In 2009, four northern Illinois cooperatives based in Mendota, Triumph, Van Oren, and Utica merged to form Northern Partners Cooperative.
The merger consolidated their might in grain origination, but more needed to be done, says CEO Eric Anderson, who originally headed the Triumph cooperative.
“We needed to offer our member-owners and area producers a connection to the end user,” Anderson says. “Producers were adding more storage and dryers on-farm. We needed to stay relevant to them to stay in a relationship with them.”
