admin 
The ag retail industry experienced an uptick in consolidation in 2024. In November, the board of West Central Ag Services, a long-time member of the CropLife 100 based in Minnesota, endorsed the acceptance of an acquisition offer from CHS for $225 million.
In March, Keystone Cooperative was officially formed as the result of a historic merger between two strong farmer-owned cooperatives, Co-Alliance and Ceres Solutions. The newly formed Keystone Cooperative serves the interests of 20,000 farmer-owners across Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio.
Of course, the consolidation trend is nothing new among CropLife 100 ag retailers. One just has to look back a few years to see that mergers and acquisitions each year are still alive and well, and perhaps the single biggest factor that influences our annual rankings.
In 2022, The McGregor Company acquired two retailers in Central Oregon — Inland Chemical Service and Sherman County Farm Chemical. Then in May 2022, CropLife 100 company Mid Kansas Cooperative (MKC) officially merged with Progressive Ag Cooperative.
In 2021, we saw Co-Alliance and Harvest Land Coop merge, as well as Landmark Services Cooperative and Countryside Cooperative, and NEW Cooperative and MaxYield Cooperative. Also that year, long-time CropLife 100 companies Alceco/Ag Partners and First Cooperative merged and later became known as AgState.
These deals were on the heels of other recent CropLife 100 consolidation, including MKC purchasing fellow Kansas-based ag retailer Mid-West Fertilizer, Simplot Grower Solutions buying Pinnacle Agriculture Distribution, and three hundred-million dollar cooperatives in the Mid-South region — Greenpoint AG, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, and Agri-AFC — combining their retail businesses.
Consolidation not only impacts companies moving up and down (and off) the CropLife 100 rankings, it also has a huge impact on the number of retail locations each has to serve their grower-customers. Take Keystone Cooperative, for example. The newly merged company reported that it now has 163 outlets in its family of locations.
Overall, the top 10 ag retailers with the most facilities combined had a total of 3,776 locations, which is 71% of all CropLife 100 facilities. To find out which 10 companies — which included five dealerships and five cooperatives — have the most retail facilities (in reverse order), view the slideshow above.
Editor’s note: Companies included in the 2024 CropLife 100 listings were limited to independent dealerships and cooperatives that offer fertilizer, crop protection, seed, and custom application services. Figures do not include a host of services, such as data management, consulting/scouting, or grain elevator revenue. Dealerships and cooperatives are ranked in order by total sales in their respective sales group.
13
13
5
Top 10 Ag Retailers With the Most Facilities in 2024
