Strong year for Ridgedale Co-op thanks to bee operation

RIDGEDALE — Thanks to its bee operation, the Ridgedale Co-op is swarming with profits this year.

At its annual general meeting, the co-op revealed it made $190,000 in 2017, compared to a loss of $48,000 the previous year. Of that profit, $89,000 was generated locally. The rest came from the patronage refund the co-op received from Federated Co-ops Limited.

“Our little co-op did quite well this year,” said Adam Lewis, the general manager.

The co-op produced 375,000 pounds of honey this past season.

“It was a dry season and with it being dry, the bees are hungry and they’re producing more,” Lewis said. “Our hives did 220 pounds of honey per hive.”

Besides the bee operation, the co-op also runs a small grocery and hardware store, as well as sells bulk petroleum.

With the good fiscal year comes higher patronage for local members. They’ll receive a total of $47,000 this year, compared to $20,000 the previous year. The allocations are three per cent in fuel, one per cent in feed, and one per cent in grocery, hardware and produce.

“We allocated some good money to our members this year, which is a testament to them because they’ve supported us and they showed us support and so we gave back more to them this year because we had a very good year with our bees,” Lewis said.

Like most small grocery stores within the Federated Co-ops Limited system, the Ridgedale store took a bit of a loss. Lewis said that while they try to keep prices similar to what can be found in nearby towns, the co-op does have to pay extra freight costs, so it’s more of a convenience store.

“Our members in the Ridgedale area, they support us and they’re very supportive of us,” he said. “If they weren’t supportive and they didn’t support Ridgedale Co-op, the co-op wouldn’t be open today.”

In the future, the co-op would like to expand its bee operation, but it’s getting to the point where it’s running out of room to store bees in the winter. It also has been melting 7,022 pounds of wax this winter, something Lewis would like to see expand.

“We’d like to get into the wax melting with two feet in this coming season because it will pay for salaries. It does help pay the bottom line.”