St. Louis-based Lange-Stegmann announced on June 1 an agreement to transfer its wholesale fertilizer sales unit to United Suppliers of Eldora, Iowa, effective immediately.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, and no assets will be transferred as part of the deal. United Suppliers will utilize the St. Louis terminal and warehouse facilities owned and operated by Lange-Stegmann as part of the sale. Describing the nature of the agreement to Green Markets, Mike Stegmann, president of Lange-Stegmann, said United Suppliers “is just going to step into Lange-Stegmann’s shoes” to handle wholesale fertilizer sales at the St. Louis operations.
Stegmann said those operations supply bulk agricultural fertilizers to more than 100 retail agribusiness outlets in the region surrounding St. Louis. The company has 158,000 tons of storage capacity for both liquid and dry fertilizers there. United Suppliers will have a portion of that space, Stegmann said, along with all of Lange-Stegmann’s existing terminal customers.
Stegmann said most likely one employee ?Çô and possibly more – will move from Lange-Stegmann to United Suppliers as part of the deal, though no official announcement on employee changes was made by either company.
The wholesale fertilizer sales unit was one of three divisions at Lange-Stegmann. In a speech to employees announcing the deal, Stegmann noted that the sale allows Lange-Stegmann to focus on its fastest-growing divisions, the Agrotain and Terminal Operations businesses. Stegmann said the sale of the three-decades-old wholesale fertilizer division is part of the continuing evolution for the privately-held company, and he believes United Supplier’s size and scope can bring growth to the wholesale fertilizer business.
United Suppliers, a wholesale organization owned by agricultural retailers, has four divisions – business resources, chemical, fertilizer, and feed. It operates a total of 12 dry terminals and 14 liquid terminals in 18 states, with four of these terminals located on a river system.
According to its website, United Suppliers’ fertilizer terminals are located in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. The company offers plant nutrition, crop protection, and animal nutrition products, as well as employee development, sales, marketing, finance, accounting, and risk management services to its customers.
Lange-Stegmann’s St. Louis terminal operations were expanded two years ago with the dedication of the St. Louis Urea Center, which was part of a $20 million expansion in facilities. Lange-Stegmann acquired the Agrotain portfolio and formed Agrotain International LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary, in 2000. Since then, according to the company, high fertilizer prices and grower demand for more efficient fertilizer have driven demand and sales growth for Agrotain. Currently, Agrotain International’s products are licensed and sold in more than 70 countries.
Lange-Stegmann and Agrotain International broke ground on the terminal expansion in September 2006 (GM Sept. 11, 2006), and held a grand opening two years later (GM Sept. 1, 2008), where Stegmann touted the facility’s location on a section of the Mississippi River that is lock- and ice-free. The construction of the St. Louis Urea Center and the Stabilized Nitrogen Technology Granular Production Center (SNTGPC) added some 63,000 st of storage capacity. SNTGPC production capability at the facility is 125,000 tons per year.
In January 2009, Lange-Stegmann sold its bagged, blended nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) fertilizer business to T&N Inc. of Foristell, Mo. At the time Stegmann described that business as a very small part of Lange-Stegmann, and said its sale would allow the company to “focus completely on our bulk and stabilized nitrogen products.”