Viterra began as a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the iconic

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was a grain handling, agri-food processing and marketing company based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Pool created a network of marketing alliances in North America and internationally which made it the largest agricul ...

. Viterra Inc grew into a global

agri-business Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...

with operations in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and China. Viterra operated three distinct, inter-related businesses: Grain Handling & Marketing, Agri-Products and Processing, enabling it to generate earnings at various points on the food production chain from field to the table. Following its $6.1-billion acquisition by Glencore International, on 1 January 2013 Viterra was merged with Glencore purchaser, 8115222 Canada Inc., headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Viterra's grain handling and marketing operations were located primarily in two of the world's most fertile regions: Western Canada and South Australia. The company owns and operates grain terminals in Western Canada, along with 95% of the grain handling and storage facilities in South Australia. The company ships grain to markets worldwide. Viterra was also one of the largest agri-product retailers in Canada, with a network of more than 250 retail locations throughout the Prairies. As part of this business, Viterra owned a 34% interest in

Canadian Fertilizer Limited Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

CFI, a large

urea Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important ...

and

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous ...

plant. The company also operated several value-added processing businesses, including wholly owned subsidiaries like Dakota Growers Pasta Company, 21st Century Grain, making it the largest producer of

industrial oats Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

in North America, the third largest producer of

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, ...

on the continent, the largest

malt Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air. Malted grain is used to make beer, w ...

producer in Australia, a large producer of

canola Close-up of canola blooms Canola flower Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, ...

and a leading producer of

animal feed Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word ''feed'' more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input to ...

in New Zealand. At the time of the Glencore's March 2012 back-to-back purchase-and-agreement of Viterra's assets to Agrium, which paved the way for Glencore's purchase of Viterra, in December 2012, Viterra was generating "$2.4-billion in revenue and $244-million in EBITDA" and operated a "network of 258 agri-products retail locations throughout Western Canada and 17 retail locations in Australia. Retail locations offer fertilizer, crop protection products, seed and equipment to growers. Viterra also has a minority interest in a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant in Medicine Hat, Alberta." In 2006

History

Viterra Inc. was formed in 2007 as a publicly traded corporation when the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool acquired Agricore United, which was at that time the largest grain handler in Western Canada. Viterra's predecessors were the grain-trading

co-operatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

set up in Canada during the 1920s known as the

wheat pool A wheat pool is a co-operative that markets grain (mostly wheat) on behalf of its farmer-members. In Canada in 1923 and 1924, three wheat pools were created. They were farmer-owned co-operatives, created to break the power of the large for-p ...

s. It has since acquired the former Australian government-sponsored

monopsony In economics, a monopsony is a market structure in which a single buyer substantially controls the market as the major purchaser of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers. The microeconomic theory of monopsony assumes a single entity ...

marketing board A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. It can also be defined as an organization set up by a government to regulate the buying and selling of a certain ...

, the

Australian Barley Board ABB Grain was Australia's largest agribusiness. Founded in 1939, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange until its takeover by Viterra in 2009. For most of its history, the company focused solely on grain accumulation and ma ...

, created in 1939.

Mergers

Viterra Plant Edmonton Alberta Canada 01

On 19 May 2009, Viterra announced it would buy Australian

ABB Grain ABB Grain was Australia's largest agribusiness. Founded in 1939, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange until its takeover by Viterra in 2009. For most of its history, the company focused solely on grain accumulation and ma ...

for C$1.4 billion. On 9 September, 84 percent of ABB shareholders voted in favour of the merger, with 75 percent required to pass the resolution. On March 15, 2012, Viterra announced that it had received takeover offers from multiple parties.

Glencore Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company wa ...

was revealed to have offered a takeover bid of $6.1 billion. It intended to immediately sell off its Canadian assets to

Agrium Agrium was a major retail supplier of agricultural products and services in North America, South America and Australia and a wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural nutrients and a supplier of specialty fertilizers in No ...

and

Richardson International Richardson International Limited is a privately held Canadian agricultural and food industry company headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The company is one of several companies that are owned by James Richardson & Sons Limited. The company i ...

while retaining Viterra's overseas assets. The takeover deal was completed in December 2012. Following Glencore's takeover of Viterra in December 2012, Viterra underwent some major changes. Viterra Inc. (Viterra) was acquired by a Glencore purchaser, 8115222 Canada Inc. and merged under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA). The new board of directors includes Mr. Chris Mahoney (Director of Agricultural Products of Glencore), Mr. Ernest Mostert (Financial Manager of Glencore Grain), Mr. Robert Wardell and Mr. Larry Ruud (President & CEO One Earth Farms Corp). In preparation for Glencore's acquisition of Viterra in December 2012, in March 2012

Inc entered into a $1.15bn sale agreement with Glencore, who in this way divested "90 percent of Viterra’s Canadian retail facilities, all of its Australian retail facilities, as well as their minority position in a nitrogen facility located in

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are wit ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

." In 2016, Glencore sold a minority stake in the business to the

Canada Pension Plan The Canada Pension Plan (CPP; french: Régime de pensions du Canada) is a contributory, earnings-related social insurance program. It forms one of the two major components of Canada's public retirement income system, the other component being Ol ...

, who paid "US$2.5 billion for a 40 percent stake" in its global agricultural assets, by then renamed "Glencore Agriculture". In 2020, Glencore Agriculture rebranded to Viterra and created a new brand identity, building off the Viterra brand that was created in 2007.

References

{{Regina Corporations Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Wheat Agriculture companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 2007 Companies based in Regina, Saskatchewan Grain industry of Australia Grain companies 2007 establishments in Saskatchewan Stock and station agencies Agriculture companies established in 2007

History

Mergers

See also

References