Results and Methods of Four Mergers by Local Supply Co-ops

Excerpts from the report: In recent years, farm supply cooperatives, as well as other business firms, have become interested in combining their resources to strengthen their economic position in an increasingly competitive agricultural economy. Many cooperative leaders foresee advantages of unification through added purchasing power, increased efficiency in facility and personnel use, diversification of product lines, improved services to members, increased savings, and the like. Others foresee problems and disadvantages of both an economic and a non-economic nature. Both groups, as well as representatives of regional cooperatives, universities, and other institutions, desire more information on merger procedures used, problems encountered and solved, and results of mergers after several years of operation. The broad purposes of the study reported on here were: (1) To determine developments leading to unification of selected local farm supply cooperatives in the Midwest and the results of these mergers, and (2) to provide guidelines and standards of use to other cooperatives, Farmer Cooperative Service, land-grant universities, and others in determining the feasibility of proposed mergers.