Sprucedale Agromart Ltd.

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Description

It all began in the small village of Tara in 1964. Back then, there was one employee. Frank Coulter operated a warehouse that simply sold fertilizer. In the last 40 years, things certainly have changed. Now there area few more people working at Sprucedale and there are two other locations in Hanover and Gore Bay. Our product focus has also expanded as we now provide not only fertilizer, but agricultural chemicals, seed and farm supplies. Frank Coulter started with CIL and through the years, the business has had many different partners and made a lot of friends; all of which have helped us grow as a business. In 1964, Sprucedale Agromart set up business in one small building at the south end of the village of Tara, to supply farmers with fertilizer. Forty-two years later, the business has grown to 6 buildings at the Tara site We also have two other locations, in Hanover and Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island as well as a small bulk storage facility near the village of Lion's Head on the Bruce Peninsula. The business is 50% owned by the Agronomy Company of Canada and 50% by 4 private partners. Frank Coulter began working in Tara in 1967 as a sales representative and became one of the partners in 1978 when Sprucedale Agromart was incorporated. Scot Reid has been with Sprucedale since 1977 at which point, as he likes to remind us, that he was making $3.95/hour. Two years later he became a partner. In 1982, we purchased the Hanover location which was operated by Jim Reid and the Brockville Chemical Company. It was then that our partnership was fortunate to increase by one, with the addition of Jim. It would take 17 years before Frank, Scot and Jim, would be approached by one of our own,then employee, Rob Helm. In 1999 Rob joined the partnership. His dedication to the growth of our business was appreciated and with his assistance we knew the future would be bright. After Terra Industries sold out, The Agronomy Company was owend by Land O'Lakes and Cenex Harvest States (CHS). In 2009 The Agronomy Company of Canada was purchased by La Coop federee. Since the beginning, we have expanded to be the supplier of agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides, certified seed, fencing supplies, road culverts, baler twine, silage wraps, feeding equipments, forage racks and wagons. This diversity has helped us be successful. One of the biggest changes over the years has been in the fertilizer sector. Where it used to be all shipped in bags, now, 85 % is sold as bulk. The other change which has help to expand the business has been in the custom application of dry and liquid blended fertilizers, herbicides and seeds. We started custom applying products in 1974 with one 4-wheel drive truck, and now we have 8 units, some very big. Our customer profiled has also changed from mostly family operated farms to a mix of corporate and larger family run operations. Certainly this is more demanding, which in order to be a progressive company, and service those accounts, we have trained our staff accordingly. Sprucedale Agromart employs 21 individuals, and during the busy season we bring back about 12 part time workers.

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