World Grain - April 2015 - 40

FEATURE: SCOULAR GROWING FOOTPRINT IN CANADA

One of The Scoular Company's 70 grain handling facilities, a 6.4-million-bushel facility at Friars Point, Mississippi, U.S., ships grain to gulf export markets.

when the market makes a transition we
work hard to understand the customer's
perspective - what their new needs are.
market that is paying the most for their
product," Brummer said.
Asked what kind of reaction he receives to the name Scoular, which is
unfamiliar to most farmers in Western
Canada, Brummer said: "I would
describe the reaction as 'inviting.'
Scoular's culture is one of meeting customers' needs throughout the supply
chain, and that begins at the producer.
Our goal is to enhance the value of our
customer's business, whether that's at
people are excited to hear that.
"People really welcome the transparency that we bring, the competition that
we bring, and the different vision that we
bring. If you stand back and look at the
Canadian picture - the Canadian railway
system, the Canadian ports, the players
and what they do - to add another player
40

who is trying to do the same thing is like
putting another car on a busy highway.
"So, when we describe our business
to farmers as one of creating market
choice, they want to hear that. They're
not going to give you all of their production, but they're going to give you a try."
Scoular uses rail, truck, barge or ship to
move grain, but between Western Canada
and the U.S., particularly during the winter of 2014-15, truck was the primary
source of transportation and Brummer
said it was used "almost exclusively."
"Part of the value Scoular brings to the
Canadian landscape is the ability to arbitrage from what was a rail transportation
mode to a truck transportation mode in accordance with the contract that we made.
"This is a value to the producer because he's looking for some cash, he
wants to get paid, he wants to move it
while the roads are frozen or whatever
his particular situation is.
"When we come to work every day,
we don't say 'let's try to manage this

execution by rail or by truck, we look
at what price these modes of transportation generate at the farm gate and we
respond accordingly.'"
John Messerich, Senior Vice-President
of Operations, who oversees Scoular's intermodal, international ingredients, and
specialty grain and food ingredients
businesses, said he hasn't seen a dramatic change in grain moving across the
Canada/U.S. border, but he does think that
changes are coming.
"I believe we will see changes and we
hope Scoular will be one of the companies that can change this model and create new demand markets for Canadian
grain. I think that we'll have to eventually invest in some assets in Canada so
uct, or partner with people looking for
a large customer network to the south.
THE PNW AND CANOLA
Todd McQueen, Senior Vice
President for the company, said: "We
April 2015 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com
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World Grain - April 2015

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