Across the broad expanse of Middle Canada, no name looms larger than James Richardson & Sons Ltd., a 154-year-old family business that spans agriculture, energy, financial services and real estate. That stature means enormous influence and responsibility for Hartley Richardson, 57, the Winnipeg-based president of the company, whose interests range from a big grain terminal in Thunder Bay to a canola crushing plant in Lethbridge, Alta. From his offices above Winnipeg’s Portage and Main intersection, he describes the economic view.
Does the return of the NHL to Winnipeg have a business impact?
When we lost the Jets in the mid-1990s, there was a sense of moving down in significance as a major Canadian city and one that gets recognized by its name around the world. When people recognize you have an NHL franchise, it puts you in a different league. Now that it’s back, it makes a difference in the ability to attract talent to the city, in the ability to welcome customers who are in town – it’s another arrow in our quiver.
What is the economic outlook for the entire region from Thunder Bay to Lethbridge?
There are certain industries that will not escape the current volatility, but generally speaking, agriculture has a strong tailwind that will carry it forward for the foreseeable future. The demand is there; there’s been strong movement of grain. And we continue to invest significant capital in infrastructure. That is through acquisitions – we just acquired a canola packaging company in Ontario – and through investments like our Yorkton, Sask. canola-crush facility. We just surpassed a million tonnes of canola crushed in our Yorkton and Lethbridge facilities over the past 12 months.
… And the manufacturing sector in Manitoba has made the changes necessary, and the capital investments, to be well-positioned even with the high Canadian dollar.
Are you investing in anticipation of higher grain volumes with the end of the Canadian Wheat Board next year?
It supports the decisions we’ve made. We recently acquired a producer facility in Wadena, Sask., a full agriculture-service centre called Northeast Terminals. It was a $25-million-plus investment, and two weeks later they announced the changes in the wheat board. That was timely, but probably more good luck than anything else.
So even without the wheat board announcement, we are strong believers in the industry’s future. Now, this will unquestionably provide improvements to the efficiency of the grain handling system in Western Canada. I think we will provide better service for farm and international customers.
So is this unreservedly a good thing for you?
Yes it is good – we’ve been moving this grain but with one arm tied behind the back. You don’t control the process and that has had its challenges. It will allow us to serve customers better.
Will you acquire more of the remaining independent terminals?
Some are pretty big facilities and they are well run, but to the extent there are opportunities such as with Northeast Terminals, we will be there. We’re going to make some additional investment in Northeast and make it better than it was.
But isn’t there still huge concern for the future of smaller communities and branch lines?
A lot of the rationalization in our industry has been accomplished. There are still a number of the older, less efficient facilities on some lines, in some communities. But at the end of the day we recognize we have to service our customers, so we’ll have facilities where it makes sense to provide that service.
And there are some issues people should be talking about – such as producer-car loading and branch lines. The only way to solve these is to talk and unfortunately that just hasn’t been happening.
Isn’t this a case of the pro- and anti-board sides just yelling at each other?
