Winnipeg-based Ag Growth International (AGI) said Monday it has signed a conditional letter of intent with Phoenix-based MyLand Co., which would see the Canadian firm take up a minority stake in MyLand and a seat on the U.S. company’s board of directors.

AGI, in return, will set up “at least five” new MyLand systems on grain operations in North America.

Once it has “satisfactory technical and commercial validation” of those installations in hand, AGI said it plans to enter manufacturing, distribution, engineering and software service support agreements with MyLand.

MyLand’s “Soil-as-a-Service” process extracts live, native microorganisms from a client grower’s soil and “rapidly” reproduces those organisms on-site.

MyLand’s equipment ties directly into a client farm’s irrigation system, using it to deliver “mass quantities” of those microorganisms back into fields’ soils on a continuous basis.

In the soil, the microbes then “continue to propagate, building the foundation for healthy soil and optimal growing conditions.”

MyLand says its systems are currently built to handle up to 1,000 acres each and have an expected useful life of about 15 years. Client farms pay monthly subscription-type fees for the service over contract terms of between two and five years.

In a release, AGI CEO Tim Close said the company believes its AGI SureTrack bin monitoring, crop maintenance and quality control system will, over time, “be able to capture the advanced information on soil health and irrigation system activity to create a new layer of standardized data that can be used to support a variety of sustainability-related objectives.”

AGI, whose grain handling, storage and conditioning brands include Westeel, Twister, Westfield, Batco and Ezee-Dry, “is an ideal partner for MyLand at this stage of our growth,” MyLand CEO Peter Williams said in the same release.

“The potential to provide solutions for large-scale row crops, with significant dedicated acreage, is a core opportunity for MyLand. AGI’s deep roots and expertise in this area, in addition to the resources and capabilities of a multi-national firm, make them a perfect partner for us to rapidly expand our platform and reach new customers globally.”

MyLand this year began moving past the product development and testing phases with plans to roll out its systems on farms mainly in the southwestern U.S., such as in California, Arizona and Texas.

The company says its systems’ use results in “increases in soil organic matter, porosity, water holding capacity, soil aggregation, carbon storage, and even worm population (and) allows the percolation of salt to much lower levels in the soil.”

The resulting improvement in soil structure “reduces the need for tillage, soil amendments, fertility products, and irrigation,” the company says. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Fibreco Export Inc., a wood fibre exporter majority-owned by forest products firm Tolko Industries, said in a release Saturday that “one of our new agricultural product silos experienced a structural failure during loading” at Port Metro Vancouver on Friday at about 2:15 p.m. PT.

Fibreco has been building a grain export operation at its bulk handling facility on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, as part of a 20-year terminal services agreement reached in 2017 with Regina pulse processor AGT.

“We are pleased to confirm no one was injured and that we effectively deployed our emergency response protocol,” Fibreco said Saturday, thanking the District of North Vancouver (DNV) Fire Rescue Services for its “quick response to our request for assistance. Together we were able to promptly secure the area and evacuate the site.”

RCMP and DNV personnel set up a “collapse zone” around the site, DNV Fire Rescue Services said Friday on Twitter, also praising an “excellent job by the on-site team to account for all staff.”

Fibreco said Saturday it’s “working with various government organizations to investigate the cause and concurrently developing a plan to safely resume operations as soon as possible.”

Also planning to look into the cause of the collapse is grain handling and storage equipment manufacturer Ag Growth International (AGI), which confirmed Tuesday it had built the bin and 14 others at the site.

The Westeel bin that collapsed was “part of a new bin line that was developed and manufactured by the company over the past two years in response to market demand,” AGI said in a release Wednesday, describing the product as “a larger version” of its standard hopper bin line.

Winnipeg-based AGI emphasized the new bin line is “unique and distinct” from the rest of its product lines, including its other grain storage bin products, and “is not in place or being sold to any other customers.”

A similar product installed for a “substantially different application” at a different site for a different customer “suffered a failure” in May last year, AGI said, adding the cause in that case also remains “unknown at this time.”

In the wake of the May 2019 incident, AGI said Wednesday, it “undertook an extensive engineering re-evaluation of the product prior to inclusion in two additional applications.”

Specifically, along with the 15 bins at the Fibreco site, another 20 have been made and supplied to another customer “but have not yet been commissioned,” AGI said Wednesday, putting the total sales value of the 35 bins at $19.1 million.

