Fresh and By TIM KALINOWSKI
Gwen Hansen has been working for Red Hat Co-operative Ltd. for more than a decade.
Rose Leafloor is working the pepper line. Red, yellow and green peppers make their way down the conveyor toward the sealing machine at Red Hat Co-op packing facility in Redcliff. Leafloor is responsible for the red ones. She places them on the belt one at a time. Another woman behind her places a yellow one and another behind her a green. The three colours of pepper are then sealed up together for delivery to grocery stores across Canada. Leafloor has been working the produce line for seven years. Sometimes she works with tomatoes, sometimes with cucumbers, but today it is all about peppers.
"I love my work," says Leafloor, "and I'm happy working here. I think every area is good for me working — in tomatoes area and cucumbers and packing peppers. It makes me feel good to feed people. And we choose the best products for them and they will be fat and happy or happier."
Leafloor, who hasn't stopped working for an instant, laughs and misses one pepper in the line. But not to worry, Leafloor's co-worker behind her catches it and smoothly places an extra pepper so the conveyor continues on without interruption. Team- work is the most
34 | 2013 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA
home grown Red Hat Co-op takes industry to new growing potential
important quality which keeps Red Hat Co-op ahead of the 150,000 pallets of produce that must be packed and shipped out every week during peak season. These products are destined for Sobeys, Loblaws, Co-op, Walmart, Costco, Save On Foods, AG Foods and Safeway stores throughout North America.
Red Hat Co-op is now big business, but it is big business which stays true to its cooperative roots. Lyle Aleman, general manager for Red Hat, grew up in the Redcliff greenhouse world himself and remembers back to a time when Red Hat's local growers ran all aspects of the operations. When Red Hat started in 1966 there were 10 growers involved, now there are 42 and over 225 staff at peak focusing exclusively on the packing side of things. Aleman, whose days are filled with conferences and telephone calls with major buyers and suppliers, feels that the cooperative structure keeps Red Hat grounded even as it completed a $4.5 million expansion, doubling the size of its packing plant, in 2012.
"When we look at our co-op a success here has been to try to provide value for our growers every year," explains Aleman. "We try to not get too top heavy. We try not to diversify into areas where we shouldn't be. We concentrate on what we need to do: And that's greenhouse product. The other thing that works for us is that one grower has one vote. It doesn't matter how big you are; it doesn't matter how small you are."
Aleman admits there have been some
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