Two separate co-op mergers were reported last week, with Agriliance LLC joining forces with co-ops in Idaho, while four co-ops agreed to merge together in Indiana. A new limited liability company has been formed in Idaho between Agriliance LLC and the agronomy divisions of two local cooperatives. Effective Dec. 1, 2006, Agriliance joined with Idaho Falls-based Valley Wide Cooperative and Valley Cooperative of Jerome, Idaho, to form Valley Agronomics LLC.
Agriliance holds a 51 percent ownership in the LLC, with Valley Wide holding a majority of the remaining interest. All buying for the agronomy division of the new LLC now takes place out of Agriliance’s Pocatello, Idaho, branch under the direction of Tom Nauman, district manager with Agriliance and now sales manager for Valley Agronomics.
Nauman told Green Markets that the new company serves a wide swathe of Idaho, stretching some 300 miles from Ashton to west of Idaho’s Magic Valley. David Holtom, former manager of Valley Wide, is now general manager of the LLC. Not included in the deal were the fuel and feed divisions of Valley Wide and Valley Co-op, which will continue to function as separate businesses.
Nauman said Agriliance had earlier leased several facilities from Valley Co-op, in addition to owning several of its own agronomy facilities in the state. According to its web site, Valley Wide was formed in February 1998 from the merger of two neighboring Idaho cooperatives, Menan Co-op in Menan and Madison Cooperative in Rexburg. At the time of the merger, each company was earning about $4 million in annual sales.
In 2000, Valley Wide purchased six agronomy plants, which were located in Valley Wide’s trade area from Ashton to Idaho Falls, from Cenex. With this addition, Valley Wide’s annual sales grew to $24 million, and were expected to reach $30 million in 2006 with the additional purchase of a fuel distributor in Ashton and the construction of a new store in Rexburg.
Agriliance was formed in 2000 as an agronomy marketing joint venture between equal partners Land O’Lakes Inc. and CHS Inc. Agriliance is North America’s largest crop inputs company, serving approximately 2,200 farm supply dealers and their customers.
Gary Bingham, former marketing director and head of crop protection and crop nutrient purchasing for Valley Wide’s agronomy division, has elected to leave the company. Bingham can be reached via email at garyelbingham@msn.com, or by cell at 208-589-5896.
In other regional cooperative news, four Indiana co-ops finalized a merger on Dec. 28 that will create the Superior Ag Resources Cooperative Inc., based in Huntingburg, Ind.
According to local reports, members of the Gibson County Co-op in Huntingburg, the Dubois County Co-op, also of Huntingburg, the Warrick County Co-op of Chrisney, Ind., and the Spencer County Co-op of St. Meinrad, Ind., voted to approve the merger to increase their buying power for fuel, feed, and agronomy products with key suppliers, including Agriliance and Monsanto.
The new company will begin doing business March 1, 2007, and will have a 15-member board of directors, with six directors from Dubois County Co-op and three each from the other partner cooperatives, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. The board will hire a CEO within the next month, the newspaper said. A joint press release from the four co-ops said the new company will employ about 120, and will have annual sales of more than $100 million. All present locations will be maintained, and no job cuts are foreseen as a result of the merger, the release said.