Clark Hyline and Nutri Health Group Merge to Create Pinnacle Nutrition and Genetics

Merger provides Western Canadian poultry producers with new options.  It will be business as usual for the clients of Brandon’s Clark Hyline
Hatchery and Niverville’s Nutri Health Group (NHG) Inc.  The two
companies merged in early June to form Pinnacle Nutrition and
Genetics.

It will be business as usual for the clients of Brandon’s Clark Hyline Hatchery and Niverville’s Nutri Health Group (NHG) Inc.  The two companies merged in early June to form Pinnacle Nutrition and Genetics. 

“Poultry producers won’t see any change,” says Cal Funk, NHG’s president and CEO.  “They will be able to buy the same products from our companies that they were buying before the merger. The difference will be improved service. By combining our two companies’ sales and marketing departments, we have enabled our sales representatives to visit producers more frequently.”

NHG was formed in 2004 by a merger of Spectrum Feeds, a swine nutrition and consulting company started in 1992 by Harv Toews and Lorne Voth, and Pinnacle Nutrition, a poultry nutritional service formed by Funk and partner Orville Friesen in 2001.  Pinnacle Nutrition sells pre-mixes, base mixes, complete feed and supplements.

NHG added to its holdings the same year by acquiring Maxima Feeds, a micro pre-mix plant in Morden, and Keystone Hatchery, which markets Bovan and DeKalb genetics and stocks day old leghorn chicks.

 The merger between NHG and Clark Hyline came about because of the yawning overcapacity in poultry production facilities in western Canada, explains Funk.  

“Western Canadian hatcheries have a capacity for 12 million day old leghorn pullets,” he said.  “However, our quota only allows us five million.  Traditionally, we made up the difference with contracts with American producers.” 

For example, in 2004, more than half of Keystone Hatchery’s chicks were sold in the U.S. midwest.

“With the increase in value of the Canadian dollar, American producers are no longer buying much from Canadian suppliers,” said Funk.  “Thus, both the Keystone and Clark hatcheries were being underutilized. Producers were expressing concern about the overcapacity and about the viability of some of the hatcheries.  They didn’t want to see hatcheries falling by the wayside.”

Clark Hyline and NHG subsidiaries Keystone and Pinnacle Nutrition will be operating under the name Pinnacle Nutrition and Genetics.

Funk reports that the former Keystone hatching operation in Niverville is being transferred to the existing Clark hatchery in Brandon.

Funk said that following the announced merger, management arranged a series of meetings across the prairie provinces with producers, with the intent to assure customers that Pinnacle Nutrition is 100 per cent dedicated to the poultry industry.  “The response was overwhelmingly positive,” he said.  “Producers see this merger as a positive move for the industry.”

Funk adds that NHG is planning some capital improvements to its new Brandon hatchery. “We are always open to further acquisitions should the opportunity arise – or the opportunity to work with like-minded individuals,” he says.