Several years ago, there was a wave of long-held family companies in southeast Saskatchewan that sold out to larger firms as the ownership started looking at retirement. One of those companies was Three Star Trucking of Alida, which has been owned and operated by the Boettcher family for over 50 years. They sold a majority stake to Provident Energy in October 2011.
Provident was then sold to Pembina Pipeline Corp. As a pipeline company, their trucking operation wasn鈥檛 a fit.
鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 want to be in trucking, so they gave us a deal,鈥 said Ken Boettcher, one of the owners.
Thus, in August 2014, the Boettchers bought back the part of the business they had sold just a few years before.
鈥淲e bought it back. We got a good deal,鈥 Ken said, agreeing that the retirement strategy he spoke of a few years ago has gone to the wind.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot nicer owning your own company than just a part of it,鈥 he said.