As General Manager I want to personally welcome you to our co-operative, the Neerlandia Co-op.
I grew up in Neerlandia, then moved to attend university; in some ways this helped me understand and appreciate the importance of community in my life and Neerlandia kept calling me back. A summer job in the Ag Department led to me studying Crop Science at the University of Alberta. In 2001 I started my career as an agronomist at the Neerlandia Co-op, and in 2021 moved to the position of General Manager. My family and I are blessed to be able to call Neerlandia home. Living and working in this small hamlet of about 120 people, it’s a small community with a big heart, and an even bigger home and farm store that serves our region of families and farms!
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Instrumental in our success is our community approach. The favourite part of my job has always been getting to know our members, some that I’ve dealt with my whole career and am now fortunate enough to call friend or neighbour! Our staff are personable, knowledgeable, and hard-working; we embody our Vision “To be leaders of service in the communities we serve.”
The Neerlandia Co-op serves an agricultural community; so, whether it’s feeding the families that run these farms, servicing their equipment, providing them with hardware and building supplies, or directly selling fuel, crop inputs, and farm supplies, we are all impacted by this relationship with our farm community. Our focus on providing leading-edge products and services and becoming trusted advisors to our farm customer has helped us to remain profitable and serves our entire community well. It affords us the opportunity to build beautiful facilities and provide necessary services, like our food store and restaurant that we might otherwise not be able to.
We have great things coming. The Neerlandia Co-op is future-focused and has a growth mindset balanced with responsible fiscal practices.
The Equip Team has grown and moved, adding combined years of ag experience to our Co-op Ag services. Goods made by Local Producers are featured and expanding in the Food Store, along with the expansion of freezer and space in the Food Store warehouse, and equipment purchases like the Deli’s soft serve ice cream maker and the Restaurant’s pizza oven. We’ve improved access to our Fuel cardlock by upgrading to now accept credit cards. We repurposed our old Service Centre building and rent space to a local business. And we’re digitizing, now offering e-commerce for Neerlandia Co-op’s Sportsman Centre sporting goods inventory.
We continue to sponsor many local causes and events, some renting the Replica Store – a miniature version of our original store built in celebration of over 100 years of service to our community. The Neerlandia Co-op is a place where people gather; in honouring our place as the hub of the community we host several events throughout the year, and we invite you to join us! Growing each year, events include the Mid Summer Event in August, and the Red Green Sale & Event in December.
While in some ways things have changed a lot since opening in 1922, we still see threads of the early settler’s priorities today. Our customers and members have significantly more options for shopping, and we no longer exist solely out of necessity; we have the same firm belief that by working together the Neerlandia Co-op competitively provides our member customers with the goods and services they require. Read more about our history as a General Merchant: (1985) Neerlandia Historical Society – Furrow Laid Bare, page 880-897).
We are grateful that you’ve decided to stop by. We hope you take some time to explore what we have to offer and if you haven’t already done so, become a Member! Our Members are owners and share in our success; we’d love to have you become a part of the Neerlandia Co-op.
July 12, 2022
