Company Profile
Company Overview
CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com) is the nation’s leading cooperative, owned by farmers, ranchers and co-ops across the United States. A diversified energy, grains and foods business and a Fortune 100 company, CHS is committed to providing the essential resources that enrich lives around the world.
CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain, livestock feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.
Our Vision
To be a globally integrated energy, grains and foods system innovatively linking producers with consumers.
Our Mission
To grow company profitability and stakeholder value.
Our Values
At CHS, we value:
Our tradition of partnership and shared success
Building lasting and mutually rewarding customer relationships
Managing our business with the highest integrity
Being responsible stewards in our communities
Our people and their innovative spirit
Company History
History highlights of CHS
The forerunner of CHS Inc, Cenex Harvest States, was formed in 1998 by a merger between two regional cooperatives, Cenex, Inc. and Harvest States Cooperatives. While our modern history begins in 1998, our company’s roots extend back much farther in time to the late 1920s. The following highlights are key dates in the history of CHS.
1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s
1929 - North Pacific Grain Growers, Inc. (NPGG) is organized as a regional cooperative, with 60 affiliated local cooperatives. The original 17-member board of directors holds its first meeting Dec. 19, 1929, at Lewiston, Idaho.
1931 - Cenex, originally the Farmers Union Central Exchange, is founded January 15. First offices are in downtown St. Paul, Minn.
1932 - In conjunction with other regional cooperatives, National Cooperatives (later named Universal Cooperatives) is organized.
1935 - Cenex moves from rented offices in St. Paul to its own new office, warehouse and oil blending plant in South St. Paul, Minn.
1938 - The Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association (GTA) opens for business in St. Paul, Minn., on June 1 with 121 local affiliated cooperatives. The new regional cooperative operates one terminal elevator in St. Paul and two branch offices located in Duluth, Minn., and Great Falls, Mont.
1938 - NPGG moves its office to Portland, Ore.
1942 - GTA moves into wheat milling with the acquisition of Amber Milling Co. in Rush City, Minn.
1943 - GTA purchases the St. Anthony and Dakota and Winter-Truesdell-Dierks elevator lines, marking the beginning of the GTA Line Division. The purchase includes a series of lumberyards that later form Great Plains Supply.
1943 - An oil refinery at Laurel, Mont., is purchased and a one-third interest in the National Cooperative Refinery Association at McPherson, Kan., is acquired.
1945 - Cenex enters the feed, plant food and seed business.
1946 - Drilling for oil in Wyoming begins.
1946 - Cenex expands plant food operations by becoming a major stockholder of CF Industries.
1949 - GTA acquires the Minneapolis Great Northern and Superior (Wis.) Spencer-Kellogg terminals.
1957 - Cenex builds a new four-story office building at 1185 North Concord, South St. Paul, Minn.
1958 - GTA acquires the McCabe line and feed plants.
1960 - A 424-mile petroleum products pipeline from the Laurel Refinery to a terminal at Minot, N.D., is completed.
1960 - GTA purchases the Honeymead soybean processing plant and the Archer Daniels Midland elevator line in southern Minnesota.
1962 - NPGG dedicates its new export terminal at Kalama, Wash., located on the lower Columbia River.
1963 - Cenex gains national recognition when it retires more than $7 million of patronage refund stock—at that time the largest single cash redemption of stock in the history of U.S. cooperatives.
1965 - Cenex purchases seven seed plants, with headquarters in Sioux Falls, S.D.
1967 - Cenex opens a feed mill at Columbus, Wis.
1971 - Cenex begins supplying 60 cooperatives in the Pacific Northwest formerly served by Grange Cooperative Wholesale.
1972 - Cenex enters the transportation business by acquiring Northern Cooperative Services of Wadena, Minn.
1973 - A marketing identity is developed: Cenex—“Where the customer is the company.”
1975 - GTA adds a branch office in Portland, Ore., and opens a barge-loading terminal on the Mississippi River at Winona, Minn., and begins leasing the St. Paul Number Two Terminal, a corn and soybean barge-loading terminal on the Mississippi.
