IT’S WHAT MOST MOTHERS DO.Flo Price worked to instil a sense of independence in her children, plus a spirit of co-operation, a good work ethic and a desire to do well at all the tasks they took on. After all, those were the values she’d been raised with, and they were the values that Price, 82, and her late husband Stan shared and practised during their own 59-year farming careers on the family farm northeast of Calgary.
What Price probably didn’t foresee, especially in the early years, was how those values would one day translate into a successful complex of vertically integrated Alberta farming, processing and food retail companies that supply high-quality products to consumers in Canada and beyond.
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Today, Price is the matriarch of the agribusiness family which operates The Sunterra Group of Companies, along with a separate cattle operation, all based in south-central Alberta. Their various enterprises include hog, cattle and crop production, lamb-and hog-processing plants and a chain of successful food retail stores and restaurants in Calgary and Edmonton.
The Prices also supply specialty meat products to Japan and other markets, and while the beef operation is separate, companies within the Sunterra group include Sunterra Farms, Sunterra Meats Innisfail, Sunterra Meats Trochu and Sunterra Market.
Much of their growth has come from the insights that the Prices had as farmers, together with the values they have as a family.
The Sunterra Market chain may be the best example, born as it was out of their knowledge as pork producers. “It was something that started following a kitchen table discussion,” says Price. “We talked about how so often Canadian consumers end up with less-than-prime products, because so much of the best is exported. And that eventually led to developing our own food retail stores that focus on supplying good quality, local and Canadian products.”
Modelled after European-style shopping, where consumers buy smaller quantities more often, there are seven Sunterra Markets in Calgary, and two markets and a wine store in Edmonton, all with cafés and full meals for takeout prepared by professional chefs daily.
And in keeping with Flo’s personal philosophy of healthy meals and snacks for her own family, there are no deep fryers in any of their food-service outlets.
“Some people say our stores are more expensive than some of the big retailers,” says Price, who still writes and edits the company newsletter every month. “But they are not more expensive. We provide good-quality locally grown products as much as possible, with good service and good value.
“In raising the boys, they were all treated as individuals, but they also learned it was important to get along and cooperate,” Price says. “Everyone has their different personalities and it is important to respect that, but at the same time they need to be able to work with each other.”
Price and her husband Stan, who passed away in April 2010, raised their seven children on the family farm at Acme. Four of the boys have focused on livestock and food production and processing, while the others have gone on to develop their respective, successful careers.
Dave is available for consulting in all areas of the business and is also involved in the cropping operations. Ray manages the swine operations and the hog-and lamb-processing plants, and Glen manages the retail and food-service business, while Doug and his wife Helga own and manage Echo Sand Ranching, which includes feedlots and extensive cow-calf beef operations in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. It is separate from the Sunterra group, but Sunterra purchases beef from their operation.
Art, who had a successful career in the oil industry now operates Axia NetMedia, which designs and operates fibre optic-and wireless-based Internet and data networks. He also has a seat on the Sunterra Group board of directors.
Al pursued a career that combined education and a love for baseball, first as a teacher and school principal, and now providing coaching and youth development services through a program called Big Al Baseball, and Joyce is married and a long time school teacher at Kitscoty, just west of Lloydminster, Alta.
Many aspects of how Flo and Stan farmed are reflected in how the Sunterra companies have developed management and business philosophies.
The Prices married in 1948 and lived near the community of Crossfield just north of Calgary before moving in 1951 to the homestead at Acme. They started with five Jersey cows and a few chickens, but even early in their career were dedicated to sustainability, eventually becoming early adopters of zero till.
“We sold milk and eggs and did some bartering as well,” says Price. “Then we got into pigs which in those days were called Mortgage Lifters, because you could build up your numbers quickly, they were cheap to feed, and brought in some money.”
The Prices focused on good land stewardship, good animal husbandry, humane handling of livestock, and producing quality products with added value. Those same principles are carried on in the various Sunterra companies. On the farming side, manure still goes onto zero-tilled fields, says Price. In processing, she explains how hogs are humanely slaughtered at the Trochu plant using CO2 gas, which is not only a better end for the animal, but improves meat quality.
To meet customer needs, a meat cutter was brought in from Japan to show Trochu Meats employees how to prepare cuts for the Japanese market. While most pork is exported, they also supply many high-quality products to their own retail stores.
While Price started her career as a young woman in a one-room schoolhouse teaching farm and ranch kids about the rest of the world, now 60-some years later, she uses every opportunity she can to educate the rest of the world about farming and ranching.
“At one time just about everyone had an uncle or grandparent who was a farmer,” says Price, who now divides her time between the family farm and an apartment in Calgary. “But that’s not the case any more. A lot of people don’t have that connection and through the media and other sources they are exposed to a lot of misinformation.”
