By MARY SELL, Alabama Daily News
GreenPoint Ag, an agriculture supplier formed by the merger of three existing businesses, now operates 99 retail and wholesale locations in 10 states and is based in Decatur.
GreenPoint Ag provides farms and rural businesses with seed, crop nutrients, crop protection and professional turf care products and offers several services, including consulting and soil and tissue sampling. It is owned by three parent company cooperatives, including Alabama Farmers Cooperative, also based in Decatur. Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and WinField United are the others.
Jeff Blair, president and CEO, said the combining of operations into GreenPoint Ag creates a more efficient company and could drive better pricing for the farmers it serves.
“From our perspective, we say we’re in the farmer success business,” Blair told Alabama Daily News said. “Our ultimate goal is to help the farmer get better and do better at what they do, because anybody in the agricultural chain knows if the farmer is not making any money and not winning, nobody else in the chain is gonna win.”
The joint venture, announced last year, combines existing wholesale and retail business, and makes GreenPoint Ag one of the top wholesale and retail agronomy companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales.
“Even though we are all individually strong, it takes vision and strategic leadership to both remain competitive and to provide exceptional service to our ultimate customer, the American farmer, and GreenPoint Ag will allow for us to do both,” Rivers Myres, CEO of Alabama Farmers Cooperative, said about joining the three businesses.
Besides the Decatur base, GreenPoint Ag will have regional offices in Memphis and LaVergne, Tennessee.
“It’s not every day that you have a company with over a billion dollars in sales locate in your state or area,” said Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. “I’m grateful to the AFC leadership for working to place GreenPoint headquarters in Decatur and am excited about the potential for future growth of this partnership. Each of us in the state and local leadership will certainly do all we can to support the company’s success.”
GreenPoint AG has 900 employees nationwide, 67 of them in Decatur.
Blair said Decatur is geographically well centered to GreenPoint Ag’s operations.
“It is our anticipation that we are going to continue to grow,” Blair said.
Unlike some of its competitors, Blair said GreenPoint Ag is American owned and focused on the Southeast. Blair said new technology and sustainability are priorities for GreenPoint Ag.
“There are a lot of farmers that are doing things to make the most of every part of nutrients that they’re using,” Blair said. “And I think that’s good for the farmer and ultimately it’s good for the environment too and we’re excited to be part of that.”