Sustaining Sponsor Spotlight: GROWMARK, Inc.

The Ohio AgriBusiness Association is pleased to feature our Sustaining Sponsors in the 2025 Spotlight Series. This week, the focus is on Bronze Sponsor: GROWMARK, Inc.

Location (Main Headquarters): Bloomington, Illinois

Year started: 1927

Number of employees: More than 7000 employees across the GROWMARK System.

Number of facilities: 1,238 facilities across the GROWMARK System.

Type of services offered: GROWMARK is an agricultural cooperative serving almost 400,000 customers across North America, providing agronomy, energy, facility engineering and construction, and logistics products and services, as well as grain marketing and risk management services. Headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois, GROWMARK owns the FS trademark, which is used by member cooperatives. More information is available at GROWMARK.com.

Company history: In the late 1920s, Illinois Farm Bureau members formed county cooperatives to:

Assure dependable supply of inputs, reduce cost of purchases, provide competitive grain marketing, and assure local ownership and control. In 1927, nine counties came together to form Illinois Farm Supply. Other counties soon followed. The FS trademark was adopted in 1955. In 1962, Illinois Farm Supply and Farm Bureau Service Company of Iowa merge to form FS Services, Inc., In 1965, Wisconsin Farmco Service Cooperative merges with FS Services, Inc. GROWMARK was formed in 1980 from a merger of Illinois Grain Corporation and FS Services, Inc. In 1994, GROWMARK acquired the assets of United Co-operatives of Ontario, expanding its footprint into Canada. And in 2002 GROWMARK acquired assets of Agway Agronomy and SEEDWAY, LLC in the northeastern U.S. In 2017, Legacy Farmers Cooperative became the first FS member cooperative in Ohio. In 2020, GROWMARK and Southern States Cooperative combined efforts to yield increased innovation, growth, and returns for their farmer-owners.

How has your company changed over the years?  The wholesale cooperative that was formed in 1927 was created to supply kerosene to county-level cooperatives who were helping farmers transition from real horsepower to tractors. Today, GROWMARK offers a wide array of products and services to our members. The name GROWMARK, comes from the GROWing and MARKeting of crops, which helps describe more of the ways we serve customers across North America.

How do you see your company growing in the future?

GROWMARK’s mission is to improve the long-term profitability of our member-owners. Everything we do is for the benefit of our members, ensuring we are easy to do business with. We are always looking for opportunities to best serve their growing needs.

Interesting tidbits about your business:

Legacy Farmers Cooperative, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, was the first FS member company to join the GROWMARK System outside of the original Illinois-Iowa-Wisconsin geography. Legacy Farmers Cooperative offers agronomy, agri-finance, precision agriculture, nutrient management, energy, feed, grain, and turf products and services through its locations across Northwest Ohio. More information is available at www.legacyfarmers.com.

How has OABA helped your business or the agribusiness industry?

OABA has benefited GROWMARK by serving our co-op partners and ag retailers. One of the biggest benefits is the responsiveness to issues and opportunities. To have open lines of communication to seek action and information critical to business is invaluable. OABA builds and maintains relationships with policy decision makers. Those relationships allow us to be at the table for critical negotiations resulting successful support of Agri-Business.

Anything else you would like to share: GROWMARK is a proud supporter and sponsor of OABA. We look forward to continuing to partner for the benefit of Ohio agriculture.

Interested in becoming a Sustaining Sponsor? 

Click here to learn more about the program or contact Lauren Prettyman at lprettyman@oaba.net. Sustaining sponsors will automatically be promoted as such at all OABA events and will not be approached for sponsorship opportunities throughout the year. 

Note that because the OABA Educational Trust is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, sponsorships related to this trust are separate from OABA.