FVC chosen as October Business of the Month

The Imperial Chamber of Commerce has selected Frenchman Valley Coop (FVC) as the October Business of the Month.
The company has five divisions: grain, energy, feed, agronomy and tire shops, all represented in Imperial, Enders, Wauneta, Palisade, Culbertson, Perry, McCook, Benkelman, Grant, Venango, Chappell, Sidney, Kimball, Lodgepole and Berea, said John Bender, FVC CEO.
“In addition, there are several seasonal facilities and unmanned fuel stations in Holyoke, Colorado and Wheatland, Burns and Pine Bluff, Wyoming plus T-Junction as one of three stores serving their communities,” he said.
Service areas also include northwest Kansas.
“Total staffing exceeds 300 with 75 based out of Imperial,” Bender said.
Sales are $500 million annually, he added.
FVC history
The original business was located in Imperial in 1912 when local farmers and ranchers banded together to form the Farmers Union Equity.
Soon after, the name was changed to Imperial Equity Exchange.
Since then, multiple mergers and purchases have been made, including Imperial Oil Cooperative.
These entities were founded by many of the same people who formed the original Equity, merging in 1968, Bender said.
 More additions include facilities from McCook Equity, Farmers Coop Exchange in Wauneta, Grant Cooperative Exchange, Farmers Elevator Company with facilities throughout  the southern Nebraska Panhandle and Wheatland, Wyoming, he added.
FVC today
Organized as a corporation, the business model is unique in that owners are the users of the cooperative’s products and services.
“Currently, we have 8,000 members with 1,100 of those qualified as voting members across 20 states. In the past two years, those members have seen over $5 million of profits returned to them as cash dividends,” Bender said.
Governance is provided by a board of 11 elected members representing members across the service area.
Unlike many agricultural cooperatives, FVC provides many non-ag products and services to the communities they serve, said Bender.
“At over 100 years in existence, we continue to provide needed agricultural inputs, grain marketing to area farmers, ranchers and land owners along with our non-ag lines of products,” he said.