Landus trims staff, looks to build and automate

Staff report
Cuts this month at Landus Cooperative have reduced the cooperative’s workforce 5 percent.

Approximately 38 full-time and part-time employees across 26 counties have so far been eliminated as part of a restructuring plan the company calls “Project 2020: Consolidate Then Grow.”

A company spokeswoman this week declined to offer more specific information about how cuts were made in Greene County “out of respect for those individuals with job changes or whose roles were eliminated.”

Citing a rough ag economy, the year-old Ames-based cooperative — formed in 2016 when West Central Cooperative and Farmers Cooperative voted to merge — recently implemented an initiative to enhance profitability and “reinvest in more efficient assets” on behalf of its approximately 7,000 members.

The plan calls for the full closure of the company’s Coon Rapids site, among other locations.

“We know these changes deeply impact our work family and the decisions have been difficult,” CEO Milan Kucerak, a Jefferson resident, said in a recent statement. “While never easy, we need to make changes in order to move our business forward on behalf of our farmer-owners.”

Kucerak said the reduction in force is about “eliminating roles, not about the people themselves.”

The consolidation phase of Project 2020, expected to be complete in August, also includes:

• Full closure of four locations: Coon Rapids, Leland, Parkersburg and Bristow

• Closing of grain assets in Dumont, Hampton, Audubon and Exira

• Seasonalization of grain assets in Ackley, Aredale, Kesley, Plainfield, Thompson, Dayton and Sac City (once full at harvest, those locations will close for the year)

• Shifting agronomy product lines to regional hubs with central dispatch

The cooperative’s restructuring plan began quietly in December with an effort to reduce redundancy, including closure of sites in Lohrville, Callender and Linden.

No staff cuts were made at the time.

At the same time, a variety of multimillion-dollar projects are expected to be implemented through fiscal year 2020, including:

• Installation of full automation at major grain facilities

• Installation of receiving-only automation at more than a dozen truck houses

• Construction of greenfield grain/agronomy hubs in currently underserved markets

• Standardize automation at agronomy fertilizer locations, along with implementation of a standardized central dispatch process for agronomy applicators

• A continued focus on what the company calls “staffing efficiencies”

“Just like our farmers,” Odebolt farmer John Scott, president of the Landus board, said in a statement, “our cooperative must keep costs in line and make smart investments in order to proactively position ourselves as winners in today’s competitive, global marketplace.”

One of the continent’s largest grain storage companies, Landus has locations in more than 70 communities in Iowa and Minnesota.