AGI Standardizes Grain Bin Materials, Closes Nebraska Manufacturing Site - AgWeb

On Tuesday, AGI announced it is standardizing its North America grain bin materials, and therefore closing the Grand Island, Neb., manufacturing facility.

The Grand Island site was part of AGI’s acquisition of Global Industries in 2017, which included brands MFS, York, Brownie, and Stormor. It primarily manufactured 2.66” narrow corrugated bin walls as well as material handling and engineered structures.

Going forward, AGI is expanding its 4” corrugated material across the North America product line, which was previously offered in the northern states and Canada. “Our bin standardization is driven by market demand,” says Scott McKernan, AGI Sr. Vice President of U.S. Farm. “This strengthens our position in the US market. We have manufacturing all over the Midwest. AGI is here to stay and grow. We’re in this for the long game.”

He says the change in material will not lead to any kind of price increase for AGI grain bins, and he adds it will increase efficiency for the company in how it supplies its dealer network and fills customer orders. According to McKernan, dealers have been very positive on the change.

The shutting down of the Grand Island manufacturing site will be a gradual process through the summer and fall.

“We are continuing to take orders through the summer, and we foresee a wind down of operations for our grain bin materials at the end of the summer, and by the early fall for our material handling and structure lines because those are engineered to order and take a bit longer to go through the system,” McKernan says.

AGI employs 114 individuals in Grand Island 100 of which are affected by this transition. AGI does have a warehouse across the street from its manufacturing, and that warehouse will remain in operation.

“Our focus right now is on our employees—having group meetings and one-on-one meetings this week. We are committed to host job fairs, facilitated job search training, as well as making them aware of other opportunities with AGI across the Midwest,” McKernan says.

AGI manufactures its 4” corrugated materials globally, and for the North American market most is sourced from its Winnipeg, Manitoba site.

McKernan says the company has a positive outlook for its storage business.

“We’re in the middle of the year, and we know our growers are faced with challenges. However, we believe storage could be strong in the second half of this year. Growers will be sitting on more crop at the end of the year and need a place to put it,” he says.

Regarding a longer-term outlook, McKernan says the great opportunities are on-farm storage and commercial.