Agrium Inc. has announced major adjustments to its organization relating to its recent acquisition of Royster-Clark Inc. As of July 17, Royster-Clark (R-C) retail will take on the name of Crop Production Services as it becomes a part of that Agrium unit. R-C’s New York City office has already closed, and its Norfolk, Va., office is slated to close Aug. 31. Of the 60-65 employees at that location, some 10 are expected to be retained, with some going to other locations. Agrium will continue to retain a staff at R-C’s Collinsville, Ill., location. Nearly 100 percent of R-C field sales personnel will be retained, according to Tom Warner, CPS president, who also serves as vice president of Agrium retail, eastern region.
Warner is based in Galesburg, Ill., along with existing CPS employees Dwayne Mol and Denny Horstman, who head up CPS crop protection and seeds, respectively. Warner is currently serving as CPS Western Cornbelt regional manager until that position is filled. Reporting to Warner are former R-C employees Randy Springs as Eastern regional manager, and Brad Rivers, Eastern Cornbelt regional manager. Springs will remain in a small office in Norfolk, while Rivers will be in Columbus, Ohio.
Fertilizer purchasing will be handled in unison by Al Steele, an existing CPS employee, and Bill Grillo, formerly of R-C.
With the addition of approximately 250 R-C outlets, CPS now has 350 units. In total, Agrium has over 500 retail locations in North and South America.
Much of the R-C wholesale business will be under a new unit called the Rainbow division, which will be headed up by existing Agrium employee Fred Duncan, who will be general sales manager. Jim Peace, Americus, Ga., will be sales manager for Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. Bill Bernstein, Wilmington, NC, will be sales manager for the Carolinas and the Eastern Seaboard. Peace and Bernstein are both former R-C employees and will report to Duncan. Duncan reports to J. Muse, Agrium director of U.S. Sales. Muse said most of the Rainbow sales staff reporting to Peace and Bernstein remains intact.
Other parts of R-C’s wholesale were melded into the existing Agrium wholesale business. Mark McDonald is Northern sales manager, covering the Cornbelt North of the Ohio River. Ken Cihacek is Southern sales manager for the area South of the Ohio River, including Kentucky, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Both are existing Agrium employees and are based in Denver, reporting directly to Muse. Muse estimates that about 12 R-C wholesale employees left the company, with some being offered jobs and others not. Further announcements are expected shortly once they are made official.
Warner confirmed that, at least for now, CPS will continue to market ammonium nitrate in 13 locations in the Southeast and Tennessee. CPS will not sell bagged AN, but will only offer the product in bulk and bulk/blends. Warner stressed that CPS will have very stringent rules for the sale of AN. R-C had been a traditional supplier of AN, especially for the Southeastern tobacco market. Prior to its acquisition of R-C, Agrium had bowed out of the production and sales of AN (GM July 4, 2005, p. 1).