Q. What is Lake States Alliance?
Lake States Alliance is a collaborative partnership between the two co-ops. It is a non-legal relationship that will allow for the leadership and team members from each organization to jointly develop and work on initiatives to leverage the strengths and resources of each organization for the benefit of their members and customers. As we get a better understanding of the value of each of the alliance projects we create, we will then explore the best way to bring that value to fruition. This could continue as a collaborative relationship or develop into a more formal partnership such as a merger.
Q. What is the purpose of Lake States Alliance?
We are committed to creating a larger scale of operation that delivers value for our members while maintaining our identity. The purpose of our alliance is to enhance access to resources, foster innovative ideas, and expand market opportunities. This alliance represents an expansion of resources, with emphasis on business growth and career opportunities.
Q. What is changing?
Over the next several weeks and months, you will begin to hear and learn about the new offerings and opportunities that our alliance teams have developed and launched. You will also start to see and hear more about Lake States Alliance in promotions and on each of our social media platforms. As our teams uncover new ways to unlock value for our members and customers, we will make them available through the trusted advisor you work with on a regular basis.
Q. Why are we forming an alliance?
Through a number of interactions, leadership between the two co-ops discovered that we were each strong businesses in our own right, but that neither of them is perfect. In our conversations, we realized that where one of the two co-ops has a weakness, the other was stronger. We also realized that our cultures (who we are, how we develop our teams) were very similar. It sparked the idea that working together might actually benefit us all!
Q. Who knows about this?
We are sharing this news with our co-op employees (Centerra and Mercer Landmark) at the same time. Press releases and external messages to our members will be sent out tomorrow. Regularly, we will update you. When we have information that is relevant to our customers, we will share with them and you.
Q. Why are we making this change now?
The struggles our customers face in a low-price commodity environment are like the headwinds each of our organizations are challenged with on a daily basis. Our hope is that this alliance will take advantage of our combined scale and resources to combat the higher costs of doing business in today’s economy. Additionally, it will allow us to offer a better value proposition to our customers and members. This should improve customer retention and help our organizations meet growth objectives without giving up our uniqueness and autonomy.
Q. Who was involved in this decision?
Our Boards of Directors and core leadership teams from both co-ops met several times to learn about one another – volume, sales, personnel, strengths and opportunities. We’ve also been challenged to think about the changes in our industry and competition. Everyone agreed with the decision to pursue an alliance because we appear to have complementary strengths, and this is the best way to take on the strategic threats.
Q. What benefits can I expect?
In a nutshell, we will share and adopt valuable experience through our people. We have teams of people initially exploring four areas of possible opportunities. These teams will tell us if we can reap the benefits of a larger scale operation while maintaining our medium size. They will answer these questions:
1. How can we get the benefits of larger scale co-ops?
2. Can we gain access to the resources that the other co-op has already developed and to both challenge and utilize the talents that each business has?
3. What new insights and opportunities have we not thought of?
4. How do we create more opportunities for new employees to hone their skills and champion projects?
Q. What’s the first step?
Team members from each organization attended the Lake States Alliance Kickoff Meeting on August 5th in Columbus. Team members (2-3 from each co-op) from the Agronomy, Grain, Feed and Energy business units will begin to meet on a regular basis to develop ways to leverage and unlock new value-generating opportunities for each co-op. They will also be responsible for determining the best way for each organization to execute these strategies and follow through on implementation as necessary.
Q. What is the timeline?
Project teams will begin working immediately. We expect to have regular communication with you and customers along the way. Initial recommendations from the project teams should be made in early 2025, however the implementation timeline will depend on the ideas themselves.
Most importantly…
Our focus remains on serving our customers. This does not change. It is vital that our commitment to each other and to our customers remain the same.