Prairie agrifood firm Richardson International has set up a pair of new international subsidiaries to expand its grain and oilseed sales reach overseas.
The privately-held Winnipeg company on Tuesday announced it will open new merchandising offices in Geneva and Singapore to “to enhance its ability to serve existing customers and develop relationships with new customers in overseas markets.”
“These two offices will give us the opportunity to build a stronger presence in Europe and Asia and will ultimately help us to bring more Canadian products to markets around the world,” Brent Watchorn, Richardson’s executive vice-president for marketing, said in a release.
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The company, he said, aims to set up a “permanent presence” for the Richardson group of companies in “key” international markets, in order to get “closer to our evolving customer base and make the most of opportunities to expand our global reach.”
Richardson’s grain and oilseed handling volumes have “grown significantly” in the past year, he said, crediting the company’s acquisition in May of 19 former Viterra grain elevators in four provinces, as well as last year’s federal deregulation of Western Canada’s wheat, durum and malting barley markets.
To staff the new offices, Richardson has hired new directors of marketing for Asia and Europe. Boon Guay, who will work in the Singapore office, comes to Richardson with a resume including grain firms such as AWB-Cargill and, most recently, GrainCorp.
Emmanuel Karrer will run the Geneva office, coming to Richardson from CHS with previous experience working for Champagne Cereales and German agriprocessor C. Thywissen.
Richardson already operates a merchandising subsidiary in Hong Kong, set up three years ago. — AGCanada.com Network
