WEYBURN - The support of Co-ops continues to be very strong in rural Saskatchewan, Weyburn Rotary Club members heard in a presentation by Kevin Arthur, general manager of Prairie Sky Co-op on Thursday.
He has been the general manager for the last two-and-a-half years, and shared about why the co-operative association continues to be a strong business in Weyburn and surrounding areas, and how the COVID pandemic has impacted them.
Arthur was born and raised in Grenfell, where his father was extensively involved with the local Co-op, and he started his working life at the same Co-op, leading to a career over the past 31 years at a number of locations.
His career included working for Federated Co-op in Regina, and was the general manager in Roblin, Man., immediately before coming to Weyburn.
Prairie Sky Co-op includes Weyburn, Beaubier, Lang and Milestone amalgamated branches, plus they provide shared services with a number of other Co-ops in the area, and they manage the Radville Co-op as well, he explained.
“It’s a different business, as it’s owned by the members, over 10,000 who are members,” explained Arthur, noting they elect a board of directors and hold an annual shareholders meeting. The Prairie Sky Co-op is different from other co-operatives also, he added, as each association organizes and runs their co-operative in their own way.
In addition, Prairie Sky and 207 other Co-ops collectively own Federated Co-operatives, which owns and runs the Co-op Refinery in Regina and supplies goods through their wholesale warehouses to the member stores throughout the province.
“In rural Saskatchewan, membership is quite high. I think when you get into larger centres, like Calgary and Edmonton, it’s less so. Definitely we have strong membership. It also depends on the services you provide. We sell food, pharmacy petroleum and home building products. Some other Co-ops don’t have these business lines, or they might sell other things like crop inputs,” he said.
Prairie Sky just opened a new Home Centre over the summer, located on Highways 13 and 39, as “one of the largest investments Co-op has ever made,” said Arthur.
He noted that prior to this new store, the Co-op found they were not able to provide the kind of service and products that they wanted to from the old store location, and the decision was made to build a new store location.
Asked how the new Home Centre is doing, Arthur answered, “It’s doing quite well. We’ve had lots of positive comments from customers.”
He noted that lumber prices were high, which put off some people from building new homes or doing renovations, but he believes this will change as the prices have now been coming down.
One Rotary member lamented the loss of the coffee shop in the food store, and Arthur said it was a combination of the impact of COVID and from a lack of business.
He said it was initially closed because they had to, due to the COVID lockdowns in 2020, and then as they later took a look at their business operations, “at the end of the day it was a money-losing prospect to be open.”
They are looking at different options for what will go into that space, but no decisions have been made yet, he added.
Asked about staffing and HR issues during COVID, Arthur said Prairie Sky Co-op currently has around 185 employees, and commented that he was quite impressed with the staff during the worst of the COVID lockdowns, as most of them stayed on the job on the front-lines.
In the first few months, there was some panic buying of grocery items, and the store saw some of the highest rates of sales in quite a while as they struggled to keep stock on the shelves.
Rotary member Gary Anderson said the Co-op deserved bouquets for having the delivery service for groceries during this time, and he noted for about three months or so they didn’t have to come to the store at all as they were able to get their groceries delivered.
Arthur noted that at the height of the lockdowns, they had three delivery vehicles going, including a vehicle loaned them by Barber Motors.
On the question of whether vaccines will be required for their employees, Arthur said, “At this point we don’t, but these things can change.”
The pharmacy was one of the outlets offering COVID vaccines, and they did encourage employees to get them.
Some of the measures taken, like plexiglas shields, have been kept in place, but he noted there are frustrations caused with both customers and employees having to wear masks, making it hard for people to hear each other.
“We’re watching developments all the time, because rules change quite often,” he said. “Usually there’s a way to work with people.”
