business backgrounder | industry
inside the store
The cooperative’s executives delegate authority to their frontline employees and cater the product offerings in their six
stores to meet changing tastes. High-end and holistic pet food,
including frozen steak dinner, is now a huge seller after clerks
suggested giving it more shelf space.
Dog and cat food was 5 percent of their business before
the changes; in the first year of the improved selection, that
jumped to 25 percent.
Hobby farmers and backyard customers scoop up Berry
Good Alfalfa Treats, heated pet mats and Super Spur Poultry Supplement. Ag Supply carries fencing supplies, grease
guns, snow blowers and a thousand more goods to improve
the rural lifestyle.
Each spring they sell 4,000 chicks — along with the supplies needed to raise them. The profit on a 69 cent chick
increases considerably when the customer walks out the
door with $72 in supplies, says store manager Rick Akers,
an 18-year Ag Supply employee.
petroleum and propane
The petroleum and propane supply business is core to their
identity but faces ever-increasing regulatory scrutiny. Their
petroleum tanks are built on carefully sloped areas and surrounded by low walls big enough to hold 110 percent of the
contents of the biggest container. Locked gates and security
alarms secure the area.
Ag Supply supplies propane to customers as diverse as century-old ranches, orchardists with frost-fighting smudge pots and
modern-day homesteaders with a generator. Many of the tank
deliveries are made in a new four-by-four F-550 V-10 pickup that
runs on either propane or traditional
gasoline. Propane,
less expensive and
cleaner, is the usual
fuel of choice.
They even have
fuel for an older
kind of horsepower:
hay and straw for
horses, cattle and
the occasional
goat.
“Co-ops as a whole have gotten down to
business, or else you’re not in business.”
— Mike Compton, family rancher and orchardist,
president of the Ag Supply Co. board
valuing employees
Along with service to their customer-owners, Sanow puts
employee development firmly at the heart of what Ag Supply Co. is about.
“Employees,” he said, “are the asset that determines if you
stay in business or not.”
This summer, when AWB hosted its Human Resources
Forum in SeaTac, Sanow and Ag Supply’s human resources
manager left Wenatchee well before dawn to cross the Cascades and were the first ones to arrive for the day’s events.
It’s part of a deliberate focus on building the next generation
of leaders.
That includes hands-on training with a focus on customer
service. They’re tapping into training resources from Ace
Hardware (itself a member-owned cooperative), recently
bringing in an Ace expert from Chicago.
Human Resources Manager Gina Lopez meets with each
employee for their annual reviews and follows up with them
about training they’d like. She talks over their long-term
goals. Her goal is to be a mentor.
“If you can help them grow as a person when they’re with
you, that’s important to me,” Lopez said.
That loyalty held firm during the worst years of the
recession. With business way down, Ag Supply Co. reduced
Ag Supply Co.:
www.ag-supply.net
National Council of
Farmer Cooperatives:
www.ncfc.org
Ag Supply Co. employees (L to R) Kelli Volkmann, Sheryl Shea and Rick Akers at Ag Supply’s
downtown Wenatchee retail store.
56 association of washington business