‘Forward-thinking’ entry puts new name to merger
‘Nutrien’ chosen as corporate brand for combined PotashCorp-Agrium company
A process engineer from Ohio and a business manager from Texas came up with the ideas that inspired Nutrien Inc., the name of the company that will be formed when Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium Inc. merge later this year.
The name emerged from a contest that resulted in employees of both companies submitting more than 4,000 ideas. The winner was announced Wednesday, 10 months after PotashCorp and Agrium confirmed that the US$26 billion deal was in the works.
“Quite literally, the list of names went from ‘Abundantly’ to ‘Zon Terra,’ ” PotashCorp spokesman Randy Burton said, adding that most of the suggestions — from the Latin “Fertilis” to the Greek “Auxesia” — reflected the combined companies’ businesses.
The final choice of Nutrien — which comes with the tagline “Feeding the future” — captures the idea that “the company’s business will be about helping growers be more productive to meet the challenge of feeding a growing world,” Burton said.
“We were looking for a name that would summarize our role in helping farmers produce better yields. Something that would connect back to soil and nature. Something forward-thinking, with the promise of innovation.”
Despite receiving overwhelming support from shareholders last year, Saskatoon-based PotashCorp and Agrium, which is headquartered in Calgary, still have to receive regulatory approval before the merger can be completed.
The companies originally announced that they expected the deal to close in the second quarter of 2017, but that date has been pushed back to the third quarter. Burton said the original timeline was an estimate and the “regulatory process continues.”
We were looking for a name that would summarize our role in helping farmers produce better yields. Something that would connect back to soil and nature.
Once the merger is completed, Nutrien will have around 20,000 employees and operations in 18 countries. It will operate six of Saskatchewan’s 10 potash mines: Allan, Cory, Lanigan, Patience Lake, Rocanville and Vanscoy.
Agrium CEO Chuck Magro is expected to serve as the combined company ’s chief executive; Jochen Tilk, who has helmed PotashCorp since 2014, will serve as its executive chairman. Nutrien’s “registered” headquarters is expected to be in Saskatoon.
The completed merger will also result in the two contest winners — one from each company — taking a trip to New York City in the fall, where they will ring the bell at the city’s famous stock exchange, Burton said.
When the deal was announced in September, Magro and Tilk said it was an attempt to make both firms more competitive amid “fierce” market conditions that have seen fertilizer prices fall precipitously over the last decade due to global oversupply.
Those conditions led PotashCorp to shutter its Picadilly mine in New Brunswick and permanently scale back production at its Cory operation west of Saskatoon. However, amid rising profits earlier this year, Tilk said its cost-cutting measures are starting to take effect.
One market analyst said the multibillion-dollar deal makes sense for both companies, albeit in different ways: It provides PotashCorp an opportunity to diversify and Agrium a chance to pick up potash assets “trading well below replacement cost.”
“(Agrium management) could look like heroes if those assets are re-rated,” the analyst said.
A University of Saskatchewan expert said that while the companies’ projected savings of US$500 million suggest more cost-cutting is on the horizon, the merger was likely “the only play that they (had) — and this is the time to do it.”
Other naming suggestions that did not make the cut included Potagrium, AgriPot, International Agricultural Fertilizer Company of Canada, Apply Nutrients, GreenGrow and “hundreds” of variations that started with Ag or Pot, Burton said.