Richardson relocating R&D

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This article was published 15/04/2015 (4051 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Richardson International is looking to invest as much as $20 million in a new research and development centre in downtown Winnipeg.

The multibillion-dollar agribusiness is looking to consolidate research and development currently taking place in a number of locations throughout its extensive North American network of food-processing, grain-handling and crop-input distribution centres.

Curt Vossen, CEO of Richardson International, said details are not yet in place, neither has a decision been made whether or not to acquire and renovate an existing building or build a new one. “But it looks like the best bet is to build new,” he said.

Vossen said the intention is to break ground before the end of this year or early in 2016.

“We’re still in our due diligence,” he said. “But we want it to be a significant facility.”

Richardson’s increasing involvement in canola seed processing and now oat milling with the acquisition of Can-Oat Milling in 2013, means it makes sense for the company to consolidate its R&D into a central innovation headquarters.

Vossen said the desire is to have it located near the company’s head office — “close to the corporate family” — on the northeast corner of Portage and Main.

Richardson International is the largest division of the Richardson family-owned holding company, James Richardson & Sons Ltd., which is one of the largest privately owned companies in Canada.

“When you are a private company like we are, people don’t appreciate the magnitude of the business,” said Vossen. “We have grown as a significant-sized successful global-trading and food-processing company right here in downtown Winnipeg.”

Only half-jokingly, Vossen said, “Now when I say I work for Richardson International people ask if I work at the airport” in reference to the international airport terminal in Winnipeg.

Vossen said the company has sunk about $2.5 billion into acquisitions and expansion and organic growth of its operations over the past 18 years and expects to continue to make capital expenditures of about $150 million per year.

“We will continue with a very aggressive capital program in our export facilities and myriad other facilities across Canada and now down in the U.S.,” he said.

The new research facility will develop new consumer products such as canola oils and margarines and all sorts of oat-based products and will consolidate work now being done in Lethbridge, (Alta.,) Yorkton, (Sask.,) and other locations across Canada and the U.S.

Can-Oat Milling has sites in Portage la Prairie, Martensville, Sask., Barrhead, Alta., and in South Sioux City, Neb., and Dawn, Texas — the company’s first U.S. locations.

Vossen said further expansion into the U.S. is something that is an ongoing project.

“We’re constantly kicking tires (in the U.S.),” he said.

“As as much as anything it is a matter of opportunity. You need a willing buyer and a willing seller.”

Over the years, Richardson International has almost exclusively been the buyer. It has been a major player in the consolidation of the Canadian grain-handling network, buying a significant collection of assets in recent years from Agricore United and, more recently, Viterra.

It’s meant the company has increased its volumes almost seven-fold since 1995 when it handled about 2.5 million tonnes of grain. In 2014, it was up to 14 million tonnes.

The company is wrapping up a $150-million expansion and renovation to the company’s Vancouver grain terminal. That work, including an additional 80,000 tonnes of handling capacity, is expected to be completed this year.

Even without that additional productivity, he said the terminal handled record volumes during the last bumper crop year.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca