Prairie grain firm Richardson Pioneer has expanded its reach in Alberta's ag input retail sector by buying two dealerships in the province's Peace River region.

Its Winnipeg parent company Richardson International on Thursday said it has sealed a deal to buy Eco Seeds for an undisclosed sum. Eco Seeds operates retail outlets at Fairview, about 80 km southwest of Peace River, and at Rycroft, about 45 km south of Fairview.

The Fairview facility "helps to further establish Richardson's presence in the Peace River region," the company said.

Richardson Pioneer's retail sites in the region include its Dunvegan Ag Business Centre at Rycroft and crop service centre at Spirit River. It also bought the Total Ag crop input dealership at Falher in February.

The company didn't give any specific plans for its added retail site at Rycroft, other than to say both its new crop service centres will "offer high-quality seed and top-name crop protection products."

Eco Seeds' offerings at its two sites have included canola, wheat, oat, barley and forage seeds, as well as seed transportation, processing, treating and coating and a rail car loading facility.

Eco Seeds is also a dealer for eight mainline ag chem firms and Esso lubricants.

Richardson said it plans to put up a new 1,200-tonne fertilizer storage facility and 200-tonne-per-hour continuous high-speed blender at the Fairview site by this fall.

Adam Laliberte, the previous owner/operator of Eco Seeds, will still manage operations at the new Fairview Crop Service Centre on Richardson's behalf, the company said.

Richardson added that it's "committed to retaining the employment of current staff."

"Peace River is one of Western Canada's highest producing agricultural regions and we are pleased to continue to invest in our network to better serve area producers," Darwin Sobkow, Richardson International's vice-president of agribusiness operations, said in a release.