Without naming Fibreco in its release Wednesday, AGI said the “customer at the facility where the incident occurred has asserted AGI’s responsibility for the collapse.”

However, AGI said, “the cause of and any responsibility for the incident have not yet been determined” and the “recovery, investigation and remediation may take a number of months to complete.”

“We have reacted immediately, moving to work with our customers to discover the cause of this incident,” AGI CEO Tim Close said Wednesday.

“Once recovery of the site has been completed the investigation will provide the facts for us to determine the required remediation and the impact on AGI.”

In a separate statement Tuesday, AGI also said it “will be investigating all bins in the product line” as part of its standard protocol.

Fibreco’s site plan, as laid out in 2017, called for a total of forty-eight 3,400-tonne capacity bins and eight 1,000-tonne capacity bins to be built at the site, for total storage of 171,200 tonnes, in place of where Fibreco previously kept two large woodchip piles. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Winnipeg-based AGI announced Thursday it has bought all outstanding shares in Oakville, Ont.-based Affinity Management Ltd., developer of the Compass brand of farm and agribusiness management software, among other business management tools.

Affinity, which was founded by Neal Dilawri in 2007 and built up through partnership with chemical firm BASF, today has 18 employees. Dilawri will now take a “senior leadership role” working on the AGI SureTrack platform and provide “vision and guidance” going forward, AGI said.

The Compass product line, which today serves over 8,000 individual farmers across North America, includes an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for growers and ag retailers and an agronomy tool, AGI said.

The ERP system “provides full accounting functionality, including management of accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and inventory tracking.”

The Compass system, AGI said, “also acts as a central data repository and portal which allows for the sharing of information with a grower’s trusted advisors, including agronomists, accountants, lenders, and insurance providers.”

Affinity’s staff also includes accountants who provide bookkeeping services to the company’s grower customers, AGI said.

The Compass product suite is “highly complementary to AGI’s current offering and will be a key component of the full AGI SureTrack platform.”

The SureTrack platform, formerly known as Intellifarms, includes the SureTrack Farm system for use by farmers and the SureTrack Pro system for use by processors, merchandisers and grain buyers to source product directly from farms.

The platform is meant to bring together data from “across the farm, providing our customers with the ability to manage their crop production, manage their overall business, and market their grain based on content and robust traceability,” AGI CEO Tim Close said in Thursday’s release.

Compass, he said, “takes AGI SureTrack to the next level, adding comprehensive ERP capabilities for AGI dealers and agriculture retailers, and significantly adding to our offering for farmers.”

In an update Thursday on its fourth-quarter financials, AGI said it has “demonstrated the success of its AGI SureTrack subscription model” in 2019, by “increasing retail equivalent sales by 70 per cent, despite capacity constraints and a challenging U.S. ag market.”

In 2020, the company added, “that growth is expected to continue as AGI builds on existing relationships with processors, merchandisers, grain buyers and producers throughout North America.”

Investments in sales, marketing and technical resources for AGI SureTrack are meant to “address capacity and accelerate the future pace of new user additions, thereby increasing our recurring revenue stream and adding significant equipment cross-sell opportunities.”

Financial terms of AGI’s deal for Affinity weren’t disclosed in Thursday’s release, except to say the purchase was “funded from the company’s operating facilities.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Winnipeg-based AGI announced Tuesday it had agreed to make a “minority equity investment” of US$15 million (C$19.57 million) in Farmobile, effective Wednesday.

Neither company said how much of an equity stake $15 million would buy, percentage-wise, but AGI noted the deal comes with the right to appoint two directors to Farmobile’s board.

Farmobile provides hardware and software for real-time collection, organization, analysis and storage of farm data, such as its PUC IoT (Internet of Things) device, which collects and streams agronomic and machine data from most makes and models of field equipment.

Data farmers collect through Farmobile equipment can be converted into standardized field records for sharing with trusted advisors or for monetizing through the Farmobile DataStore exchange, the company’s digital marketplace.

The Kansas City-area company’s revenue comes from Farmobile PUC subscriptions and data licensing.

Since launching PUC in 2014, Farmobile said it “has collected more point-by-point farm data, including detailed agronomic data for planting, harvesting, foraging, spraying, and spreading; field data; and location data, from more sources than anyone else in the industry.”

“Our investment in Farmobile substantially expands our technology platform and integrates automated data collection seamlessly within our IntelliFarms SureTrack farm management and grain exchange platform,” AGI CEO Tim Close said in the company’s release.

