Living the Corporate Brand: Every Business Needs a Rudy

The United Nations has declared 2025 the International Year of Co-operatives, the theme for the year is ‘Co-operatives Build a Better World’. If that seems a little too ‘rose coloured glasses’ on a global scale, one has to only take a look at how one local co-operative operates to understand how the co-operative model truly is ‘a different kind of business’ and that creating a better world for its members is at the very heart of what it strives to do every day.

At its most basic, a co-operative is a business owned and controlled by its members and Prairie North Co-op – guided by its values of service, integrity, and unity – has been serving its members, and the communities in which it does business, for more than 110 years. These values, as well as how it interacts with its stakeholders, factor into its corporate brand.

It could be argued that that a company's success is directly related to its employees embodying and promoting its values and brand, or identity. If that is the case, Prairie North Co-op has success in spades as most of its 300+ employees live the corporate brand daily. One of those individuals is Rudy Althouse, fuel truck driver operating out of Melfort.

This past week, Althouse was presented with his 10-year service award. Prior to joining the Agro-Fuel team, he spent 18 years with the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in Porcupine Plain where he ran their NH3 program. And prior to that, Althouse did two different stints on the rigs, one of which saw him spend the better part of 15 years in the Arctic. This self-proclaimed Jack-of-all-trades describes his best Co-op day as one in which, “my customers are happy with the service that they get”.

In the industry, a tattle system, is a one that monitors fuel levels in bulk storage tanks – usually on farms – so that the fuel supplier knows when to fill. These systems are usually subscription based. If having a superior product is but one jewel in the competitive advantage crown, premium diesel, without the premium price is another, and extraordinary customer service is the third.

There is an inside joke among Althouse’s customers that goes something like, “who needs a tattle system when I have a Rudy”. Upon hearing this Althouse commented, “oh, I don’t know about that, when they are busy, I just know how long they can go on a fill”. When asked the secret of his customer service success, Althouse listed being courteous, understanding, punctual, and not only building trust, but maintaining it, as key. “The farmers have made it easy to provide them with great customer service, they treat me well, and I try to live up to the trust that they have put in me, especially when they are busy”.

Many co-operatives share humility as a characteristic; they quietly go about the business of doing business and they do not brag about their success. In this respect as well Althouse is living the corporate brand as one would be hard-pressed to find a more humble man than Rudy Althouse.