Growth is Measured in Millions … of Bushels, That is
West Central Cooperative, headquartered in Ralston, Iowa, is the 17th-largest grain handler in the U.S. That would be a notable business accomplishment for any Midwest community, but for western Iowa and the tiny town of Ralston, the magnitude of West Central’s impact reaches deep and wide. The company markets 65 million bushels of grain annually and has grain storage facilities in 19 western Iowa communities. The continually growing company boasts that its net revenue has more than doubled in the last five years.
Pretty good for a company whose employee base of 80 to 90 in Ralston almost doubles the size of the community on an average workday!
A co-op is a company that is owned by the members it serves. At West Central, there are 3,500 farmers who have paid a one-time membership fee and now share annual earnings through dividends based on the amount of business they do with the co-op.
But for this co-op, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. West Central is a full-service cooperative with a territory that spans the nation and the globe, and a focus that reaches beyond grain marketing to progressive value-added business divisions including agronomy, feed and soy processing. Its latest annual operations boast 175,835 bushels of seed beans processed for various seed companies, more than 130,000 tons of feed processed, 6 million bushels of soybeans processed at the Soy Center and 2.2 million pounds of soy oil processed into methyl esters.
“What differentiates us from other co-ops is our commitment to the value-added business,” said Bob Goldstein, executive vice president of administration. “Today, growth is not based on the merger and acquisition of other co-ops, but on diversification.” Western Iowa has provided the fertile ground and ample resources to support West Central’s growth.
The company was founded by farmers in Ralston almost 100 years ago, and what better place than the heart of soybean country, amongst the ample waves of grain, to plant the seeds of their growth. Goldstein acknowledges the location has been ideal for expansion into new industries such as biodiesel. In 2002, West Central opened one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated continuous flow plants for processing soybeans into premium biodiesel fuel.
According to Goldstein, this expansion and a multitude of other value-added product initiatives would not have been possible without the grants and tax incentives made available through the state and local resources. He acknowledges the Carroll County and Greene County economic development groups for their assistance. The other area of stable support he likes to credit is the knowledgeable workforce supporting the company.
“I can’t say enough about the workforce out here,” said Goldstein, a transplant from Boston who’s now been with West Central for nine years but still has the recognizable eastern accent. “I’ve worked in other states and have had people come to work with us from other states, and I found there is no comparison — the workforce here is excellent; it must be inbred!”
“We have people who have been with the company a long time and have grown into management positions,” Goldstein continued. “We’ve been blessed with finding excellent; talent at all levels — these are well-educated people who were taught that education is important.”
West Central’s is continuing to expand, as is the workforce; although, Goldstein acknowledges that biodiesel plants and fertilizer storage facilities don’t require a huge workforce. Although he does admit the benefit of having companies that occasionally need to bring in management people from the “outside” to help expand ideas and suggest other ways to get the work done — a philosophy that West Central adopted nine years ago.
