World Grain - December 2008 - 54

COMPANY PROFILE: RICHARDSON CREATES NEW CORPORATE IDENTITY

Richardson Kelburn Farm south of
Winnipeg, Manitoba, and as part of a
University of Manitoba program at the
Richardson Centre for Nutraceuticals
and Functional Foods.
"A lot of that product (canola, canola
oil and meal) is moved outside of Canada," he said. "And whenever you increase
your capacity by that magnitude, you're
going to look for new markets and new
opportunities outside of Canada."
To meet its marketing objectives,
Vossen said Richardson International
has plans to open an office in Hong
Kong in the near future and is considering reopening its office in Guadalajara,
Mexico.
In addition to canola and canola products, Richardson Pioneer is also one of
Canada's largest exporters of food and
feed peas, primarily to Western Europe
and North Africa.
In October 2008, Richardson Pioneer
announced that it
was in the process of
spending C$40 million on expanding and
upgrading its facilities, including construction projects that
would increase the
number of 100-plus
Vossen

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car loading sites from 20 to 27, an additional 90,000 tonnes of storage space
and three new fertilizer storage, blending and distribution facilities.
Of the 16 projects slated for 2008,
nine were complete by the end of October and the remaining seven were all

"We're an international company and we're growing, not
just in grain merchandising but
in value-added businesses like
oilseed processing and packaged products retailing and
distribution."
- Curt Vossen,
Richardson president

on schedule to be finished by the end of
the year. Further expansions for 2009
are in the planning stage and will be announced early next year.
MARKET SHARE GAIN
A pivotal point in the company's long
history occurred in 2007, when Richardson International became involved in a
series of events involving two other major players in the Canadian grain indus-

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Integral Sweep
Augers

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try - Agricore United and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP) - that resulted
in Richardson becoming the country's
second-largest grain handler.
At that time, Agricore United was the
target of a hostile take-over bid by SWP,
which was then followed by a friendly
bid by Richardson International. The coop's board of directors decided to accept
the Richardson deal, only to have SWP
(which is now known as Viterra) sweeten
its offer to roughly C$1.8 billion in total
enterprise value, which caused Agricore
United's directors to have a change of
heart. However, when Agricore United
made the decision to switch to the new
and more lucrative SWP offer, it brought
into play an acquisition agreement entered into between SWP and Richardson
International for the sale of certain Agricore United assets to Richardson International.
* When the dust settled, Richardson
International had emerged with:
* fifteen additional grain elevators,
of which 13 were high-throughput facilities;
* nine farm supply centers for a purchase price of C$315 million, including
the value of inventory ;
* and a C$35 million termination fee.
Not only had the deal filled in most of

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