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At annual meeting WIT shows a profit

The Weyburn Inland Terminal has diversified its business enough that in a tough year like 2010, with significantly reduced crops in quality and quantity, the company still had a profitable year, shareholders heard at their annual meeting on Friday af
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The Weyburn Inland Terminal has diversified its business enough that in a tough year like 2010, with significantly reduced crops in quality and quantity, the company still had a profitable year, shareholders heard at their annual meeting on Friday afternoon at McKenna Hall.

"The company enjoyed a year of solid profitability, with excellent performance across all core business operations, and a significant improvement at NorAmera BioEnergy. I am very pleased to report your company had net earnings for fiscal 2010 of $4.93 million, compared to $2.364 million in 2009," said president Claude Carles in his report to the shareholders.

Grain handling, one of the basic staples of the company's business, only decreased two per cent to 485,357 metric tonnes from 2009, but this is still above their five-year average of 443,000 MT.

Of that amount, 284,449 tonnes were Canadian Wheat Board shipments (wheat, durum, barley), while 200,908 tonnes were non-board grains and oilseeds, or 41 per cent of total handlings in 2010.

The terminal's attention to quality earned them the title of "Shipper of the Year" from the Canadian Wheat Board, noted Carles, after achieving 100 per cent ship to specifications on shipments to milling customers in the U.S.

Total revenue from the grain business totalled $93.408 million, an increase of $11.164 million from the previous year, due mainly to the increase in oilseed prices.

The company's crop inputs business had a total revenue of $22.8 million, which is a decrease of 8.5 per cent, partly due to reduced acres seeded to grain.

WIT paid freight and dockage premiums of $1.3 million on grain deliveries in 2010, and also paid out a total of $1.609 million in dividends on common and preferred shares. Adding in other contributions, such as $120,000 in donations and 4-H steer purchases, the company paid out $3.3 million to local residents and groups.

In his report to shareholders, CEO Rob Davies said of 2010, "We had a tough, cold wet spring. I think we'll be in the same position again this year. The harvest started off wet, but it did get finished."

On the company's operations, Davies noted that the Pro-Pellet livestock feed business, Vigro Seed and Supply, and crop production services combined contributed 32 per cent of the company's pre-tax earnings, compared to 22 per cent in 2009.

He said while sales were down 14 per cent, "when measured against seeded acreage reductions of 20 to 30 per cent across the market area, returns on the company's investment in people and assets were positive."

The elevator at Lake Alma shipped 8,400 metric tonnes of grain, and did a good business with Pro Pellets and crop inputs. "We need to continue to grow that volume so the company can continue to remain in that marketplace," said Davies.

Vigro Seeds and Service handled 22,000 MT, down from the average of 24-25,000 MT in the last few years, due to a smaller crop, and Pro Pellets sold 14,000 MT, down from 17,000 MT, due to a high presence of feed grains on area farms.

The ethanol plant, NorAmera BioEnergy, had a loss of $1.828 million, which was an improvement on the year before when the loss was $3.679 million. (WIT owns 54.72 per cent of NorAmera.)

Of the loss, Davies commented, "We're not happy with that," but noted there are issues that the ethanol plant is dealing with, such as mitigating the odour problems from the plant. The technology aspect of the plant is undertaking a $9 million project, of which they are eligible for a grant of up to $4.656 million.

WIT's capital projects last year totalled $3.558 million; this year it will be about $2 million, and will include computer upgrades, upgrades to NorAmera, and two new legs which will be replaced and should be done by the first week of June.