business, the companies said Feb. 3 in a release.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t released, though the companies said the new venture will be subject to closing conditions including Competition Bureau approval and other clearances.

The bureau must be notified of transactions when the involved assets in Canada, or revenues from sales in or from Canada generated from those assets, are valued at $93 million minimum. That threshold for 2021 was announced Thursday and is expected to take effect Saturday.

“Blair’s is a trusted and well-respected local family business with history of serving farm customers and communities for generations, and whose values match our own,” Ron Healey, FCL’s vice-president for ag and consumer business, said in the companies’ release.

“The joint venture is an opportunity for FCL to expand our presence in central and southeastern Saskatchewan, which will ultimately benefit our local Co-op member-owners and the entire Co-operative Retailing System.”

“We believe the joint venture with FCL, which shares the same core values and long-term commitment to agriculture as us, will ensure that we continue demonstrating value to our customers, employees and communities in the future,” Blair’s chief operating officer Darren Blair said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Crop input retail stores and facilities run by Crop Production Services (CPS) — the brand today used across North America by the retail arm of the company formerly known as Agrium — will rebrand as Nutrien Ag Solutions, starting July 1.

Nutrien, now based in Saskatoon, officially formed in January from the merger of Calgary-based Agrium with its fertilizer industry rival PotashCorp. The CPS arm, headquartered in Loveland, Colorado, maintains a Canadian head office in Regina.

The name change will cover all of Nutrien’s 220-odd CPS retail sites in Western Canada — plus all other Nutrien facilities in North and South America that carry the CPS, Utilfertil and Agroservicios Pampeanos brand names, the company said Thursday in a release.

Landmark, Nutrien’s farm service and retail subsidiary in Australia, was not mentioned in Thursday’s release.

Farmers in parts of the U.S. have known the Crop Production Services brand in ag retail since 1983. Agrium bought the CPS input retail chain in 1994.

CPS has served as the brand for Agrium retail facilities in the U.S., Canada and Chile, including sites acquired when Agrium bought UAP in 2008, Viterra’s Prairie ag retail business in 2013 and Cargill’s U.S. ag retail sites in 2016, among others.

“Our goal is to create a consistent global agriculture brand that represents value and productivity for our customers,” Nutrien CEO Chuck Magro said in Thursday’s release.

“We’re extremely proud of the retail organization we’ve built,” said Mike Frank, president of Nutrien Retail, in the same release. The rebranded operation “will continue to partner with key suppliers and to invest in best-in class technology, platforms and tools.”

The new retail division, he said, will have more details to share “in the coming months” regarding an “enhanced digital platform and other investments.” — AGCanada.com Network

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PotashCorp, the world’s biggest fertilizer company by capacity, and rival Agrium, which is also the world’s biggest crop input retail chain, announced an agreement Monday in which the new parent firm will swap 0.4 and 2.23 shares in the new company for each PotashCorp and Agrium share respectively, based on their Aug. 29 NYSE share values.

The two companies had announced less than two weeks ago that they were in “preliminary discussions” toward a possible deal.

Agrium CEO Chuck Magro, who would be the new company’s CEO, on Monday described the deal as “a transformational merger that creates benefits and growth opportunities that neither company could achieve alone.”

The combined company would have about 20,000 employees, operations and investments in 18 countries, and a “pro forma” enterprise value estimated at US$36 billion (C$47.1 billion), with net revenue of about US$20.6 billion and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of US$4.7 billion “before synergies” on a 2015 pro-forma basis.

The combined firm would be expected to generate up to US$500 million per year in “operating synergies” in its second year in business, mainly from mergers in its distribution and retail operations, production and procurement, and US$250 million in such “synergies” in the first year after closing.

PotashCorp CEO Jochen Tilk, who would be the new firm’s executive chairman, said the deal “creates a new premier Canadian-headquartered company that reflects our shared commitment to creating value and unlocking growth potential for shareholders.”

The deal, he said, “will greatly benefit customers and suppliers, and support even greater career development opportunities for employees.”

The two companies, which both produce potash from mines in Saskatchewan, said the merged firm would have “the lowest-cost potash production assets and reserves in North America, and a meaningful platform to benefit from continued growth in global potash demand.”

