BEAVER DAM - "A Year of Building" was the theme for 2007 at United Cooperative. As a result, cooperative officials reported record profits, patronage refunds, and record sales at the United Cooperative Annual Meeting on April 15 at the Juneau Community Center.
"Sales for the 2007 fiscal year rose to more than $359 million from $163.9 million in 2006," said United Cooperative President and Chief Executive Officer David Cramer. "Our assets grew to more than $229 million, and cooperative profit grew to $9.4 million before taxes."
Typical of cooperatives, profit is returned as patronage refunds to customers (members) in proportion to their cooperative expenses. For 2007, this refund amounted to $5.415 on every $100 of purchases. Thirty percent of the patronage refund, more than $1.9 million, was paid in cash with the balance allocated to the members as stock. The stock is then revolved back to the members through a plan set by the board of directors. Overall, United Cooperative paid $3,735,000 to members in the form of patronage refunds, stock (equity) revolved, estates settled, and dividends paid on preferred stock. The cooperative paid $14,116,960 in salaries and wages, and returned $761,739 to the communities they serve as property tax.
The United Cooperative feed division, presently with locations in Beaver Dam, Hartford, Loganville, Randolph, Sauk City and Watertown, sold 103,750 tons of feed concentrate in 2007, up from 60,334 tons in 2006. Total feed division sales resulted in more than $32.4 million.
The largest portion of United Cooperative total sales is in the grain division, with sales of more than $201.4 million in 2007. In all, 43.72 million bushels of grain were handled at 10 United Cooperative grain locations: Green Bay, Hartford, Horicon, Johnson Creek, Prairie du Chien, Randolph, Ripon, Rock Springs, Sauk City and South Beaver Dam.
As one of the largest marketers of fertilizer products in the state of Wisconsin, the United Cooperative agronomy division sold 87,777 tons of fertilizer in 2007. This resulted in total sales of more than $50 million. There are eight United Cooperative agronomy locations throughout south-central Wisconsin: Deerfield, Johnson Creek, Hartford, Mayville, Pickett, Reedsburg, Prairie du Sac and South Beaver Dam.
The United Cooperative energy division is comprised of 15 convenience stores, bulk propane, and bulk refined fuel. With the exciting, old fashioned Wisconsin winter, total refined fuel and propane sales exceeded 25.7 million gallons, with total sales more than $71.3 million.
United Cooperative owns two Ponderosa restaurants, one in Beaver Dam and the other in Hartford. They contributed more than $3.5 million to United Cooperative total sales.
"There are many reasons for this outstanding performance in 2007," said Cramer, "including a full year of operations for three Agro Distribution facilities acquired in October 2006 and the merger with Coop Country Partners on Jan. 1, 2007."
As a part of the annual meeting agenda, Cramer discussed "A Year of Building." Both facilities and equipment were added, resulting in an addition of more than $23 million of fixed assets. During 2007, a 775,000-bushel grain bin was added in Rock Springs, and a 1.1 million-bushel bin was built at South Beaver Dam. The Ripon location alone received a complete redesign, which included three new 695,000-bushel bins with two new grain legs, plus a 128,000-bushel wet bin. The cooperative also relocated a 225,000-bushel grain bin from Baraboo to Hartford. New dryers were added in Horicon, Rock Springs and Ripon to increase drying capacity by more than 20,000 bushels per hour.
United Cooperative added four new 8103 Airmax Airflow TerraGators� and one new 6303 TerraGator spinner spreader to handle agronomy needs. In addition, new fertilizer buggies, liquid wagons and dry and liquid delivery truck units were added for better service.
Due to United Cooperative's investment in United Ethanol LLC, Milton, Cramer likes to keep members abreast on ethanol activity. He informed meeting attendees that United Ethanol, after only eight months of production, produced 25,764,724 gallons of ethanol. Also during those eight months, United Ethanol produced 65,995 tons of dry distiller's grain (DDG) and 19,659 tons of wet distiller's grain (WDG).
Cramer touched on production numbers thus far in 2008 and the installation of a CO2 processing facility, the new regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO), and a corn oil extraction unit.
Karl Beth, United Cooperative vice president and chief operating officer of energy and administration, discussed the merger with Co-op Country Partners and its progress. "Merging two companies is easy on paper, but when you actually do it, it's a challenge," said Beth. "Many companies never accomplish their merger objectives. Thank you to all our customers and employees for making this one successful."
United Cooperative Board of Directors Chairman, Howard Bohl, Beaver Dam, recognized the 2007 board members and honored Robert Sennhenn, Columbus, who retired at the end of 2007 following 25 years of cooperative service as a board member. He also introduced the 2008 United Cooperative Board of Directors and expressed his excitement in working with them during the following year.
United Cooperative also held an informational meeting on April 16, 2008, at the Voyageur Inn and Conference Center, Reedsburg.
Formed in 1936, United Cooperative is a full-service cooperative offering feed, grain, agronomy, and energy products and services to south-central Wisconsin farmers and consumers. United Cooperative exists to provide its patron members with the best possible value and return on investment, backed by exceptional service and professionalism.