Elwood, Ill.-Prairie Creek Terminal Services, Elwood, Ill., announced that its wholesale fertilizer and ice melt packaging division has contracted with Chantland Material Handling Solutions Co., Humbolt, Iowa, to manufacture a new automated robotic packaging system to feed both of Prairie Creek’s bagging lines. Bob Pound, vice president of operations for Prairie Creek, said the new equipment will be installed by late May 2011, and will take the company’s total bagging capacity from its current 22,000 tons/year to more than 50,000 tons/year. The proposed cost of the upgrade is more than $300,000. Prairie Creek Terminal Services operates in a seven-state area surrounding Illinois, custom blending fertilizer and ice melt products for resellers and national account chains in all types of landscaping, horticultural, ornamental, golf course, and garden trades. The company has a 14,000-ton UAN-32 liquid storage tank, and its fertilizer storage areas are serviced by the UP Railroad with two lines capable of unloading twenty-five car sidings for both liquid and dry fertilizer products. Prairie Creek Terminal Services has eight full-time employees and annual fertilizer volumes of 55,000 tons. The Prairie Creek family of seven different companies has total annual sales volumes of more than $300 million.
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