New GreenPoint AG CEO Jeff Blair Looks Forward to Building on a Formidable Retail Presence in the Southeast

Editor’s note: This article originally published in September 2020.

Consolidating for scale and efficiency has been a central theme for the U.S. distribution channel for several years, and has increased and decreased in intensity with changing market dynamics. Recently, the tide of acquisition, collaboration, and unification has shown an uptick, driven by a shrinking number of supplier partners and aggressive moves by large, fully integrated retail organizations (the CropLife 100’s Top Six) to dominate on a national scale.

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Jeff Blair, GreenPoint AG

Jeff Blair, CEO, GreenPoint AG

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So it wasn’t surprising when three prominent Southeast cooperatives – Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, GreenPoint AG, and Agri-AFCannounced a joint venture combining the agronomy operations of the three businesses under the GreenPoint AG brand.

The new entity is jointly owned by Alabama Farmers Cooperative (AFC), Tennessee Farmers Cooperative (TFC), and WinField United, and will operate 99 retail and wholesale agronomy locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas, servicing 11 crops across 28 million acres.

To get a little more perspective on the new company, I chatted with incoming GreenPoint AG CEO Jeff Blair as he prepares to move from northwest Ohio to the GreenPoint AG headquarters in Decatur, AL. A former U.S. Army Captain, Blair has done significant time in agriculture, with leadership roles at Intrepid Potash and The Andersons leading up to this opportunity.

“We want to be a southeastern company that’s focused on the crops and agronomy needs of this region,” says Blair. Ultimately, the new ownership structure will allow each business to focus on things that are unique to their organizations, while GreenPoint AG brings improved execution and logistical efficiency to their shared work on the agronomy side.

“There are many potential efficiencies between them, and no geographic overlap that would necessitate location closure,” says Blair. “Each company is doing well, but in the long term they recognize that finding efficiencies throughout the supply chain will help them strategically to be more competitive and grow.”

Blair is excited about opportunities to expand ag technology adoption among Southeast farmers, building on the investments already made by GreenPoint AG and Agri-AFC, which was a joint agronomy business owned by Alabama Farmers Cooperative and WinField United. “Precision agriculture is a big deal, and both entities worked extensively to develop business in this area.” He’s thrilled to have the chance to build out these programs and keep improving customer service. And proving the value of service will be a key to making the new organization thrive.

One side note – while pandemic-induced social distancing has made some things more difficult, Blair has found that a transition of this magnitude has been made simpler with tools like Zoom available and broadly adopted.

“I was able to have a Zoom call with more than 40 of the Agri-AFC sales team members,” says Blair. “Getting together virtually is much easier and feels more natural than it did even six months ago. And working virtual also means there’s no rush to consolidate people in a facility.”

It will be fascinating to see how the new GreenPoint AG develops in the months ahead, but it appears as though things are set up well for success. “This is a super exciting opportunity to serve the American farmer,” says Blair. “Now, we’ve just got to go out there and execute.”

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