The Annual General Meeting for Prairie Sky Coop was held last night at the Weyburn Legion.

It was a record year for sales, according to General Manager Kevin Arthur.

"We reached $109 million in sales and that far outpaces our best year in history, so that's a real big win and a pat on the back for our team members."

He said there is lots to look forward to this year.

"We're pretty excited about some investments that are underway. We're putting the liquor store into our food store and then planning to renovate the food and pharmacy departments inside the store afterward," he shared, saying the renovations may not be happening this year.

Arthur gave a big thank-you to his staff and to the PS Coop membership for helping achieve record sales. 

Stella Swertz is this year's president of the Prairie Sky Co-op board. 

"Our 2022 year was amazing for Prairie Sky Coop. We had record sales, better than the previous year sales in every department, and our new home center is in a beautiful new facility that everyone should come and check out. We're excited that the Rough Bark Greenhouse is going to be there. We're very excited to open our liquor branch in our Weyburn Coop [Food] Store," she commented. 

"We're extremely pleased with our branches and the communities that surround them," she added. "They support us wholeheartedly and that's what it takes to run everything."

In 2023, members will be paid out a total of $2,211,373.

Below is the full talk given during the event by Member Relations Manager Danielle Knoll:

At Prairie Sky Coop, we strive to make a difference in our community and create opportunities for the future. We do this by investing in our communities. We focus our donations to have the maximum impact across a variety of demographics, including youth, healthcare, sports, and arts, just to name a few. 

Because of the support from members and customers such as yourselves, Prairie Sky Coop was able to return $162,000 back into the communities we serve.

With life returning back to somewhat normal in 2022, we were able to help over 130 local community groups. Rarely a day goes by where a Prairie Sky Coop community investment donation is not in use, and there were a few exceptional moments from 2022 I'd like to mention. 

Prairie Sky Coop feels that children are the future, and we work with many organizations that benefit them. We donated $2,500 to the Legacy Park School, which offers a school-wide nutrition program. We also gave over $6,000 to the Co-op Playschool through our gift card program. We gave the Milestone High School $2,000 to use at the Milestone Food store for their milk program. 

By participating in Casual Friday, employees of Prairie Sky Coop donate a portion of their paychecks to our Casual Friday program. Each month the proceeds from this initiative are donated to a local charity and organization. In 2022, employees debated over $2,400 to groups such as KidSport, the Salvation Army, Weyburn & District Hospital Foundation, Envision, and many more. 

Fuel Good Day was held on September 20th, 2022. Co-ops across Western Canada donated $0.10 per liter sold and raised over $650,000 per charity. Thanks to everyone that filled up at our Prairie Sky Coop locations that day, we were able to raise $5,000, which we split between the Weyburn Theatre, the Friends of the Yellow Grass Library, and the Doctor Brown fundraising committee.

Our kids club also had a busy year last year with the Easter Egg Hunt, Classroom Pizza Party, Christmas cookie decorating, as well as free ice cream cones for all spring athletes. 

We also partnered with the Chamber of Commerce and Southeast College to host the First Annual Pumpkin Lane. The weather was perfect. We had over 120 carved pumpkins and over 600 people walked through. 

Employees and personnel who have also kept busy outside of work hours by volunteering for local events, coaching minor sports, and spending time raising money for our local nonprofit organizations. Our employees put in over 2,900 volunteer hours last year. 

Overall, we had another successful year in 2022 and already have a great jump on 2023. We look forward to working together as Co-op members and community members to come back even stronger next year.