1976 - Utah Cooperative Association joins Cenex, adding 13 locally owned cooperatives.
1977 - The Honeymead division of GTA purchases Holsum Foods of Waukesha, Wis.
1977 - Cenex begins serving Pacific Supply Cooperatives, adding 67 local cooperatives in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
1978 - Cenex introduces the first "pay at the pump" technology.
1979 - Member-owners purchase more than $1 billion in goods and services from Cenex.
1980 - Centrol, a new computerized farm management service, is introduced.
1981 - Solar Gas is purchased, making Cenex one of the top 10 propane suppliers in the nation.
1981 - Idah-Best, a regional feed supply cooperative based at Twin Falls, Idaho, is purchased by Cenex.
1982 - Cenex acquires Western Farmers Association, based at Seattle, Wash., making it the largest cooperative supplier in the Pacific Northwest.
1982 - GTA opens a truck-rail-barge terminal at Savage, Minn.
1983 - North Pacific Grain Growers and GTA merge to form Harvest States Cooperatives.
1986 - Harvest States sells Froedert Malt Corporation.
1987 - Cenex joins with Land O’Lakes to form the Cenex/Land O’Lakes Ag Services marketing joint venture.
1987 - GTA Feeds introduces Fin-Ag, Inc. The Sioux Falls, S.D.-based firm provides livestock and feed financing services to ag producers.
1988 - First CENEX® convenience store opens.
1989 - Harvest States sells Great Plains Supply.
1989 - Harvest States' Amber Milling division enters a partnership agreement with Miller Milling Co., with its Huron, Ohio, mill.
1990 - Harvest States’ Holsum Foods division acquires Albert’s Foods, Omaha, Neb., And Private Brands, Chicago, Ill.
1991 - The Holsum Foods division acquires Great American Foods, Philadelphia, Pa.
1992 - Cenex completes 256-mile pipeline extension in North Dakota.
1992 - Cenex acquires majority ownership (74.2 percent) of the 75,000 barrel per day National Cooperative Refinery Association at McPherson, Kan.
1992 - Harvest States and Continental Grain enter a joint venture, the Tacoma Export Marketing Co. (TEMCO) at Tacoma, Washington, for feed grain shipments to Pacific Rim countries.
1992 - Harvest States' Holsum Foods division acquires Gregg’s Foods, Portland, Ore.
1992 - FM&S acquires Norfolk Feeds, Norfolk, Neb., And CC-Bar Feeds and Grain Co., Gettysburg, SD The division also expands its value-added pet food plant at Owatonna, Minn., as part of a joint venture with Farmland Industries.
1993 - Cenex members officially adopt CENEX, Inc., as the regional cooperative’s name.
1993 - Southwest Grain, Gladstone, ND, regionalizes with Harvest States, becoming a division of the Farm Marketing & Supply Group.
Regionalization is a unique concept pioneered by Harvest States that combines local control with the services and marketing reach of a regional cooperative.
1994 - Amber Milling begins construction on a new mill in Kenosha, Wis. Amber dissolves its partnership with Miller Milling Co., retaining full ownership of the Rush City, Minn., and Huron, Ohio, mills.
1994 - Harvest States acquires an export elevator at Myrtle Grove, La., and a river terminal at Davenport, Iowa, to strengthen its capabilities for originating and shipping grain for export.
1994 - The Holsum Foods Division acquires Saffola Foods, Los Angeles, Calif.
1994 - Harvest States’ Terminal Agency and Ag Agency at Cenex/Land O’Lakes combine to form Ag States Agency. Under the joint venture, the new firm represents more than 1,200 cooperatives from Wisconsin to Washington state, making it one of the largest cooperative insurance agencies in the nation.
1995 - Cenex constructs 302-mile crude oil pipeline near Cut Bank, Mont., to its Laurel refinery.
1995 - Cenex sells Exploration & Production operations.
1995 - Harvest States’ annual grain volume tops 1 billion bushels for the first time in history.
