Equity, Co-Alliance Look at Combining Certain Assets

The Equity and Co-Alliance jointly announce that they have entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) to study the advantages of combining certain assets of their Feed & Livestock business units.

Early indications are that collaboration of these two enterprises would result in enhancing value at the farm-gate by providing scalable access to feeder pig sources, packing agreements, livestock management consulting services, feed production, and consumption of area produced corn. Both organizations currently operate feed & livestock services.

The Equity will have milling capacity of 640,000 tons upon completion of their recently announced new feed mill and offers livestock management services to more than 400,000 head. Co-Alliance has the capacity to manufacture over 400,000 tons of livestock feed, and it owns and provides livestock management consulting services for over 600,000 head.

Driving this initiative is the significant expansion of packer capacity underway here in the Midwest. Once done, an additional 11 million shackle space will be online. Kevin Still, CEO of Co-Alliance stated, “The changing dynamics of the swine industry is providing us with a unique opportunity to align these two great organizations across the state line to enhance value to both our memberships.” Bruce Vernon, CEO of The Equity said, “Cooperation between cooperatives seeks to eliminate redundancies and capture synergies that are then returned to the members who own and utilize our assets.”

The Equity is one of the largest independent agricultural cooperatives in Illinois. The Equity offers a broad range of products to fulfill customers’ needs such as Agronomy, Grain Services, Feed & Livestock, Energy, Hardware & Supplies in a market that covers approximately 10,000 square miles. For more information, visit www.TheEquity.com.

Co-Alliance, LLP is one of the largest supply and marketing cooperatives in the Midwest. It is a partnership of five established co-ops with community roots extending back to the 1920s. Its business model allows for the ability to provide personalized, local service while still being large enough to offer its customers competitive prices and products. Co-Alliance serves the areas of Energy, Agronomy, Grain Marketing, and Swine and Animal Nutrition, is headquartered in Avon, IN, and has more than 50 locations across Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. For more information, visit www.co-alliance.com.