Bunge has announced that the company has entered into definitive agreements, pending approval, to sell numerous dry corn and corn milling facilities to Grain Craft. This includes the Danville facility; along with others in Worthington, IN; Crete, NE; Red Oak, IA; Muleshoe, TX; Atchison, KS; and Queretaro, Mexico.
As far as how this affects Danville, Vermilion Advantage CEO Mike Marron says they are investigating the deal, and hope that it’s just a routine change.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We definitely hope it’s just a transfer of ownership. Being in agriculture myself, a lot of times these facilities do change hands. So hopefully, that’s all that it is. But we’ll stay on top of it. Hopefully, it’s good news, not bad news.
Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr says this same facility has certainly been through ownership change before.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Many years ago, Bunge bought out Lauhoff. And a lot of people were concerned at that time about it leaving our community, and it hasn’t. And my hope is that we’ll have the same situation here; that this new company that has acquired the facility will continue to operate it, as it provides some amazing, good paying jobs in our community.
Grain Craft’s corporate office is in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Bunge’s is in Chesterfield, Missouri.
