Aurora Co-op announces $11 million expansion plans
Photo courtesy of the Aurora Cooperative
By Robert Pore, The Grand Island Independent
Grand Island properties of the Aurora Cooperative will be part of a major $11 million expansion by the co-op later this year, said George Hohwieler, the co-op's president and chief executive officer.
Hohwieler said the Aurora Cooperative plans to expand grain storage, drying and handling capabilities at its three Nebraska railroad terminals located at Sedan, Grand Island and Aurora (West).
As part of that expansion in Grand Island, the Aurora Cooperative also announced its plan to develop its new site on the eastern edge of Grand Island. The site, formerly known as Sundance Feed and Seed, was previously acquired by the company and will become the agronomy/energy service location as Aurora Cooperative moves from its current location at 1104 S. Lincoln Ave.
Hohwieler said multiple site improvements will be constructed over the coming months. Relocation and opening of the east Grand Island site are scheduled for the spring/summer of 2011. He said the long-term future of the old Lincoln Avenue location continues to be reviewed.
The Lincoln Avenue site has served the co-op and its patrons well over the years, but the growth of Grand Island has limited access to that location and the new location, which was purchased last year, will provide room for both better access and future growth, he said.
"It's just not as conducive of a location to do the retail, the agronomy and the energy functions that site needs to service," he said. "We acquired the Sundance site with the long-term vision of moving our agronomy and energy out to that site and now is the right time to do that."
Hohwieler said they will also move their E-85 gas pump to the new location, where it will have better access for customers wanting to use the 85 percent ethanol blend.
During the next 18 months, Hohwieler said, the company, working with Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroads, will upgrade its grain terminals to increase the velocity of grain movement in receiving, staging and loading unit/shuttle trains at each facility. In addition, he said, the plan calls for installation of increased grain drying capacity at the Sedan facility.
When completed, Hohwieler said, each grain terminal will have the full capability of handling multiple species of grain, including yellow/white corn, soybeans, and winter wheat, under Class 1 railroad shuttle-train specifications.
The expansion means for Grand Island that its terminal will be able, once the improvements are completed, to store and ship white corn, something it cannot currently do, Hohwieler said.
"We also didn't have the storage or handling capability of soybeans at the terminal," he said. "So this opens up a tremendous market for yellow corn, white corn, soybeans, wheat and alternative crops that are produced in the area."
"We also didn't have the storage or handling capability of soybeans at the terminal," he said. "So this opens up a tremendous market for yellow corn, white corn, soybeans, wheat and alternative crops that are produced in the area."
Construction at the Sedan and Aurora West locations will begin this spring, with both sites planning to use the expansion capabilities for the fall harvest. Construction at the Grand Island location will begin next fall, with completion planned for the summer of 2011.
Hohwieler said Grand Island plays an important role in the company's success.
"Producers in Hall and Howard counties who use that terminal in Grand Island are important for our company," he said. "We have been waiting for years for the right time to make that expansion in Grand Island, and now is the time."
One of the necessities behind the expansion of Aurora Cooperative's terminal elevators is the ever-increasing grain production in Nebraska.
In 2008, Hall County and all counties that border it produced 184.679 million bushels of corn. Based on the average statewide price per bushel of corn in 2008, that production represented $746.25 million.
"A wonderful benefit of increased yield production, especially in this Platte River Valley, is it's just a wonderful place to grow grain in the world," Hohwieler said. "We are the epicenter of where increased grain needs to be produced, but also where grain velocity into these markets must occur, but as an industry, we are behind in that infrastructure improvement."
Hohwieler said the announcement of the terminal expansions represents a "major push to improve the means in which we increase that velocity of getting these grains into the global market, especially the markets in the Pacific Rim.
"And, especially out of Grand Island, because it is such an important grain terminal to our area farmers," he said.
Hohwieler said one of the company's primary missions is to "seek, engage and solidify grain markets for its customers."
He said the expansion will increase the co-op's ability to access existing and emerging grain markets, especially global export markets through ports in the Pacific Northwest, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico.
"Our company has financially performed well over the past several years," Hohwieler said. "We are now in a strategic position to invest in our grain platform in a significant manner."
"Our company has financially performed well over the past several years," Hohwieler said. "We are now in a strategic position to invest in our grain platform in a significant manner."
For more information, visit www.auroracoop.com.
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