Editor’s Note: Ron Helwer, owner and founder of Shur-Gro Farm Services, was formally inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame Nov. 4 (photo above). The Co-operator spoke to Helwer when his name was first announced for the honour in July. This is what he had to say:
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[UPDATED: Nov. 8, 2023] Ron Helwer is the owner and founder of Brandon-based agribusiness Shur-Gro Farm Services, a company he founded in 1968.
While many of his contemporaries would have long since retired, at 90 years old, Helwer is still active in the business and goes to work every day.
“My general manager is the early bird,” said Helwer. “He gets to work at six, and I get there about a quarter after.”
Helwer came honestly by his work ethic and entrepreneurial verve. He was born in 1933 and grew up on a mixed farm near Libau. In 1952, his father started a Massey-Harris farm implement dealership in the village. Helwer was 19 years old and eager to get his career going. Not content to just work for his father, he was determined to buy into the business.
“I had to get some money to be a partner,” he said. “I went to his bank, and they wouldn’t loan me any money, so I had to go to a local insurance agent in the village. He loaned me the money.”
The business went well beyond selling farm implements. It included a repair shop that serviced every kind of tractor or car. Soon the business began selling home appliances like fridges and stoves.
“In 1954, we started selling televisions,” said Helwer. “So we were out there putting antennas up on farmhouse roofs. We kind of did a lot of different things.”
In fact, it was during that time that Helwer first got into the business of selling fertilizer. The business averaged roughly two carloads a year of bagged fertilizer.
“It was mostly phosphates,” he said. “If we had been selling nitrogen fertilizer, business would have grown a lot faster because the phosphate didn’t show up in the colour of the crop like nitrogen does.”
The business continued to expand. His father soon bought another dealership in Selkirk. His brother also became a partner, and the two eventually bought out their dad. They remained partners until they sold the business in 1960.
Helwer then bought a fuel business in East St. Paul, which is when the fertilizer sales portion of the business began to take off.
By the mid-60s, Shell and Simplot had established fertilizer plants and were looking for dealers.
“Previous to that, most fertilizer was sold as a sideline by implement dealers,” Helwer said. “I could see that it was going to grow. So I was looking to get into the business.”
In 1968, Helwer started Shur-Gro in Brandon. It expanded quickly over the next few decades, and so did his family. He and his wife raised three children, who also helped with the business.
Helwer’s business acumen allowed the company to weather tough times, and those years helped with the company’s expansion because hard times will often see companies divest assets.
“We bought the assets of the Gulf Oil fertilizer business in Brandon and in Killarney,” he said. “It was our first expansion.”
The 1980s farm crisis saw interest rates soar, land prices plummet and farm foreclosures explode.
“It wasn’t just the farmers who had difficulty,” says Helwer. “We had a tough time collecting our receivables.”
Fortunately, Shur-Gro wasn’t overburdened with debt and Helwer was able to turn the 1980s farm crisis into a positive for the company by buying struggling dealerships in Wascana and Shoal Lake.
Throughout the years with Shur-Gro, Helwer has tested the waters with a number of different businesses.
He got into soil sampling initially as a loss leader to grow new business.
“Soil sampling wasn’t a common thing in the late ’60s and early ’70s,” Helwer said. “I would tell them to let me do soil sampling so that I could help them. It was a good sales tool.”
Helwer also dabbled in the construction business, with locations in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. He eventually sold that business to his partners. He had an implement business that he sold to Toromont a decade ago.
Today, Shur-Gro has 13 outlets, all within Manitoba. Shur-Gro is also a partner with Double Diamond Farm Supplies, which has seven outlets — six in Manitoba and one in Saskatchewan.
Outside of his business interests, Helwer has developed an ethos of giving back to the community and the industry that sustains his business. He is one of the founders of what is now known as the Canadian Association of Agricultural Retailers.
“In the 1970s, Alberta folks had the Alberta Fertilizer Association, and I used to go to their meetings,” said Helwer. “A fellow from Melfort, Saskatchewan, and I made a proposal to them to form a western association.”
Helwer was nominated for the board of the fledgling organization (then known as the Western Fertilizer and Chemical Dealers Association) and soon became president.
“I’ve kept involved and tried to get one of our people, if not myself, to be on the board,” he said. “There are some important functions and regulatory things that the association does for its members that are important to carry on.”
That sense of duty carries into his philosophy about the communities where he does business.
“We’ve tried to keep involved in the community, not just in Brandon but wherever we are,” says Helwer. “We try to encourage our people to be on local council or to get involved in service clubs and do things to help the community. All communities need help to keep things going, whether that’s a baseball team, a hockey team, or a school organization.”
Asked if he has thoughts about retirement, Helwer laughed.
“I’m 90 years old! I should have retired long ago!”
He says he thought about retiring when he was in his 60s, but he enjoyed his work too much.
But he’s hopeful that once his son, MLA Reg Helwer, leaves provincial politics later this year, he’ll come back to take over.
“He says he doesn’t want to, but he might anyway,” says Helwer.
In the meantime, he’s content to stay put.
Helwer is one of seven Canadians being inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. The 2023 induction ceremony will be held on Nov. 4 in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
