North Central Co-Op, Ceres Solutions LLP Merger Approved; Changes Effective September 2017
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
WABASH?– The board of directors of both North Central Co-op and Ceres Solutions announced Tuesday that the two Indiana-based agriculture cooperatives will merge operations and begin serving customers as one entity in September. “Our membership has voted their confidence that we are stronger together,” Mark Tullis, NCC CEO, is quoted as saying in a provided press release. “We’ll face all the dynamic, fast-paced changes in our industry in a stronger position together, thanks to this proactive decision by our boards and members. We look forward to the opportunities this merger will bring to our cooperative, and we’re ready to get to work.” The merger will serve members in 29 Indiana counties and seven counties in Michigan. The new entity will operate under the Ceres Solutions Cooperative name to better represent the geographic location of the merged organization, according to the release. The combined cooperative will encompass over 60 agronomy, energy, feed and grain facilities throughout Indiana and Michigan. The merger will expand the geographic offering of the two cooperatives, which have similar structures, product and service offerings and go-to-market strategies. “We believe the strengths to be gained through this merger will be significant,” said Jeff Troike, Ceres Solutions president and CEO. “We’ll begin to explore strengths together, knowing our commitment to remain responsive and relevant to local customers remains the same.” In a telephone interview this morning, David Smith, North Central Co-op director of communications and public relations, said North Central’s presence in Kosciusko County includes the Agronomy Service Center in Mentone, which has made some additions there the last two years; and the Country Mark filling station east of Walmart. “North Central was formed in 1927 so we’ve had a long standing presence in Kosciusko County,” he said. It started out as a farm bureau before merging into the co-op, he stated. Ceres, based in Crawfordsville, covers 13 counties on the western side of the state. Geographically, Smith said the two co-cops do overlap. They offer similar products and have similar structures, and are a “good fit moving forward,” he said. As for any effect the merger would have on employees, Smith said, “We don’t see that being an issue.” For more information about Ceres Solutions, visit www.ceresllp.com and further information on North Central Co-op can be found at www.ncc.coop. North Central Co-op is a full-service, customer-owned cooperative headquartered in Wabash, and serving north-central Indiana and regions of Michigan. More than 300 NCC team members at 35 different locations are equipped and ready to serve the 20,000 customers and more than 5,800 farmer-owners. Ceres Solutions LLP is a partnership of 100 percent farmer-owned local cooperatives. With more than 350 employees. Ceres is a supplier of agronomy inputs, seed, technology, information, services, power fuels, lubes, propane gas and more. The company maintains outlets in 13 western Indiana counties.
