Financial Profile of the 100 Largest Agricultural Cooperatives, 2001

摘要

Cooperative board rooms were very busy places in 2001. While mergers and acquisitions dominated the scene in the 1990s, joint ventures and limited liability companies were the focus of activity among the nations largest cooperatives at the start of the new millennium. Several of the larger cooperatives merged some of their operations into new businesses. It had a negative impact on their sales (now counted under the new business entity). Other cooperatives, striving to provide additional high-return marketing options for members products, formed ventures with non-cooperatives to operate value-added processing facilities. Any net margins generated by these ventures were added to the cooperatives bottom line as non-operating revenue. Total revenue for the Top 100 cooperatives climbed 3.8 percent, to $74.2 billion in 2001, while net margins increased nearly 10 percent, to more than $502 million. Still, most cooperatives found 2001 a difficult year, with 2002 not showing much of an improvement. Indeed, two of the nations largest cooperatives (Farmland and Agway) filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002, and several other major ones are facing serious financial stress.