Saskferco no more

The new owners of the former Saskferco Plant in Belle Plaine promised Wednesday to grow the fertilizer operation and provide a "good new home" for its employees.
"I will make it a commitment to continue the good stewardship that the government, with Saskferco, has had," said Tor Holba, senior vice-president of Yara International ASA, promising a view to the future, rather than maintaining status quo.
Holba made the statement at the facility at an event to mark the official closure of the sale of the plant to his company.
Holba promised its former owners, should they come back in the future to visit the plant they opened, "will not be smaller. We will gradually grow it."
The plant was initially purchased July 14 by Yara Canada Holdings Inc., an affiliate of Yara International ASA. The 100-year-old Norwegian company is a major international producer of nitrogen fertilizer, trading roughly four million to five million tonnes per year.
Now known as Yara Belle Plaine Inc., the plant is the company's largest acquisition in terms of value, with a price tag of $1.6 billion. Yara operates plants in 20 sites worldwide, and does business in 40 countries.
He said the acquisition of Saskferco has been a smooth one in terms of its fit with the company.
"This is one of the few times one plus one actually equals two, instead of 1.7," Holba said. He said he had spent the past 48 hours examining the plant and its operations and was impressed with what he's seen.
"We will not make any significant changes in the immediate future - nor at the management level nor at the employee level," he said. "This is a very professional organization that not only are we happy to keep, but also we might want to steal from them for our other operations," said Holba.

Suzanne Boyer can be reached at 691-1258.

At Wednesday's press conference to finalize the sale of Saskferco, the premier said there is no final plans on what to do with the province's share of the sale.
Premier Brad Wall said the proceeds from the sale have not been designated to a particular purpose. He added it's "one-time money" and it would be prudent to apply that sort of funding to decreasing debt, or investments in important infrastructure.
The province received about $783 million for its 49 per cent share in Saskferco. The province invested $68.5 million in the company between 1989 and 1993, and Investment Saskatchewan collected more than $209 million in dividends since its original investment in Saskferco.
Lyle Stewart, MLA for the Belle Plaine area and the minister responsible for Investment Saskatchewan said there are several ideas for the money but suggested some will be available to advance commercial research and innovation ideas in the province.
"There's no advantage to having taxpayer dollars tied up when the private sector is more than willing to take over," Stewart added.
As for other benefits to the sale, Stewart said the province did its research on the company before working out a deal with Yara and is confident in its track record in terms of employee relations, environmental policies and community involvement.
"I think the employees will be very pleased with Yara," said Stewart.
He added the sale should be positive for his constituents.
- Boyer