EMERALD PARK, Sask. — Seeding equipment manufacturer SeedMaster announced in late May that it was expanding its manufacturing plant in Emerald Park on the outskirts of Regina.
The company has kicked off a $10 million capital project, which involved purchasing a five-acre property and 6,000 sq. foot building adjacent to its existing facility. It plans to erect one more building of the same size on the new property and complete construction by the end of the year.
“It adds five more acres to our lot in Emerald Park, so we’re up to 22 acres of ground with more buildings and room for expansion,” says SeedMaster chief executive office Don Henry.
“We’ll have about 12,000 sq. feet of additional (floor) space.”
Those facilities will house a new laser cutting system and an automated paint line along with more welding space.
“One of our bottlenecks was our current paint system,” he adds.
“So we were outsourcing a fair amount of laser cutting and powder painting on our smaller parts. The new paint system is designed for our smaller parts and real high throughput. It will give us some potential for more capacity as well.”
Having the new painting and fabrication facility will allow SeedMaster to bring those processes and their quality control back in-house.
The new production spaces will eventually see 20 to 25 people working in them, but the company isn’t committing to significantly adding to its workforce just yet.
“I think we’ll be increasing some (staff), but we’ll see how the market goes,” says Henry.
While overall ag equipment demand has slowed and is expected to continue to be down through the rest of the year from the highs of 2023, Henry believes SeedMaster will still have a full order book for its 2024 production.
“The interest rates and commodity prices have had an effect on our business, but it’s still very good. I still think we’ll be selling out. Our order program kicks in June 1, and we’ll be making sure we have all deliveries out before the end of April.”
The added buildings and yard area will also allow the company to eventually increase manufacturing output when needed to meet expected future sales growth. To help spur that demand, Henry says the company is preparing to pull the wraps off new products at the near Langham, Sask., in mid-July.
Those will include the new Ultra Pro 3 (UP3) on-frame tank system, the new E Series Air Cart and the new single knife air drill.
“We’ve got a number of new products we’re going to be bringing to the market, both from a drill, an opener standpoint and a cart standpoint that we’ll have on display at AIM,” Henry says.
“I think it’s an exciting time for SeedMaster and for the Regina area. We think this paint system is going to be state of the art; it’s all automated. We’re going to be very proud of it.”
