The two principles of West-Can Agra Ltd of Plum Coulee in August 2006, obviously in better times. Lloyd Thiessen and Mike Durand.
The Canadian Grain Commission has revoked its license with a Plum Coulee grain dealer effective February 11.
West-Can Agra Ltd. operates out of several buildings in Plum Coulee and only started the company as a licensed dealer in August 2006.
Remi Gosselin, a CGC official, said West-Can Agra had submitted a letter of credit for $300,000 when it first received its license from the Commission.
“We are currently conducting a final audit to determine if the tendered security (from West-Can Agra) is sufficient to cover all producer liabilities,” Gosselin said.
While not at liberty to say why they pulled West-Can’s license, Gosselin said the CGC had received too many complaints of slow and even nonpayment from producers.
“I urge producers who delivered grain there within the last 90 days and have not been fully paid to make a claim with the CGC within 30 days of February 11, when the license was revoked.
Company President Lloyd Thiessen said they will continue to assess and work with the situation and is confident they will be in business when the dust settles.
“However, how and in what direction, I really can’t say at this time,” said Thiessen in an interview from his office recently.
While not elaborating on the status with one banker, he said the current status had everything to do with the adverse economic climate.
West-Can Agra handles a variety of commodities including different types of sunflowers and soybeans, buckwheat, pinto beans and bird food ingredients. It started as a new company that began buying and selling soybeans after the 2006 harvest.
The owners are President Lloyd Thiessen of Winkler and Mike Durand, the Marketing Manager, both with previous special crops processing and marketing experience.
“We formed the company with encouragement coming from various sectors and soybean opportunities that we saw in the 2006 crop,” said Thiessen said in an interview at that time.
West-Can Agra has several facilities. They began by leasing the former Agricore United Elevator in Plum Coulee from Agricore United, but that deal fell through when the new owners Viterra refused to lease it to them. Next they purchased the bean and warehouse facility near the elevator within the Village of Plum Coulee from Global Grain.
“While we think the growers need another facility, it’s more about competition,” said the marketing manager, Mike Durand in 2006. “There’s never enough competition in the industry as far as I’m concerned.”
Forming a new company isn’t easy at any time, and it often takes some encouragement and seed money from outside sources. That was the case with West-Can Agra.
The Sunbelt Development Group of Altona is a wholly-owned group by four municipalities for the sole purpose of encouraging industrial development in any of the four municipalities, Plum coulee, Gretna, Altona, and the RM of Rhineland.
The West-Can project is the first successful one for the Sunbelt group, but not the first one explored.
Sunbelt’s general manager Jim Spencer said he really couldn’t comment on the West-Can situation other than they were monitoring it very closely, providing what help they could under these difficult circumstances.
“Our message to the farmer is we’re open for business – a new marketing option,” said West-Can Agra’s president Lloyd back in August 2006. So far, he says, the company continues to be open for business.
