Farmland Industries Inc.Essay title: Farmland Industries Inc.IntroductionToday, when we hear the slogans “better farming, better food,” or “proud tobe farmer owned” one company comes to mind, Farmland Industries. We maythink of this of this fortune 500 company as a leading agriculturalpowerhouse, which it is, however, it was not always that way.BackgroundFarmland Industries Inc. was founded by Howard A. Cowden, who was born andraised in Southwestern Missouri. Cowden started young in the cooperativebusiness by working for the Missouri Farmers Association (MFA). However; inOctober of 1927, he had resigned from the position of secretary for the MFAand started out on his own. Immediately following, Cowden received the MFAoil contract that previously had been held with Standard Oil Company, andCowden was now in the wholesale oil business. On January 27, 1928, CowdenOil Company was founded. This business was moved to Kansas City, Missouriin late 1928.In January of 1929, Cowden Oil Company was dissolved and Union Oil Company(Cooperative) was formed. It was clear that Cowden had planned to do morethan just buy and sell oil to local cooperatives. A board of directors wascreated to run the company, yet Cowden retained full control over thecompany that he had created. Cowden started recruiting smaller companies tojoin their cooperative by signing contracts to sell certain amounts ofUnions products. In 1929, Union Oil Company had purchased its first land.“The Two Car Garage,” as it is referred to, was the building that they hadpurchase to become their new home.In 1935, Union Oil Company changed its name to Consumers CooperativeAssociation (CCA). CO-OP was decided to be its official logo. In Octoberof 1956, CCA moved to their new home on North Oak Trafficway, in KansasCity, and the company was ready for major business. In June of 1961, HowardA. Cowden retired as President of CCA and Homer Young stepped in to fillhis shoes.In early to mid 1966, CCA changed its name again. This time to FarmlandIndustries, Inc., however; they still kept that CO-OP symbol for atrademark. CCA now emphasized much of its business to fertilizer, petroleumand commercial feed. This business only grew and grew for them. “By 1967,Farmland Industries had manufacturing facilities for various kinds offertilizer at Lawrence, Kansas; Hastings, Nebraska; Green Bay, Florida; FortDodge, Iowa; Joplin, Missouri, and a plant under construction in Dodge City”(Fite 281).From here, Farmland Industries only increased its size, sales, anddividends, not to mention popularity. Some of the major lines include:Food Marketing, Feed, Crop Production, Grain, Beef, and Pork. Of course,there are many, many other lines that the company has produced throughoutthe years. Some of these things include: Ful-O-Pep (Union Oil Companys“Antiknock” gas designed to compete with ethyl), CO-OP tires, Batteries,Groceries, Canning and Dehydration, Tractors, Paint, Twine, Steel buildings,and many other successful ventures, along with many other flops.“Weve been working to improve margins-by lowering costs, by implementingshared margin programs, by offering prebooking,
․. Our goal was to increase our business to the point that we can continue to grow into a huge company that attracts so many thousands of members each year over a 2 year period.…We have always operated for one company-that is, Farmland Industries, Inc. Thats why we created many of our own products; our products are known as “Farmland Industries Farms” due to the way they have grown and are being produced. We have also made several modifications to, and additions to, many of our own products.We do some research on the company’s competitors and the company’s new products. There was a great deal of confusion with other companies on the subject of what, exactly, was being done with our products. Some of us were just confused that the companies were not making these products. Some were so confused that they didn’t even realize that the company had them in it (in fact, they were not). ‧. Farmland Industries was the original home for “Bureau