GROWMARK, Inc., is a regional agricultural supply cooperative operating primarily in the Midwest

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

 and Northeastern United States

Northeastern United States

The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...

 and Ontario, Canada. Its local member cooperatives commonly use the name FS. GROWMARK ranks 75th on the ICA Global 300 2008 list of mutuals and cooperatives (ranked by revenue). .
The organization now known as GROWMARK started in 1927 when nine of the local agricultural supply cooperatives in Illinois, which had started early in the 1920s, formed Illinois Farm Supply Company. In 1955, the company adopted the FS trademark, which has remained in use by its member cooperatives since then. In the 1960s, the company moved from Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 to Bloomington, Illinois

Bloomington, Illinois

Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...

, merged with Farm Bureau Service Company of Iowa to form FS Services, Inc., then merged Wisconsin Farmco Service Cooperative and Producers Seed Company into itself as well. FS Services and Illinois Grain Corporation merged in 1980 to form Growmark, Inc.
It entered the northeastern U.S. market in 2002 by purchasing Agway

Agway

Agway of Dewitt, New York is an agricultural business that offers feed for livestock and poultry, as well as seed, fertilizers, and herbicides.-History:...

's seed and agronomy businesses, including Seedway.
GROWMARK has several popular retail brands, among them AgriVisor, Archer Lubricants, FAST STOP, the FS System

FS System

-Background:FS is a major national retail brand that represents a network of farm supply companies as well as agricultural products and services. FS companies are located in the Midwest and northeastern United States and in Ontario, Canada and market a wide variety of products and services to the...

, Green Yard, Home Grown Values, MID-CO, Seedway, STAR Energy, and United Lubricants,

Canada

GROWMARK gained the 37 member cooperatives in Ontario when it acquired United Co-operatives of Ontario in 1994. In Canada, Growmark owns FS Partners, which has partial ownership of Norfolk FS and provides for Haldimand County

Haldimand County, Ontario

Haldimand is a rural city-status single-tier municipality on the Niagara Peninsula in Southern Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie, and on the Grand River. Municipal offices are located in Cayuga....

, Norfolk County

Norfolk County, Ontario

Norfolk County is a rural city-status single-tier municipality on the north shore of Lake Erie in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Bloomsburg is a small town located in Norfolk County and is the hometown of David Slater. The county seat and largest community is Simcoe...

, Kitchener

Kitchener, Ontario

The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...

, Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....

, Oxford County

Oxford County, Ontario

Oxford County is a regional municipality and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the Southern portion of the province. The regional seat is in Woodstock...

, and Middlesex County

Middlesex County, Ontario

Middlesex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario. Landlocked, the county is bordered by Huron and Perth counties on the north, Oxford County on the east, Elgin County on the south, and Chatham-Kent and Lambton County on the west.The seat is the city of London, although the city...

.

Executives

• Chief Executive Officer
  Chief executive officer
  A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
  
  - Jeff Solberg.
• Vice President, Grain - Davis Anderson
• Vice President, Risk Management & Treasurer - Marshall Bohbrink
• Vice President and General Counsel - Brent Bostrom
• Vice President, Eastern Retail Operations - Steve Buckalew
• Vice President, Energy - Kevin Carroll
• Sr. Vice President, Member Services - Dennis Farmer
• Vice President, Strategic Planning & Corporate Services - Jim Hoyt
• Vice President, Midwest Retail & Acquisitions - Shelly Kruse
• Vice President, Agronomy - Jim Spradlin

External links

• Growmark — official site
  • Partners, Alliances, and Subsidiaries — explains Growmark's organization structure and subsidiaries