Posts By Date - Green Markets

Parkland sells Alberta retail facilities to co-ops

March 8, 2017Breaking Industry NewsDan Cole

Parkland Fertilizers, a locally-owned crop inputs retail business in Alberta, has sold its Lacombe and Wetaskiwin locations to Central Alberta Co-op and Wetaskiwin Co-op, respectively, according to March 7 announcements from the companies.

Parkland’s Lacombe location officially became part of Central Alberta Co-op on March 6, while Parkland’s Wetaskiwin fertilizer center became part of Wetaskiwin Co-op on the same date. Both locations offer custom granular fertilizer blending, delivery, and spreading, as well as crop protection chemical sales and precision ag services. The Lacombe site handles seed products as well.

Both Wetaskiwin and Central Valley are member-owners of Federated Cooperatives Ltd., (FCL), an organization based in Saskatoon, Sask., that provides central wholesaling, manufacturing, marketing, and administrative services to some 200 retail cooperatives in Canada.

Federated announced last summer (GM July 29, 2016) that was investing C$75 million to build two new state-of-the-art, high-throughput fertilizer terminals in Hanley, Sask., and Brandon, Man. The Hanley terminal will be able to store up to 45,000 mt of fertilizer while the Brandon terminal will hold 27,500 mt. Both facilities are expected to be fully operational by mid-2017.

Yara to close plant

Yara International ASA said March 8 that it plans to cease operations at Pardies plant in France.

“We regret to inform our employees and other stakeholders that we are considering closing the Yara Pardies plant and seeking buyers interested in taking over the plant. I would like to assure our employees that the cessation process will be handled in a respectful and professional way, and in accordance with the relevant union agreements,” said Svein Tore Holsether, Yara president and CEO.

“This process is part of our on-going efforts to strengthen Yara’s long-term competitiveness, including in France which remains a key market for Yara, with more than 2.5 million tonnes of product delivered and E73 million invested in 2016,” he said. Yara said the Pardies operations suffer from limited scale, raw material integration and export competitiveness. The closure in 2010 of a nearby industrial operation deprived the Yara Pardies plant of many synergies that existed between the two plants, forcing Yara to close the ammonia production unit at the site. Yara has subsequently impaired the Pardies assets in both 2015 and 2016.

The Yara Pardies plant has 85 employees and an annual production capacity of approximately 100,000 mt of technical ammonium nitrate.