{"id":11706,"date":"2024-01-10T05:33:22","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T10:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=11706"},"modified":"2024-01-10T05:33:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T10:33:23","slug":"co-alliance-merging-with-ceres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/co-alliance-merging-with-ceres\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-Alliance merging with Ceres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By C.J. Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Hoosier Ag Today<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indiana-based agriculture and energy cooperatives\u00a0Co-Alliance\u00a0and\u00a0Ceres Solutions\u00a0have announced that both boards and memberships have approved a merger and will become Keystone Cooperative effective March 1, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the merger is completed, the company is expected to have an annual revenue of $3 billion with 20,000 farmer-owners throughout Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the cooperatives, their newly merged company will also have over 1,700 employees with 195 locations focusing on agronomy, energy, grain, as well as swine and feed production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The boards have chosen Kevin Still, current President and CEO of Co-Alliance, to be the President and CEO of Keystone Cooperative. Ceres Solutions current CEO Jeff Troike will become the Executive Vice President of Keystone Cooperative, Inc. alongside Co-Alliance\u2019s current Executive Vice President, Scott Logue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keystone Cooperative will be headquartered at the site of the current corporate headquarters for Co-Alliance at 770 N. High School Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Ceres Solutions is currently based in Crawfordsville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKeystone Cooperative brings together two financially strong, legacy-rich and highly successful cooperatives. This historic merger creates a cooperative t is equipped to navigate the ever-changing markets of today\u2019s agriculture and energy industries,\u201d said Still. \u201cThis powerful combination will build a cooperative that maximizes efficiencies, capitalize on technology, and has the resources to enhance our customer experience while preparing for the needs of our future stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur membership has recognized the value of this combination, and we are looking forward to achieving our promise of a cooperative that is focused on the success of our members, the vitality of our rural communities, and providing an unparalleled return for our farmer-owners,\u201d said Troike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, Ceres Solutions has announced this week that the company will return $33 million in patronage to its members based on last year\u2019s earnings, according to Troike. $21.5 million in cash will go back to members. In addition, equity from 2008 through 2013 totaling $11.5 million will also be redeemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last November, Co-Alliance announced it was paying back $57 million in patronage to its farmer-members who did business with the cooperative in 2023. Fifty million will be paid back in cash, while the remaining seven million will be returned in equity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By C.J. Miller Hoosier Ag Today Indiana-based agriculture and energy cooperatives\u00a0Co-Alliance\u00a0and\u00a0Ceres Solutions\u00a0have announced that both boards and memberships<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-11706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ag","tag-ag"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/KEYSTONE-COOPERATIVE-NEW-LOGO-2.png?fit=1296%2C935&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}