april 2014
28
INHOUSE
PULSE
GRoWTh is
DRiviNG ThE
PRAIRIES
oF
ThE
BY JENNIFER BROwN
iN-housE
DEPARTMENTs iN
MANiTobA AND
sAskATChEWAN
ARE RiDiNG
A WAvE oF
PRoGREss.
F
or in-house counsel in Manitoba and Saskatchewan,
growth and regulatory change are the top drivers
dictating the kind of work and the volume coming
their way and that has been a steady trend for the last
few years.
"Growth and change — it is just relentless," says Shel-
don Stener, general counsel and corporate secretary
with Federated Co-operatives Ltd. of Saskatoon. "We've
been on a growth agenda doing acquisitions and growing
business units and looking for acquisition opportunities
— that's been taking up a lot of time."
The 2013 World Co-operative Monitor ranked FCL
in 58
th
place, up from 66
th
in 2012, with sales of US$8.1
billion. It was also the 13
th
largest co-op in the wholesale
and retail trade sector.
"It's been exiting for us but you have to have the ca-
pacity to handle it when it comes because you don't know
when it's going to come. When it hits, it hits pretty
hard," says Stener.
FCL completed the acquisition of 17 fertilizer, seed,
and agriculture chemical supply centres from Viterra
Inc. in November 2013. It bought the supply centres from
Viterra, the grain-handling arm of Glencore Xstrata. In
2012 it also bought Calgary-based junior oil company
Triwest Exploration Inc. for $138.4 million.
FCL is owned by about 225 retail co-ops located
throughout Western Canada. The co-ops are "member-
owners" of FCL. The company has a growth mandate
and keeping up with the deals is the main focus for
Stener and his in-house team of three. "It's something
that's new for us to be on this aggressive growth agenda.
The opportunities are presented not on our schedule
but on someone else's schedule so we don't really con-
trol the pace of the work. When a vendor comes looking
