“It’s a win-win situation here,” said Robert Grimsrud, commenting on the proposed amalgamation of the Alameda Co-op and the larger Southern Plains Co-op that now serves and covers a good portion of southeast Saskatchewan in five communities using 11 locations for various retail co-operative services.
Grimsrud, president of Southern Plains Co-operative, was speaking to a conference room full of Co-op members from both communities at the Western Star hotel in Estevan, where they gathered to witness or participate in an overwhelming vote in favour of the merger by the 43 voting Southern Plains members. A vote for a merger requires a two-thirds majority of the affected members attending the official meetings. In the meeting held on Nov. 2 in Alameda, the membership cast 52 votes and were 86.5 per cent in favour of the hook-up, while over 95 per cent approved the merger at the meeting in Estevan, the headquarters for the Southern Plains operations.
The Alameda Co-op consists mainly of a very active lumber yard, hardware and agro services operation along with a bulk and key lock fuel service that generates up to $2 million in sales annually.
The Alameda Co-op with its 371 members and four employees will now join the Southern Plains team with its 9,967 members and 213 employees.
Keith Young, president of the Alameda Co-op, noted that their Co-op is bringing a nearly new retail store into the system, as well as a well-used, but also well-maintained older facility that is now being used for storage and could be used for several more years. In fact, he told the gathering, if the old building was fortunate enough to have a cement floor laid, it’s usefulness would be increased, not decreased, in spite of its age.
Grimsrud noted that both Co-ops were stable in terms of finances and cash flow, so the merger, recommended by the provincial body, Federated Co-operatives, made sense, since the future was pointing to a changing environment that will inject some fierce competition and the need for more volume purchases, while the cost of providing basic services will increase as will the world of regulations, said Grimsrud.
“We are on the same page in terms of bookkeeping and accounting,” said Brian Enns, general manager of the Southern Plains Co-op, who spoke with Alameda Co-op manager Kendall Annetts immediately following the approval vote in Estevan. “In fact, we’ve been doing some of the Alameda book work for about a year now, so we are familiar with their system,” Enns added.
The Southern Plains board of directors will increase by one member to accommodate the Alameda interests in the Southern Plains Co-op family. That will make it a 10-member board once the details surrounding the merger become official, which is expected sometime near the end of January 2017.
