(File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Together as one

Pineland Co-op and Lake Country Co-op announce amalgamation

Jun 29, 2020 | 3:58 PM

Lake Country Co-op and Pineland Co-op will be amalgamated as of Sept. 1, 2020. All Pineland Co-op locations will officially become Lake Country Co-op. In total there will be 56 Lake County Co-op locations in 18 communities.

CEO of Lake Country Co-op Tim Keller told paNOW via email they’ve been in a management agreement with Pineland Co-op for over three years now, so operationally there will be minimal changes. They will also be expanding their Board of Directors from six to eight members to have representatives from Pineland Co-op.

“The greatest benefit of this amalgamation will be that our co-operative will have a better buying power with suppliers and in these uncertain times of retail operations, Co-ops will only be stronger by working together,” Keller said in the email. “Co-operation amongst co-operatives will ensure our members are well served for many years to come.”

The combined amalgamation will have over 50,000 members. No employees will lose their jobs.

“Joining together will result in total sales close to $500 million annually and grow our employee network to over 1,000 people,” he said in the email.

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Pineland Board President Morley Doerksen said as a Co-op member he thinks the amalgamation is great for all members and will make them a stronger Co-op.

“Lake Country and Pineland both have strong numbers and we want to keep it that way,” Doerksen said. “We’ve got to look ahead to the future and especially on a year like this, it really shows where it’s beneficial to work together.”

Doerksen said they had information sessions for members back in December and January and they heard constructive feedback.

“We had some resistance, but we had a lot of positive feedback too,” Doerksen explained. “It seemed like the majority of the people that we talked to thought it was a good thing.”

“I just thank all the members for supporting their Co-op. It’ll be the same, you won’t notice any changes locally, and hopefully we can pay a little more equity.”

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Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12