1995 - Harvest States and Wilsey Foods, a subsidiary of leading international trading firm Mitsui & Co. Ltd., form a joint venture, Ventura Foods, purchasing a food processing plant at Chambersburg, Pa.
1995 - Harvest States’ Amber Milling begins construction of a new mill at Houston, Texas.
1996 - Harvest States joins Cooperative Research Farms, a research partnership of 12 regional cooperatives in the United States, Canada and France.
1997 - Cenex forms Triton Tire and Battery, a limited liability company, with Farmland Industries and Universal Cooperatives to gain efficiencies in the marketing and distribution of tires, batteries and antifreeze.
1997 - Harvest States forms two defined business units—Wheat Milling and Oilseed Processing & Refining—and offers member opportunities for direct investment and returns on Equity Participation Units.
1997 - Harvest States Milling begins construction of a mill in Mt. Pocono, Pa., with development of another mill in Orlando, Fla., underway.
1997 - Harvest States and the American Italian Pasta Co. (AIPC) sign involving plans for a new pasta production facility adjacent to Harvest States’ Kenosha, Wis., mills.
1998 - Cenex and Harvest States unite on June 1 to become Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, an integrated agricultural foods system linking producers to consumers.
1998 - Cenex Harvest States forms Country Energy, LLC, with Farmland Industries, creating the nation’s leading cooperatively owned system selling, marketing and distributing refined fuels, propane, lubricants and petroleum equipment.
1998 - Cenex Harvest States introduces new logo, mission statement, to grow value by linking producers to consumers, and vision, to be an aligned agricultural system from the “Back 40 to Aisle 40.”
1998 - Cenex Harvest States Milling begins production at Mt. Pocono, Pa., flour mill.
1999 - The National Cooperative Refinery Association, of which Cenex Harvest States owns 75 percent, forms Cooperative Refining, LLC, with Farmland Industries to achieve operational efficiencies among their petroleum refineries, pipelines and related operations.
1999 - The Cenex/Land O’Lakes Agronomy Company, a 50-50 joint venture with Land O’Lakes, Inc., acquires the retail distribution operations of Terra Distribution.
1999 - Cenex Harvest States, Farmland Industries and Bay State Milling form United Processors, LLC, and take a 66 percent interest in Rocky Mountain Milling, LLC, an organic and conventional flour mill in Platteville, Colo.
1999 - Cenex Harvest States posts $86 million in net income on sales of $6.3 billion for fiscal 1999.
2000 - Cenex Harvest States, Farmland Industries and Land O’Lakes, Inc., form Agriliance, LLC, a joint venture involving the sales, marketing and distribution of agronomic inputs and services including plant food and crop protection products. A separate joint venture also is formed involving the cooperatives’ seed businesses.
2000 - Cenex Harvest States acquires Sparta Foods, Inc., a publicly traded producer and distributor of tortillas and value-added tortilla products to the retail and foodservice industries, providing the cooperative system with new opportunities to link producers to consumers.
2000 - It later acquires Bec-Lin of Perham, Inc., a regional manufacturer of El Gran Deli and Monteray Wraps flour tortillas and Aunt Julia and Skandinavian Premium lefse products.
2000 - CHS Cooperatives is adopted as the company’s name, along with a new logo.
2000 - Cooperative Refining, LLC, is dissolved, but working relationships remain among the partner refineries owned by the National Cooperative Refining Association and Farmland Industries.
2001 - CHS purchases Rodriguez Festive Foods, a Fort Worth, Tex., company with four plants manufacturing tortillas and prepared Mexican foods.
2001 - CHS ends its defined investment program that allowed producers to participate directly in its wheat milling and soybean processing operations. Further investment opportunities in value-added processing will be explored.
2001 - CHS closes its Huron, Ohio, flour mill in response to changing market conditions in the region surrounding the plant.
2001 - CHS announces plans to form a joint venture, Horizon Milling, LLC., in flour milling with Cargill, Inc., with a total of 21 mills. CHS producers will be the primary supplier of wheat for the alliance, which will be able to serve bakery and other flour customers nationwide.
