The cooperative is preparing to launch a fleet of electric vehicles for bio-food companies and will perhaps become the owner of its spaces – in this real estate world where the cost per square foot has exploded in the city.
“It is certain that we are in a pivotal year,” admits LN Saint-Jacques, first general manager of the Centrale agricole, a surprising place where mushrooms, flowers and innovative projects grow, in Ahuntsic.
But beware, this is not an SME incubator.
People who knock on the door of the Centrale must have a solid business plan in hand. “Many projects come to us and are not mature enough,” says LN Saint-Jacques, who comes from PME Montréal. For me to make time with someone, I need to have a business plan and budget forecast. »
It is not said that the Centrale will not eventually include very small projects, but that is not in the current mandate.
The management is also working on a first strategic plan, four years after its foundation.
And income must increase. This will notably involve an expanded offering of packages and services.
There are 19 members at the Centrale. They all share certain practices and values, including certainly the need to circulate the economy.
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For example, Julia Janson of Les Jardins de la Renarde grows flowers on the roof and uses manure from insects raised at Tricycle, a business on the third floor of the building, as fertilizer.
Members also share services, expertise and contacts. For example, by offering à la carte services.
One of the latest additions to the coop, Dunord, makes gourmet meal bags with recycled vegetables. However, it is colleagues who take care of dehydrating the recovered vegetables, in facilities that belong to the Centrale.
This is one of the forces of attraction of the coop, collective resources, and it will be one of the ways to increase income in the coming months, management is told.
Because the leases which are currently being renegotiated with the owner of the building on rue Legendre will inevitably lead to an increase in rent for members. To soften the increase, the group plans to add external members who will use specific services of the coop without settling there – for specialized equipment or a meeting space.
Rental members are also expected to increase, since the Centrale could recover part of the ground floor and the basement. In the next 6 to 12 months, it could increase from 75,000 to 130,000 square feet.
In this area where there are several food wholesalers, we are considering offering a recycling center for unsold food, with access to the ground floor. If such a business emerges, it could notably sell part of the food processed on site, hence the importance of the complementarity of the members.
It remains to make a financial package including public support for the immobilization.
“We need a few hundred thousand dollars to implement this on the ground floor, says LN Saint-Jacques. Once that is there, the model put in place will aim for autonomy in terms of activities. »
More importantly, it is not excluded to become an owner by purchasing the spaces currently used in Ahuntsic or to settle elsewhere in town.
In the plans, the coop also wants to reproduce the business model elsewhere, outside of Montreal.
The Centrale agricole’s fleet of electric vehicles will soon be expanded.
“It’s like a Communauto for the food sector,” illustrates LN Saint-Jacques.
The $6 million project will result in a total of around 50 trucks and small cars.
It would allow an SME to rent a vehicle one day a week, rather than going to a traditional lessor or having the old bazou repaired at the end of its life.
The price ? Just a little cheaper than what is on the market for private companies, we explain, but with a different price list for coops and NPOs working in the food industry.
The launch of the vehicle fleet will take place during the fall.
Founded in 2019Three full-time employees, three part-time employees – shared with other companies and one intern 19 members
