The story
The Andersons, Inc. was founded in 1947 as The Andersons Truck Terminal (ATT) by Harold & Margaret Anderson. ATT was focused on grain transportation and storage, using grain elevators and a rail transfer station. Their son Richard, known as Dick, was later CEO.
In the 1950s, the company expanded its grain terminals. It also opened its first retail store known as The Andersons Warehouse Market. Andersons began fertilizer blending and then corn milling as well.
In the 1960s, The Andersons opened the first deep-water grain loading facility on the US side of the Great Lakes. They were the first elevator in the US to load 100 car trains in Champaign, Illinois. They also opened the largest steel tank grain storage in Maumee, Ohio. Also in the 1960s, the company entered the Lawn Products business.
As the grain business grew in the 1970s, so did The Andersons. They expanded their river elevator, and continued to ship via rail adding the Gulf ports as a destination. They also built a grain elevator and corn mill in Delphi, Indiana. The original retail store in Maumee, Ohio was replaced by a new, larger store located across the street from the original.
In the 1980s, continuing the growth of the 70s, The Andersons opened a liquid fertilizer facility on the Maumee River, retail stores in Toledo and Columbus, more grain elevators in Indiana and Michigan, and fertilizer facilities in Delphi, Poneto, and Dunkirk, Indiana, as well as Webberville, Michigan. The company also formed The Andersons Management Corporation.
In the 1990s, the company entered the rail leasing business, and built a railcar repair shop in Maumee. The company opened a retail store in Lima, Ohio. The company acquired grain and liquid storage facilities in Clymers, Logansport, Seymour, North Manchester, and Waterloo, Indiana. On February 20, 1996, The Andersons was first listed on NASDAQ, and around that same time the company reached sales of US$1 billion (~$1.84 billion in 2024).
In the 2000s, the company entered the ethanol business, and oversaw the construction of three ethanol plants. The company also expanded its rail division, by adding to its fleet and adding railcar repair shops in South Carolina and Georgia, as well as Mississippi. The company also earned ISO certifications for all of its liquid plant nutrient facilities, expanded its turf products division, and issued a 2-for-1 stock split and follow-on offering. The Andersons also opened a Specialty Food Market in Sylvania, Ohio, in 2007. This store closed in 2016.
On June 3, 2017, The Andersons closed its retail doors for the last time citing a $20 million (~$25.1 million in 2024) loss over 8 years. The retail stores employed nearly 1,050 of The Andersons’ workforce.
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Sales for 2023 totalled $14.75 billion (down 17.4%). Net profit totalled $101.19 million (down 29.5%).
As of March 2024, 87.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
From Wikipedia’s article on The Andersons, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5