All Posts from April 22, 2014

Pinnacle acquires Michigan agribusiness

Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings LLC announced on April 21 that it has successfully acquired Harvey’s Agricultural Solutions LLC and 3-D Agronomy in Carson City, Mich. Harvey’s will operate as part of Pinnacle’s Providence Agriculture brand.

Founded in 2000, Harvey’s offers fertilizer, crop protection chemicals, seed, and other value-added services from two locations in Michigan. The Carson City location at 9650 Roosevelt Road will continue to be managed by Jim Sheppard, while the Lennon location at 11784 E. Lytle Road will remain under the management of Tony Crist.

“The Harvey’s team is very excited to become part of the Pinnacle family of brands,” said former Harvey’s owner Mike McCrackin. “Pinnacle’s foundation of trust, loyalty, and integrity is very much like that of Harvey’s. The similarity of our company cultures creates potential for a synergistic working arrangement to exceed everyone’s expectations.”

The current employees of Harvey’s will retain their positions under the new ownership. “Not only will this unification be a great win for our long-term customers, but it will be very exciting for our valued employees to grow at a much faster pace,” added McCrackin. “This will truly be a win-win opportunity for all parties.”

Founded in 2012, Pinnacle’s growing retail distribution business now serves growers in 18 states through the company’s Sanders, Providence Agriculture, AgOne Application Services, and Innvictis brands. The company’s operations include seed production and sales, agricultural chemical distribution, bulk handling of fertilizer, precision agriculture services, and general merchandise for the farming, livestock, and wildlife industries. Pinnacle has recently been in a rapid expansion mode, announcing seven acquisitions during March 2014 alone (GM March 17, p. 1; March 31, p. 1).

“Harvey’s is a highly-regarded business with similar company values and goals of grower success,” said Al Bousley, Providence regional business director. “Here at Providence, we are also committed to innovation and delivering new solutions to help our farmers become more profitable. We are confident that the community Harvey’s has served so well will continue to receive exceptional service.”

CF Woodward complex to be offline 6-8 weeks

CF Industries Holdings Inc. said late April 21 that its entire Woodward, Okla., nitrogen complex is offline due to a problem in one of the boilers. CF said all of the plants in the complex were safely shut down with no impact on personnel, the surrounding community or the environment. CF estimates that it will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks to return the plant to normal operations. During the outage, the plant will execute the turnaround maintenance activities that had previously been scheduled for June.

The Woodward complex has average annual production capacity for 480,000 st of gross ammonia, 820,000 st of UAN, and 25,000 st of urea liquor. CF said its sales sales organization is communicating with customers to work through product availability and delivery schedule implications.