ProVision Partners and Premier Cooperative Looking to Merge
Tuesday, September 18th, 2018 -- 8:58 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -Another pair of agricultural cooperatives are looking to join forces with one another.The boards of directors for the Marshfield-based ProVision Partners and Premier Cooperative of Mount Horeb have announced their intentions to merge their companies together. The co-ops said in a joint press release that board members with both groups unanimously voted to sign a Letter of Intent for the unification. "The potential merger is a sound plan that provides financial security for patrons' allocated equity, significant long-term savings, efficiencies in current operations and opportunities to further expand our technology and other services for both our cooperatives' and patrons' operations," said ProVision Board Chairman David Brill. Premier Co-op Board Chair Steve Burns adds that together, the companies have identified many benefits and look forward to working together over the next several months to finalize a plan of merger. A memo to co-op members said 'with similar cultures and core divisions (feed, grain, agronomy, energy and retail), the two cooperatives will benefit from gaining efficiencies, improving operations and marketing, and overall profitability.
The increased size and scale caused by the merger would make the co-op a preferred partner with major manufacturers. Transportation by rail, river and highway is excellent between the two cooperatives.' The news comes nearly four years after ProVision Partners was formed in 2015 as a result of the merger between Harmony Country Cooperative and Central Wisconsin Cooperative. ProVision has annual sales of $110 million and employs 220 people. Premier is the oldest farm cooperative in the United States, with locations in 19 communities in west central and southwest Wisconsin. It has annual sales of $190 million and employs about 380. If membership supports the unification, the two cooperatives would officially merge their books on October 1, 2019 and would have five directors on its board.
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