The company would also have “more diversified and complementary geographic and product portfolios in nitrogen and phosphate, with the North American nitrogen business expected to continue to benefit from low-cost feedstock and local distribution.”

Agrium’s ag retail arm, meanwhile, would bring the new company “a retail distribution platform encompassing crop nutrients and other input products, services, and solutions with operations in seven countries… (and a) combined production footprint will drive freight savings and other operational efficiencies.”

The two companies also said their married business would “remain committed” to Canpotex, the global export arm they share with Minnesota-based Mosaic Co.

All that said, a PotashCorp/Agrium merger is widely expected to be a lightning rod for review by antitrust regulators in Canada, the U.S. and other countries where the two companies do business. Farm groups in both Canada and the U.S. have already said they would ask regulators to consider the chances that input costs could rise for farmers as a result.

However, the two companies expect their deal to be sealed by mid-2017, pending approvals from their shareholders, affected countries’ competition regulators and Canadian courts.

PotashCorp’s chief financial officer Wayne Brownlee would be the new company’s CFO, while Agrium CFO Steve Douglas would be the new firm’s “chief integration officer,” with other head-office management to be named later. The two companies’ boards of directors would have “equal representation” on a new board, with Agrium naming the independent lead director.

The new company’s head office would be in PotashCorp’s home city of Saskatoon, but it would also maintain corporate offices in Agrium’s home city, Calgary. The two firms said the new business would keep a “strong workforce in each of its operations” and “maintain its commitments to community involvement and investment.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Brad Hanmer, who farms and operates Hanmer Seeds at Govan, Sask., about 100 km north of Regina, on Wednesday announced the launch of SynergyAG, which plans to open four outlets in south-central Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta by autumn 2017.

Hanmer, a member of the board of directors for Farm Credit Canada since 2007 and for Pound-Maker Investments since 2012, a former president of the Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association and founding chair of the Biodiesel Association of Canada, will be the new chain’s CEO.

In a release Wednesday, he described the new chain as a “natural progression of our family’s 60 years in seed and crop nutrition retail.”

“We’re farmers too, and we live and breathe agriculture,” said Dave Fuller, a producer at Bulyea, Sask., sales rep for Monsanto BioAg and chief operating officer for the new chain, in the same release.

“For producers who are looking for tailored agronomic advice and a custom mix of crop inputs and genetics, SynergyAG is a unique player in the market.”

For its first store, the company said it has “recommissioned an existing full-service facility” at Lewvan, Sask., about 50 km northwest of Weyburn, and expects to open it for business this fall.

The second store, at Hanmer’s home town of Govan, is a “new full-service facility” under construction that’s expected to feature “a state-of-the-art high-throughput seed treatment facility, the first of its kind in Saskatchewan.” That site is expected to open in winter this year.

The third store, at Lumsden, Sask., about 30 km northwest of Regina, is to be built as a “ground-up” facility, in co-operation with “local ag industry partners,” to open in the fall of 2017, the company said.

The fourth, also expected to open in the fall of 2017, will be at Provost, Alta., about 125 km south of Lloydminster, to serve the east-central part of that province.

The new player, which said it plans to open more locations after its “initial wave,” would be entering the Prairie ag retail fray during a long spell of consolidation in the sector.

Calgary-based Agrium, which has operated its Crop Production Services (CPS) retail arm since 1994, took over United Agri Products (UAP) in 2008 and most of Viterra’s ag retail business in 2013 and recently made a deal for Alberta ag retail chain Andrukow Group Solutions.

Federated Co-operatives (FCL), whose 235 retail co-op owners already operate over 140 ag retail centres in the West through the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS), also bought 17 of Viterra’s ag retail outlets in 2013.

U.S. agrifood co-op CHS also entered the Prairie retail market in 2012, buying four DynAgra outlets, followed by four former Viterra ag retail stores and three Agrium CPS stores in 2014. It also announced a joint venture last year with Alberta’s UFA to set up a retail site at Sexsmith, Alta.

Cargill, which still operates 57 Cargill AgHorizons retail sites in Canada, announced in July it would sell its U.S. ag retail sites in six states to Agrium. — AGCanada.com Network

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