Grain handler Richardson International has expanded further into the retail crop input business in Alberta's Peace region.

The privately-held Winnipeg company on Monday announced it would buy the Total Ag Ltd. facility at Falher, about 65 km south of Peace River, for an undisclosed sum.

"The Falher facility is an excellent complement to Richardson's growing crop inputs network," Richardson's vice-president for agribusiness operations, Darwin Sobkow, said in a release.

"By serving as an extension of the products and services we currently provide through our Dunvegan Ag Business Centre in Rycroft (about 100 km west of Falher), the new facility enhances our ability to do business with producers in this highly productive agriculture region."

Richardson said it is "committed to employing current staff" at the former Total Ag centre, including its former owner/operator Kimber Mader, who will manage the operations for the new owner.

"Area customers can be assured that they will continue to receive the same quality of service and products that they have grown to expect from the people that they know and trust," Sobkow said.

"At the same time, our interest and involvement in the Falher facility ensures their access to all the benefits and opportunities of working with a company that is investing locally."

Richardson's other holdings in the Peace include its Richardson Pioneer division's grain elevators at Rycroft and nearby Spirit River.

During a shuffle of grain-handling assets in 2007 around the merger of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool with Agricore United into Viterra, Richardson came out the second-largest grain company in Canada, boosting its handling capacity by 50 per cent.

Viterra on Jan. 28 announced plans to build a new retail centre in the Peace region at Sexsmith, Alta., about 150 km southwest of Falher.