Last week, West Central Cooperative and Farmer’s Cooperative Company announced that they are pushing forward of their proposed merger.
West Central Chief Executive Officer and President Milan Kucerak says initial discussions took place this past spring when he received a phone call from Farmer’s Cooperative officials indicating their own interest in wanting to merge. From there, a letter of intent was signed in August and both Boards of Directors approved the proposal this month.
As part of the process, a potential benefit and risk study was done by a third party group. Kucerak says both companies would benefit from each other’s strengths, and he describes a key area that could increase their international market to Asian countries looking for raw soybeans.
“With additional beans coming from a proposed merged company, we have FC (Farmer’s Cooperative) customers that we can ship to those foreign markets, direct to the end user, capture some additional margin by cutting out the middle man, which means a higher bean bid for our customers, or stronger earnings and more patronage going back to them.”
Some of the potential risks from the study include costs associated with moving their headquarters and changing logos, along with not offering employees career advancement opportunities.
As for jobs, Kucerak points out that between the two businesses, there are 67 job openings and in the next five years, 48 individuals with West Central will be eligible for retirement. So he believes they need to hire more individuals, especially if the two were to merge.
We’ve previously reported that the next step is bringing the proposal to a membership vote. 20 informational meetings are scheduled and the final date to tally the votes is on December 18th, in a special meeting. Kucerak tells Raccoon Valley Radio about how he feels the vote will go.
“I really believe that if a member looks all of the information that we have on the advantages of a merger, I think they will see where it makes sense to merge and vote yes. Now that’s a personal opinion.”
If the merger does go through, the new headquarters will be in Ames. Kucerak will be our guest on today’s Let’s Talk Greene County program, which airs during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours on KGRA.
A list of when those meetings happen can be found by clicking on the links: wccgrow15.com or fcgrow15.com.