The SureTrack system — which came to AGI when it took over Missouri-based tech firm IntelliFarms in March — features suites of sensors “from the field to grain bins” allowing farmers to manage operations with real-time field activity data, grain handling, storage and conditioning equipment and marketing and price discovery options.

“Agriculture is evolving faster than ever before, and data is at the core of the progress we have made and the progress we will make in years to come,” Close said separately in Farmobile’s release Wednesday.

“The power of a company like Farmobile is that they enable access to insights that have previously been locked inside of machines or left in the field due to the challenge of data collection and transfer.”

“In a precision ag world, data is a crucial system of record for every pass on a field, which quickly turns into a system of orchestration to enable better in-field management decisions,” Farmobile CEO Jason Tatge said in that company’s release Wednesday.

“AGI understands that, so we are thrilled to have a partner and investor like AGI as we continue on our mission to help unlock the full potential of data in agriculture.”

AGI’s grain handling and storage equipment brands include Westfield, Wheatheart and AGI augers, Westeel and Twister bins and Batco and Hi Roller conveyors, among others. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Winnipeg-based AGI announced Wednesday it has bought Burnaby, B.C.-based CMC Industrial Electronics and Iowa-based Junge Control (JCI) for undisclosed sums.

CMC, which formed in 1997 and has facilities at Burnaby and Minneapolis, makes commercial bin monitoring sensors and systems as well as hazard monitoring sensors and systems for “material handling applications” in the grain, feed and milling sectors.

CMC’s new product offerings include the Grain Ranger system, launched in February last year. The system communicates with legacy analog and digital grain temperature cables to provide bin temperature data to a user’s computer, phone or tablet.

JCI, meanwhile, makes automation, measurement, blending and batching systems, equipment and software for the agriculture and fuel industries.

The company was founded in 1979 by Dave Junge, an Iowa farmer credited with building the world’s first computerized fertilizer plant.

AGI said Cedar Rapids-based JCI’s precision blending and measurement systems, used mainly in liquid fertilizer blending, are “highly complementary” to the new parent firm’s fertilizer product offering.

The two firms booked combined sales of about $15 million in their most recent full fiscal years, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $4 million, AGI said.

AGI, whose ag equipment brands already include auger makers Westfield and Wheatheart, grain conveyor maker Batco, grain bin makers Twister and Westeel, aeration equipment maker Grain Guard, among others, said the new acquisitions “add significant strength to our applied technology platform.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Ag Growth International (AGI) announced Tuesday it has bought up all shares in a Nebraska-based competitor, Global Industries, for US$100 million — a deal it expects to be “immediately accretive” with “significant synergy opportunities.”

Global, which operates mainly out of plants in Nebraska and Kansas, makes and markets Hutchinson and Mayrath augers and conveyors, MFS, York, Stormor and Brownie bins and handling equipment and Sentinel building systems.

AGI also expects to bring Global’s Omaha-based mixed-flow grain dryer, aeration and handling equipment business, which operates under the Neco brand, to the Canadian Prairie market.

AGI on Tuesday said the Neco business marks a “new product line” for the Winnipeg firm and will become “an important addition to AGI’s Canadian product offering, especially in light of management’s anticipation of increased acres of corn and soybeans in Western Canada.”

Offshore, AGI added, it has previously bought dryers from third parties when selling bundled projects, and now expects to include Global dryers in some of these projects going forward.

Global’s grain bin businesses, AGI said, are “primarily” in the U.S. Great Plains region and will have “minimal geographic overlap” with AGI’s Westeel line, but those businesses’ stationary on-farm grain handling equipment lines will be “a new addition to AGI’s product portfolio,” the company said.

Global’s stationary equipment business also gives AGI “access to new dealers and customers that are not currently addressed by AGI’s core portable grain handling offering,” the company said.

Global’s Kansas-based Hutchinson and Mayrath businesses deal mainly in bin unloading systems, AGI said, but also include grain loop products, which allow connection of several bins into one storage system and will also be a “new addition to AGI’s product portfolio.”

AGI CEO Tim Close on Tuesday described the deal for Global as a “highly strategic transaction” which will bring “key products, very talented people, and great brands into the AGI group, and significantly increases our U.S. manufacturing capabilities and distribution channels.”

The U.S. grain market, he said, “continues to be a core supplier of the world’s food and AGI is committed to our dealers and customers in this important market.”

