GROWMARK history

In 1955, the company adopted the FS trademark, which has remained in use by its member cooperatives since then.

In 1962, Illinois Farm Supply Company merged with Farm Bureau Service Company of Iowa to create FS Services, Inc.

In 1965, FS Services merged with Wisconsin Farmco Service Cooperative and the Producers Seed Company.

The co-op began a finance program in 1969.

Also in 1980, Glenn Webb was named chairman and president, roles he would hold for 20 years.

In 1985, Archer Daniels Midland Co. acquired seven river grain-handling facilities from GROWMARK in exchange for stock.

GROWMARK members at 100 farms experimented with soybean-based biodiesel in 1993, and the cooperative began marketing the renewable fuel to others several years later.

Peckham, Jack, “Co-Op Refiner/Marketers Grow, Even as Farm Demand Declines,” 21st Century Fuels, March 1, 1997.

By 2000, more than 60 percent of the FS Petroleum Division’s gasoline included ethanol.

A 2001 bid to join with the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative collapsed.

It entered the northeastern United States market in 2002 by purchasing Agway's seed and agronomy businesses, including Seedway.

In 2003 GROWMARK extended its offerings to Ontario member cooperatives through an alliance with the TruServ Canada Cooperative.

Net sales leapt to $3.6 billion in 2006 from $2.8 billion the previous year, though net income before patronage and dividends only rose slightly to $73.6 million.