Bill Whitacre and Tom Warner: Good Luck, Old Friends!
May 29, 2018 The past few years, we’ve seen plenty of long-standing company names leave the agricultural marketplace; names such as Dow, DuPont, and Agrium. Now, too, many long-time industry friends have decided to leave the scene as well.
Recently, two heads of billion-dollar ag retailers have announced plans to retire from the business: Bill Whitacre at Simplot Grower Solutions and Tom Warner at Crop Production Services (CPS). Both gentlemen have been in charge of their respective companies since at least the beginning of the 2000s. And I’ve had the pleasure to get to know both of them over the intervening years.
Loading ...I first met Whitacre in early 2005, when I made a trek out to his Boise, ID, office for an interview to find out more about Simplot, the company. Given current events, what he told me at that time regarding how Simplot planned ahead seems rather telling. “Plenty of companies talk about vision, but when the people here at Simplot talk about vision, they talk about 50-year stuff, not just two or three years,” said Whitacre. “The company is absolutely committed to remaining a major business partner for generations into the future.”
Since that time, Whitacre has continued building Simplot using this future focus as a guide. The company now ranks at No. 7 on the list of the nation’s top ag retailers with 90 outlets spread across 14 Western states.
In Warner’s case, I actually met him a lot sooner, back in early 2001. At that time, CPS was undergoing a bit of a transformation as it integrated the recently-purchased Western Farm Service into its company make-up. This, and subsequent acquisitions, put CPS on the path to the dominant market position it holds today, as the No. 1 ag retailer in terms of size (850 outlets) and revenues (from $288 million in 2000 to “multi-billions” today).
Even then, Warner could foresee the future of the marketplace, in a manner of speaking. “We’ve seen more changes in our business in the past five years than in the prior 25, and we will see significantly more changes in the next five years,” he told me that 2001 day in early spring.
And he was absolutely correct. And continues to be so . . .
So from all of us at CropLife magazine, and the industry in general, thank you Bill and Tom for all you’ve done to further the causes of the ag retail business these many years! Happy trails, gentlemen!
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