Global’s brands in “key” U.S. markets are expected both to expand AGI’s existing product lines and to add new product categories, but also to provide “additional scale to compete against large, global peers in an environment of industry consolidation,” AGI said.

Offshore, AGI added, Global’s customer and geographic focus in offshore markets — which make up about 27 per cent of Global’s sales — is “largely complementary,” making for “potential sales synergies and an enhanced global footprint.”

“It was a very difficult decision for me to decide to sell Global Industries,” Global CEO Jack Henry said in AGI’s release Tuesday. “However, the culture and the way AGI does business were a great fit for Global and I’m very excited for Global’s future prospects as part of AGI.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Winnipeg-based AGI announced Tuesday it’s signed an acquisition deal with Westeel’s owner Vicwest Inc. and Irish building materials manufacturer Kingspan Group. Kingspan said Tuesday it will buy Winnipeg-based Vicwest for $12.70 cash per share, pegging the enterprise value of Vicwest at about $350 million.

A condition of Kingspan’s deal, however, is the sale of Vicwest’s Westeel division to AGI for $221.5 million cash. Kingspan would keep Vicwest’s separate Vicwest Building Products division, which makes several brands of metal cladding and roofing for the residential, commercial and farm sectors.

The $221.5 million aggregate purchase price puts an enterprise value of about $210 million on Westeel. AGI will also buy another $11.5 million in Westeel assets at closing, including a Westeel plant that’s been put up for sale in Regina.

From AGI’s viewpoint, the Westeel deal “will add an iconic Canadian brand of grain storage to AGI’s already impressive stable of leading manufacturers of grain handling and conditioning equipment, including Westfield, Hi Roller, Tramco and Batco,” AGI CEO Gary Anderson said in a release.

Westeel, he said, “provides a complementary product offering to expand our growth platform within North America and around the world.”

Westeel makes grain bins at Winnipeg and Saskatoon and petroleum storage tanks at Olds, Alta. and Tisdale, Sask., and runs distribution centres at St-Simon-de-Bagot, Que., Fargo, N.D., Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

Last year Westeel also bought Italian grain handling equipment maker PTM Technology and struck a deal with another Manitoba company, Norstar Industries, to make new lines of Magnum smooth-wall bins.

“Scale to compete”

AGI’s group of manufacturers already includes Twister and Grain Guard, two manufacturers of hopper-bottom and flat-bottom bins — but AGI said Tuesday it considers Westeel’s business to be “highly complementary” to the AGI product lines.

Westeel, AGI said, offers products “not currently part of AGI’s catalogue, including smoothwall bins, hopper cones and commercial hopper-bottom bins, which expand AGI’s seed and fertilizer catalogue.”

Westeel’s export focus on Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and India also generally complements AGI’s own focus on Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Australia, AGI said.

Bringing Westeel into AGI also “provides the scale to compete against large, global peers,” AGI added.

Vicwest CEO Colin Osborne said Tuesday the company’s board found running both the construction business and agricultural business under one umbrella “is no longer the ideal structure for the long term,” given what he described as “the evolution of both businesses into new product lines and markets.”

On top of the usual regulatory and court approvals, Vicwest shareholders still have to vote on the deals, at a special meeting expected to be held in January. Vicwest’s board members and company officers have already committed to vote in favour. The sales to Kingspan and AGI are “inter-conditional,” Vicwest added.

Record sales

It’s not yet known what the deal with AGI — whose divisions in Canada, the U.S. and overseas also make grain augers, belt conveyors, handling accessories, aeration equipment and drying systems — will mean for Westeel’s previous “strategic alliance” with another Winnipeg manufacturer.

Westeel and Buhler Industries in 2010 reached a deal to sell Buhler-made, Westeel-branded grain handling equipment through Westeel’s Canadian distribution chain. Buhler’s Farm King division, as per a separate 2010 agreement, became the exclusive distributor for Westeel in the U.S.

Representatives for AGI and Buhler weren’t immediately available for comment Wednesday.

AGI’s move comes as it posts record sales so far in fiscal 2014 in both its Canadian and U.S. markets, due to record-level harvests in both countries in 2013, an expected record crop in the U.S. this year and farmers opting to store grain as prices drop and grain transportation woes continue.

AGI on Tuesday booked profit of $23.5 million on $312 million in sales for the nine months ending Sept. 30, up from $22.1 million on $269.3 million in the year-earlier period. Sales in Canada and the U.S. were up 40 and 23 per cent respectively from the same nine months in 2013. — AGCanada.com Network

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