Photo from UFA's social media page.

By Susan McNeil

Farming co-operative

UFA president says Peavey Mart was close competition to their farm stores

Dec 15, 2025 | 4:56 PM

Residents of Prince Albert and the surrounding rural area who have been missing the goods supplied by Peavey Mart will be glad to see UFA’s planned farm store for the area.

The retail store, the second that will be built in Saskatchewan, is more geared to farming and ranching than Peavey Mart, but the basics are the same and many UFA stores have a lumber yard.

Farmers and ranchers are asking for UFA to expand in the province, said Fred Thun, President and CEO.

“We wait for customers to tell us that they want us and there has been a lot of customer demand for us to come to many rural communities,” he said.

“PA fits the bill perfectly. It’s a thriving market, it’s a great agricultural community and the customer based in PA has been vocal in their requests for UFA to come and put a location there.”

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UFA is a co-operative, meaning that like other co-ops people can buy memberships and get annual dividends based on profits. A membership is not required to shop.

Also like other co-ops, the business model is slightly different than a purely profit-driven business.

“One thing that’s important with the UFA is that we exist primarily to perpetuate and to support agriculture and the rural lifestyles and rural communities,” Thun said. “So, whenever we look at Saskatchewan, what we look at first, we don’t necessarily look at markets first.”

The company is well aware of its impact in small rural communities and that staying open and competitive are necessary.

They now number 150 stores across the three Prairie provinces and began expanding into Saskatchewan a few years ago with 12 card lock locations now in the province. Prince Albert would make a 13th but is the second planned farm supply store.

If all goes according to plan, the Prince Albert retail farm store would open in 2027 but a fuel location with bulk delivery, high speed lanes and lubricants ideally would open by the end of 2026.

“Peavey Market was a relatively close competitor to UFA, in fact probably one of our closest competitors in the market,” Thun said.

He said that Peavey Mart had a good selection of products and did a good job of selling it and other businesses would do well to pay attention to why they went bankrupt.

“It’s a real wakeup call for anybody involved in what I would call rural agricultural retail. If an organization like Peavey could go bankrupt, we all have to make sure we’re operating efficiently and doing a good job because you’ve got to earn your right to survive in this business.”

Since declaring bankrupty, Peavey Mart has re-opened four of its stores and a distribution centre, all in Alberta.

One thing customers will see is a bigger focus on items that get sold out of a yard rather than indoors, that means gates, panels, barbed wire and a lumber yard as well.

Once market assessments are complete, UFA could also open a crop input/fertilizer location as well, but that is a third phase and not firmly planned as yet.

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susan.mcneil