Pinnacle’s Plans

As I put this week’s enews column to electronic ink, I’ve just returned from the annual Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) meeting. Held in New Orleans, LA, in early December, the show featured plenty of visits with old industry friends, discussions on the state of today’s ag retail marketplace and seminars covering all manner of trends, both positive and negative.

For me, however, one of the highlights of the event was the closing keynote address, given by Kenny Cordell. The one-time CEO of United Agri Products is now the president/CEO of Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings, one of the fastest growing ag retailers in the country. In fact, according to Cordell, Pinnacle has acquired 28 ag retail companies during 2014, increasing its outlet footprint from 110 to 160 while doubling the number of states the company does business in to 26.

Advertisement

For most ag retailers, 28 acquisitions would be a good 11 year project rather than an 11 month one. But according to Cordell, Pinnacle has its eyes on even bigger game come 2015. “Right now, we are building a state-of-the-art product warehouse in Des Moines, IA,” said Cordell. “Some might think that’s odd since we don’t currently have any retail outlets in the state of Iowa, but we at Pinnacle believe this is the right location for our company to take its next steps in the market.”

Top Articles
Bayer Pilots Unique Generative AI Tool for Agriculture

Will Pinnacle's plans to adopt bar codes catch on?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

This involves the founding of a new Midwestern wholesale business called Meridian Agriculture Distribution. According to Cordell, Meridian will provide a host of services to ag retailers around the country. This includes a wholesale products company, Altitude Crop Innovations, solely dedicated to independent retailers and cooperatives, a precision ag platform called Opti-Gro and an aerial application division under the AgOne Application Services name.

Cordell also promised ARA attendees that Meridian and Pinnacle would embrace technology as part of their business mixes, including the use of bar codes to track products. “Big data will be the next thing to lead us to where we need to go next as an industry,” he said. “The time for bar code tracking is now.”

0
Advertisement