The vote was close enough to cause some concern, but in the end, the margin of acceptance was enough to set the wheels in motion to have the Gainsborough Co-op join forces with Southern Plains Co-op, headquartered in Estevan.
The amalgamation question received overwhelming support on the Yes side at a meeting of Estevan and area Co-op members with all 29 votes cast being in favour of the amalgamation, but it was a little less encouraging among the Gainsborough members when they had voted on the same question a night earlier in their town about 70 minutes to the east of the Energy City.
Nick Pirie, president of the Gainsborough Co-op board of directors said there had been 97 votes cast with 68 of those voters saying yes to the amalgamation request, giving the motion 71 per cent support. The Co-operative regulations requires a two-third (67 per cent) majority vote for motions of this nature.
“So it was a little close, but good enough to pass,” said Brian Enns, general manager of the Southern Plains Co-op who has been serving their Gainsborough counterparts as an ad hoc manager for the past few months, since their local organization had been unable to secure the services of a full-time manager for the three-person operation that focuses mainly on keylock retail fuel and bulk fuel service in the community of about 250.
Gainsborough was negatively impacted by a mid-summer flood last year that set back residents and all small businesses. The Co-op is currently being operated from a trailer set up on their property in the town, while it continues to offer keylock and bulk sales.
There is a desire to rebuild a storefront where they can offer such things as agricultural input items and some hardware. A money-losing lumber operation will be dropped.
The meeting in Estevan was chaired by board member Scott Kleinen with Enns providing the information through a Power Point presentation to the local members who assembled in the conference room at Western Star Inn on Dec. 10.
Continuing pressure on retaining skilled employees and management were cited as a couple of compelling reasons for the Gainsborough service to seek the hook-up with the larger Southern Plains operation, which had become a more natural fit anyway, seeing as how Enns was already providing them with managerial expertise.
The new governance setup will give the Gainsborough area one seat at the nine-member board of directors’ table once the amalgamation goes into effect on Feb. 1, 2016.
Southern Plains will then boast of 10 store-front locations in four communities with 193 employees and over $85 million in sales. The other partners in the Southern Plains fold are in Oxbow and Carlyle.
The Gainsborough Co-op has 351 members who will be added to the 9,011 active members in the Southern Plains operation along with their $2 million in assets.
Pirie said he sees some savings in ongoing annual costs such as directors expenses, the sharing of some fixed costs and volume purchasing.
Gainsborough’s Co-op suffered a loss of just under $56,000 in operations with a net gain of close to $62,000 following the annual refund on purchases from Federated Co-operatives.
“Neither operation has any major debts,” said Enns, in speaking in favour of the get-together.
Pirie said he hoped one of the first steps they could take in Gainsborough would be to switch the retail gas pumps operation from a keylock to a cardlock system, which would improve efficiency and access for customers. He said there is no discussion being held regarding an expansion of business into such things as groceries.
“We have a local independent grocery store through Fine Foods, so we’re not talking about that kind of thing. We needed a manager and some direction following the flood,” he said, noting he’s only been president for about a year. “It was quite a year though,” he added with a laugh. “The local people who weren’t in favour of the amalgamation were mostly fearing not having a voice, but we will have that voice with Southern Plains. Our town has bounced back, we didn’t lose any residents or businesses as a result of the flood. We’re ready to move forward.”
