Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL) said exceptional market conditions in the energy sector propelled the company to a record profit in 2018.
FCL reported Thursday a return of almost $1.1 billion on revenues of nearly $10.7 billion.
The Saskatoon-based company said the majority of the profit will be shared with local Co-ops in western Canadian communities.
“We pass them on to locally owned and operated co-ops across Western Canada, which in turn pass much of their profit on to their own members and reinvest the rest in their local operations and communities,” said FCL CEO Scott Banda in a statement.
FCL said $789 million is being returned to 170 co-operatives – $630 million in cash and the remainder in additional share capital.
Banda said 2018 was an exceptional year, but is not expected to be repeated in 2019.
“These results are above and beyond anything we anticipated and we’re not expecting to see the same exceptional results in 2019 because new policies and market conditions are already affecting profitability in our energy business lines,” Banda said.
FCL said it will also make investments at its current facilities.
One is the $140 million project at the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina to reduce the amount of sulfur in the gasoline produced at the facility.
The company said it is also preparing for carbon regulations it believes will have a major impact on its operations.