Alliance Grain Traders to build pasta plant in Saskatchewan
By Canadian Packaging Staff
General Alliance Grain Traders Arbel Group Canadian Logistic Services Global Transportation Hub Authority Loblaw Companies Ltd. Yankee Group of CompaniesRegina-based pasta and pulse processing facility will aid Alliance growth in global market.
Specialty-based crops processor Alliance Grain Traders Inc., headquartered in Regina, Sask., has announced its intention to invest up $50-million in the construction of a pasta and pulse processing and logistics complex in the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) in Regina.
The GTH is a new 2,000 acre Canadian transportation and logistics center currently in its first year of operation and construction. The GTH’s anchor tenant, Canadian Logistics Services, is already operating phase one of its one-million square-foot distribution center in support of the Loblaw’s Group of Companies.
Earlier this year, the GTH was announced as the site for the expansion of the Yankee Group of Companies, Saskatchewan’s largest trucking company, who provide intermodal, trucking, warehousing and logistics services. The GTH serves as a single point of contact and customized solutions for outside investors to connect Saskatchewan to the rest of the world and the rest of the world to Saskatchewan.
The planned investment in the complex for Alliance will act as a milling site for wheat and pulses, processing durum wheat into semolina for the production of Arbella pasta in Canada, and grinding pulses for the production of pulse flours, proteins, starches and fibers.
Alliance Grain Traders president and chief executive officer Murad Al-Katib says his company is looking to continue its growth and expansion of its global packaged food and ingredients platforms in pulses and milled durum wheat.
“We are continuing our growth and expansion strategy of our global packaged food and ingredients platforms in pulses and milled durum wheat. We have always been focused on creating value through origin-based processing, locating our processing facilities where high quality crops are grown. We seek to create value for our farmer suppliers and our shareholders by shipping finished food products and not just the raw basic commodities to markets around the world. Canada is a dominant world supplier of durum wheat and pulses. With our strong Canadian base built over the past decade, Western Canada was a logical choice for our new processing complex. The GTH will provide a competitive freight advantage for us that makes this a sensible investment,” says Murad Al-Katib, president and chief executive officer of Alliance.
“We have built a successful global pasta business based out of our production facilities in Turkey. With the good conditions in Canada, we feel that significant opportunities exist to expand our operations here. Our relationships with growers in Western Canada and our relationships with our international customers we sell to everyday create opportunities and synergies that we feel may be realized through this investment,” he adds.
Huseyin Arslan, Alliance executive chairman of the board of directors, states: “This expansion is an important step in ensuring a strong foundation for our future by solidifying our pasta milling capacity in Canada and moving us further up the value chain in our pulses platform. This, we feel, will assist in enabling us to continue to successfully and profitably supply the world with pulse ingredients and our other products.”
The project is expected to begin construction in 2012.
About Alliance Grain Traders Inc.
Alliance Grain Traders Inc. (AGT) is a pulse, staple food and ingredient processor and exporter engaged in the business of value-added processing (cleaning, splitting, sorting and bagging) of pulses and specialty crops for export and domestic markets. Through its offices and processing facilities located in some of the best pulse growing regions in Canada, the U.S., Turkey, China and Australia and merchandising and sales offices in the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain, AGT handles a full range of pulses and specialty crops including lentils, peas, chickpeas, beans and canary seed. Through its subsidiaries in Turkey, the Arbel Group, AGT also produces staple foods such as Arbella Pasta, rice, and milled wheat products, including bulgur and semolina.
For more information on Alliance, visit www.alliancegrain.com.
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