HERMAN, Minn. (Sept. 4, 2018) – On Sept. 1, two locally governed CHS ag retailers, CHS Border States and CHS New Horizons, began operating as one unified business unit under the name of CHS.
The two producer boards of CHS Border States and CHS New Horizons voted unanimously in March to unify their operations and create one new business unit within CHS. The two boards came to this decision after much thoughtful discussion about how best to serve the farmers, ranchers and other customers in South Dakota and Minnesota as the agriculture industry continues to evolve.
“Our board room discussions revealed much greater advantages to our patrons with a full unification,” said Dana Stapleton, former board president, CHS Border States. “Both of our operations were already strong financially, but combining these two business units allows us to put the appropriate levels of resources into services and programs while strengthening our risk management and leverage with suppliers.”
“The conversation about unification has been ongoing for some time,” said Steven Deal, former board president, CHS New Horizons. “But when Dean Longnecker, general manager, CHS Border States, announced his retirement plans earlier this year, this decision caused both boards to look at the idea more closely.”
Longnecker retired on March 2, 2018, and at that time, Jerry Kramer, general manager for CHS New Horizons, was chosen to lead the new operation. The two business units have been working together operationally since then, but the full unification did not occur until Sept. 1, the start of the new CHS fiscal year.
The two producer boards have merged into one board to oversee the new operation, with Steven Deal as president and Dana Stapleton as vice president. The two business units have spent the summer bringing operations together so that, starting Sept. 1, the change should be seamless for customers and business partners. The main administrative office will be in Herman, Minn. A new website is being developed (chs-herman.com) and will be live in mid-September.
The new business unit is part of CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com), a leading U.S. farmer-owned cooperative. Diversified in energy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to helping its customers, farmer-owners and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain marketing services, animal feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.
This document and other CHS Inc. publicly available documents contain, and CHS officers and representatives may from time to time make, “forward–looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Report Act of 1995. Forward–looking statements can be identified by words such as “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “goal,” “seek,” “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “expect,” “strategy,” “future,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” “will” and similar references to future periods. Forward–looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on CHS current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of its businesses, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward–looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of CHS control. CHS actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward–looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward–looking statements. Important factors that could cause CHS actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward–looking statements are discussed or identified in CHS public filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the “Risk Factors” discussion in Item 1A of CHS Annual Report on Form 10–K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2017. Any forward–looking statements made by CHS in this document are based only on information currently available to CHS and speak only as of the date on which the statement is made. CHS undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward–looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
