16 Most Diversified Ag Retailers In 2016

Diversification. It’s the battle cry for financial planners everywhere. Many will preach that spreading your investments across market sectors, industries, and companies can help you manage risk and lower the volatility in your portfolio.

The same principle holds true in business. Corporate diversification is a risk-reduction strategy that involves adding multiple products, services, locations, and customers to your company’s portfolio. In ag retail, our annual CropLife 100 ranking offers a compelling case study in business diversification.

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Each year we rank the top 100 largest ag retailers in the U.S. based on total sales. The list consists of independent dealerships and cooperatives offering fertilizer, crop protection products, seed, and custom application services. Spreading revenue over those four categories is the key to a retailer’s well-balanced business portfolio. Conversely, companies that put all their eggs in one basket are more prone to market volatility.

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Rankings Criteria

In putting together a list of the most diversified ag retailers from the CropLife 100, I considered the following criteria:

  • Must have multiple retail outlets.
  • Must have at least some revenue in all four sales categories.
  • At least three of the four categories must have double-digit sales figures (%).
  • No category should represent more than 50% of total sales.

There are 16 retailers from the 2015 CropLife 100 that meet the above criteria (see table below). Of those, 11 are cooperatives and five are independent dealerships. The table includes the companies’ percentage of total sales for each of the four categories (Crop Protection, Fertilizer, Seed, and Custom Application). The total revenue for the 16 companies ranges from $25 million to more than $1 billion, while the number of retail outlets range from five (Reynolds United Co-op) to 800 (Crop Production Services). Each company’s ranking in the 2015 CropLife 100 is also listed.

16 Most Diversified Ag Retailers In The U.S. (2015-16)

RankCompanyCrop Protection SalesFertilizer SalesSeed SalesCustom Application SalesRevenue RangeNo. of Retail Outlets2015 CropLife 100 Rank
1Watonwan Farm Service*30%28%22%20%$50-64 million2063
2Home Oil Co.*31%27%34%8%$65-99 million753
3West Central Cooperative*25%39%28%8%$50-64 million1772
4Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings39%31%23%7%More than $1 billion1865
5Reynolds United Co-op*36%40%20%4%$25-49 million574
6Helena Chemical41%38%17%4%More than $1 billion4272
7Agri-AFC, LLC*34%43%20%3%$100-199 million2625
8Crop Production Services38%44%14%4%More than $1 billion8001
9Panhandle Coop*39%45%11%5%$25-49 million682
10Great Bend Coop*33%46%12%9%$25-49 million977
11North Central Farmers Elevator*21%48%25%6%$100-199 million2227
12Van Horn Inc.25%48%22%5%$100-199 million1238
13Delta Growers Association*31%48%17%4%$25-49 million789
14South Dakota Wheat Growers*21%50%21%8%$200-999 million4013
15Ag Partners LLC22%50%23%5%$65-99 million1747
16Ceres Solutions Inc.*28%50%14%8%$65-99 million2446
*Cooperative
Source: 2015 CropLife 100 Survey

Notes:

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