SunOpta Inc. (NasdaqGS:STKL; Toronto:SOY.TO) announced that it has entered into an agreement to establish a joint venture with Colorado Mills LLC of Lamar Colorado, to build and operate an organic and natural vegetable oil refining facility.
The venture will be operated as Colorado Sun Oil Processing LLC and will be owned 50% by SunOpta and 50% by Colorado Mills. The processing facility will be located in Lamar, Colorado, adjacent to Colorado Mills’ existing crude oil processing facility, and will be capable of refining approximately 35 million pounds annually of natural and organic sunflower, soybean and canola oils.
The refining facility is expected to be operational late in 2008. Once in production, the joint venture will refine existing crude oil for both Colorado Mills and SunOpta and provide cost efficiencies and increased capacity to service fast growing markets, the companies said.
As part of the joint venture agreement, SunOpta will market the majority of the refined oil from the venture and expects to generate incremental revenues of approximately $10 million.
Allan Routh, President of the SunOpta Grains and Foods Group, commented, "The benefit of consuming healthy natural and organic oils and avoiding oils containing transfats has generated tremendous demand for our vertically integrated oil products. Joining forces with Colorado Mills to operate this joint venture will position SunOpta to continue to meet increased demand and cost-effectively grow our healthy oils business.”
About SunOpta Inc.
SunOpta Inc. is an operator of high-growth ethical businesses, focusing on integrated business models in natural, organic and specialty foods and related healthy living products. The company has three business units: the SunOpta Food Group, which specializes in sourcing, processing and distribution of natural and organic food products integrated from seed through packaged products; Opta Minerals Inc. (Toronto:OPM.TO – News) (66.3% owned by SunOpta), a producer, distributor, and recycler of environmentally friendly industrial materials; and SunOpta BioProcess Inc. which engineers and markets proprietary steam explosion technology systems for the pulp, bio-fuel and food processing industries.
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