Indiana ag co-ops complete merger to create Keystone Cooperative
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After several months of due diligence and approvals from their respective boards, members of Indianapolis-based Co-Alliance Cooperative Inc. and Ceres Solutions Cooperative Inc. in Crawfordsville have approved a merger of the two co-ops.
The merger will be effective March 1, and the combined organization will be known as Keystone Cooperative.
Once the merger is complete, Keystone will serve 20,000 farmer owners, operate 195 locations with 1,700 employees and $3.1 billion in combined sales revenue.
Kevin Still, president and CEO of Co-Alliance, said the merger received overwhelming support from the farmer owners.
“It’s very important because they are our shareholders, and we want them to make sure that they’re in sync with where we want to go,” Still said. “I think when they think about the future of ag, they know that bigger is not always better, but it is going to be important that we have size and scale that we can get the efficiencies and the synergies that we need to be competitive down the road.”
The combined co-op will be headquartered in Indianapolis, serving farmers in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
Still will serve as president and CEO of Keystone Cooperative, while Ceres Solutions CEO Jeff Troike will become executive vice president. Scott Logue, who became EVP of Co-Alliance after its 2021 merger with Harvest Land Cooperative in Richmond, will continue as an executive vice president of Keystone as well.
Keystone said the due diligence process, which began in September, found that combining the two co-ops would result in $25 million in synergies after three years. That’s when Still said the idea to merge was taken to co-op’s boards.
Troike said agriculture at the level of the two co-ops is not immune to consolidation, and that is not something that is expected to slow down.
“We have to make sure that we have a strong cooperative in the future to be able to have that farmer-owned home solution for our members, that they have an option, that they get to do business with somebody they own instead of somebody that is a publicly traded company,” said Troike.
Keystone plans to begin the integration of the two co-ops into one in March, which will continue until the end of the co-op’s fiscal year on Aug. 31. The work will include updating branding, IT systems and working with local communities.
Both Still and Troike noted that there are no plans for a reduction in workforce as a result of the merger. While there may be some consolidation of certain positions, Troike said there will be other opportunities, and they are continuing to look for more workers.
“That’s why we have to invest in technology so much is to help our employees be more efficient, to serve the customer more efficiently, because they demand that also to improve their operations,” Troike said. “So we’ve got to make sure we give them the resources to work smarter, not harder, and to get more done using less resources.”
Still added that the merger will essentially double what the cooperatives do, especially when it comes to rural communities.
“We’re very involved with scholarships, mainly on the ag business side, if they’re going to attend Purdue or an ag college,” Still said. “We’re very involved in food safety, food security, and in training, and so we really press those three. In most communities, we’re the last business standing, so that’s really important to us to be involved in the communities.”