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Landus Cooperative Announces Closures, Cutbacks And Staff Reductions

Landus Cooperative has announced a plan for a five percent reduction across a 26-county region. CEO, Milan Kucerak, says this week saw the implementation of Project 2020: Consolidate Then Grow. This is a multi-year plan designed to enhance profitability and to re-invest in more efficient assets on behalf of the cooperatives approximately 7,000 members. “We are reducing costs and consolidating to be more profitable and, in turn, re-investing profits to more efficiently handle smart volume through strategic assets,” Kucerak says. The now Ames-based Landus announced full closures at Coon Rapids effective July 1 as well as Leland, Parkersburg and Bristow. They will grain seasonalize seven sites including Sac City effective July 1 which means the company will close down the sites once harvest is completed and reopen the next season. On July 1, the former FC agronomy site will be closed but the former West Central site will remain open with seed and NH3 (ammonia). Grain assets in four locations will be closed and put up for sale. Audubon’s grain assets will close effective July 28 but NH3 will remain while Exira’s will close Jan. 1, 2018. Landus reports this plan will reduce full- and part-time staff by the equivalent of five percent of the full-time workforce. Going forward, they will implement automation and new technology for efficiencies and evaluate each role when retirements and resignations occur to determine if replacement is needed. Kucerak says these reductions have been difficult and are not about the people, but the roles themselves. “While never easy, we need to make significant organizational changes in order to move our business forward on behalf of our memberships,” he adds. In the future, the coop will be installing full automation at major grain facilities, build greenfield grain/agronomy hubs in currently underserved markets, share assets and people within regions and implement a standardized central dispatch process. A full listing of the closures and seasonlizations can be found below.
Full Location Closure
• Coon Rapids
• Leland
• Bristow
• Parkersburg
NH3 Site Closures: Scarville, Rands &
Chew
Close Grain Assets
Effective July 1, 2017
• Dumont
• Hampton
• Audubon
• Exira (effective Jan. 1, 2018)
Closed grain assets now for sale.
Grain Seasonalization
• Ackley
• Aredale
• Kesley
• Plainfield
• Thompson
• Dayton
• Sac City
Once full at harvest, seasonalized
locations will close for the year. No
intracompany grain.
Touch Agronomy Products Fewer Times
Dry fertilizer
From 17 sites to 8 sites
Liquid fertilizer
From 32 sites to 19 sites
Bulk crop protection storage
From 35 sites to 25 sites
NH3 bullets
From 60 sites to 49 sites

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