ProGold / Cargill / Golden Growers Celebrate 30 Years of Plant Operations

On September 10th, Cargill hosted a community celebration to commemorate 30 years since the ProGold plant first began operating.

Red Geurts, ProGold's original plant manager, recalled the challenges of building the plant through record blizzards and flooding. "This was a startup. We didn't have a parent company to lean on for expertise and support," he said. To prepare, the company recruited a management team with prior corn milling experience and hired a broad workforce that was trained well before the plant started up. He recalled how showing respect for one another, for our farmer owners and our community shaped our culture, which, according to Geurts included, "Training and support for our employees; achieving the highest standards; and continuous improvement." He went on to discuss the financial difficulties ProGold faced in its first full year of operation. Without a solution, he said, ProGold would not have survived, and in his view, partnering with Cargill was the right choice.

Cargill plant manager Tony Schanilec said the values Geurts described remain the standard in Wahpeton today. Schanilec also paid tribute to five employees who were part of the original 'Team Wahpeton' thirty years ago and who work at the plant yet today. Schanilec explained that, over its 30 year history, the ProGold Facility has been recognized numerous times for excellence in performance, safety, and employee satisfaction.