2001 - CHS announced plans to acquire Farmland Industries’ share of Country Energy, LLC, ending the successful three-year-old energy sales, marketing and distribution venture.
2001 - CHS announces the public sale of $50 million in preferred stock in an effort to diversify capitalization of the cooperative and, ultimately, seek new ways of returning cash to its member-owners.
2002 - CHS Cooperatives and Cargill, Inc., announce that Horizon Milling, LLC is the name of their finalized wheat milling joint venture.
2002 - Grain Suppliers LLC, a feed grain partnership between Commodity Specialists Company and the Harvest States division of CHS Cooperatives begins construction on a 110-car shuttle train receiving facility located just outside Friona, Texas.
2002 - Harvest States division of CHS Cooperatives breaks ground at the construction site of its second soybean crushing facility in Fairmont, Minn.
2002 - CHS Cooperatives acquires Agway’s Grandin, N.D.-based Sunflower business.
2002 - Grain Suppliers Company LLC, a feed grain partnership between Commodity Specialists Company and the Harvest States division of CHS Cooperatives begins construction of its second 110-car shuttle train receiving facility located just outside Collins, Miss.
2003 - Harvest States, the grains and foods division of CHS Cooperatives, announced the opening of Harvest States do Brasil Ltda in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a wholly owned subsidiary originating and marketing soybeans from Brazil to customers nationwide.
2003 - The energy division of CHS Cooperatives and Williams join forces to bring needed propane supply to the Northwest.
2003 - CHS announces it has purchased the Wilbur-Ellis Company’s share of ownership of the CHS and Farmland Industries, Inc., limited liability company that owns 50 percent of Agriliance, LLC.
2003 - Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives changes its legal name to CHS Inc. effective August 5. All operating divisions carry the CHS name; although Cenex remains the company's energy brand. "Resources for enriching lives" tagline is adopted.
2003 - Farimont, Minn., soybean crushing plant opens in October.
2003 - CHS preferred stock is listed on NASDAQ exchange under "chscp".
2004 - CHS uses preferred stock for the first time to redeem $13 million in member equity.
2004 - CHS purchases remaining Farmland Industries ownership of Agriliance, LLC, creating a 50/50 joint ownership with Land O'Lakes Inc.
2005 - CHS exits Mexican foods business.
2005 - CHS completes $400 million ultra low sulfur diesel project at its Montana and Kansas refineries.
2005 - CHS and Cenex Finance Association create Cofina Financial.
2005 - CF Industries converts to publically traded company; CHS retains 4 percent ownership.
2005 - CHS announces $325 million coker project at Laurel, Mont. refinery.
2005 - Ventura Foods acquires Maries® and Dean's® dressings and dips.
2006 - CHS system marks 75th anniversary.
2006 - CHS becomes owner of Multigrain SA, a Brazilian grain handling and merchandising firm.
2007 - CHS opens grain marketing offices in Switzerland and China.
2008 - CHS posts record $803 million in earnings.
2008 - CHS begins Black Sea operations in Ukraine.
2009 - CHS returns a record $347 million in cash and preferred stock to owners.
2009 - CHS expands global presence with grain export venues in Australia, Ukraine and Russia and a grain marketing office in Argentina.
2010 - CHS opens grain trading office in Argentina and grain and crop nutrients office in Amman, Jordan.
2010 - CHS President and CEO John Johnson retires; Carl Casale named as successor.
2011 - CHS ends United Harvest, LLC, and Multigrain SA joint ventures with Mitsui & Co.
2011 - CHS acquires grain company Agri Point Limited in the western Black Sea region, with facilities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania and Serbia.
2011 - CHS announces $26 million investment in refined fuels distribution infrastructure in northern plains region.
Benefits
CHS offers a competitive total compensation package.
Benefits include: Health, Dental, Vision, Hearing, Life Insurance, Health and Day Care Savings Accounts, Paid Vacation , 401K, Company Funded Pension, Profit Sharing, Long and Short Term Disability, Tuition reimbursement, and Adoption assistance. This position will have opportunity for growth.