No one thought farmers could work together — then came Land O’Lakes
In June of 1921, 350 farmers meeting in St. Paul voted unanimously to form a dairy cooperative. The name "Land O'Lakes" didn't come along for a few more years, but a quintessential Minnesota brand had been born.
One hundred years later, what started as the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association has grown to a $14 billion-a-year business in dairy, animal feed and seed-and-crop products. Now headquartered in Arden Hills, Land O'Lakes sits at No. 219 on the Fortune 500, with nearly 2,500 dairy and ag producers and nearly 1,000 smaller co-ops and independent retailers as members, and a worldwide customer base.
"That cooperative model is our very foundation, the fact that we are owned by our farmer members, by our local retail network, I think it's so powerful," Land O'Lakes president and CEO Beth Ford said in an interview last week on the Arden Hills campus. Its low brick buildings were mostly empty of people, with most of the headquarters workforce working from home.
To kick off the celebration of the company's centennial, Ford is holding an employee town hall on Wednesday, and dedicating a new bronze sculpture of a farmer on the headquarters campus. That aligns with the company's recent moves to refocus its public image on its farmer members; last year, Land O'Lakes quietly removed the image of a Native American woman that graced its dairy products for decades, and elevated the term "Farmer-Owned" on its packaging.
The company will also release its midyear earnings on Wednesday, at a time of booming profits for U.S. corporations. Ford said it will be another solid showing, following a strong performance in 2020 fueled by a pandemic-driven surge in butter sales and animal feeds.
"The numbers will look really good," Ford said. "We've had good top-line growth and we've pulled that to the bottom line, and the bottom line looks really good."
Ford issued a few cautions for the remainder of the year. Sales comparisons are unlikely to measure up to the third-quarter of last year, when butter sales shot up as consumers settled in at home for the worst of the pandemic.
Inflation also is driving up production costs, Ford said, especially in transportation and warehousing. Consumers are seeing price increases because of that, but the company is keeping close tabs on price sensitivity.
Ford is also celebrating an anniversary this week: She took over the top job at Land O'Lakes on Aug. 1, 2018, after a decade with the company in several management positions. The first openly gay woman to serve as a Fortune 500 CEO, Ford has emerged as a high-profile voice for the company, appearing on "60 Minutes" and in the New York Times and other national publications.
Ford has used that platform to call for new investments in rural America, especially emphasizing the need for better broadband connectivity but also pointing to lack of housing options, fewer health care choices and other factors. The pandemic made those needs more apparent than ever, she said.
"Over 90 percent of farms are still family owned, so you have families trying to raise their children and have a life there," Ford said. "It's hard to do that when you feel that your community is deteriorating."
Land O'Lakes has tried to set an example by establishing what it calls the American Connection Project, in which it and partner companies have turned on public Wi-Fi at nearly 3,000 co-op locations in 49 states. Ford said she's been encouraged by signs that federal money to improve rural broadband linkages is likely to be part of an infrastructure package advancing in Congress. The project is also funding 50 fellowships for young people interested in moving to rural communities and working on improving local connectivity.