Growmark
Growmark, Inc., is a regional agricultural supply cooperative operating in more than 40 states and one operation in Ontario, Canada. Its local member cooperatives commonly use the name FS ("Farm Supply"). Growmark ranks 74th on the ICA Global 300 2008 list of mutuals and cooperatives (ranked by revenue). Growmark is ranked fifth largest cooperative on the National Cooperative Bank's listing of top 100 cooperatives in North America and fourth largest agricultural cooperative. History. The organization now known as Growmark started in 1927 when nine of the local agricultural supply cooperatives in Illinois, which had started early in the  1920s, formed Illinois Farm Supply Company. In 1955, the company adopted the FS trademark, which has remained in use by its member cooperatives since then. In the 1960s, the company moved from Chicago to Bloomington, Illinois, merged with Farm Bureau Service Company of Iowa to form FS Services, Inc., then merged Wisconsin Farmco Service Cooperative and Producers Seed Company into itself as well. FS Services and Illinois Grain Corporation merged in 1980 to form Growmark. Growmark gained the 37 member cooperatives in Ontario when it acquired United Co-operatives of Ontario in 1994. It entered the northeastern U.S. market in  2002 by purchasing Agway's seed and agronomy businesses, including Seedway. Activity. Growmark has several retail brands, among them AgriVisor, Archer Lubricants, Fast Stop, FS InVision, HiSoy, the FS System, Green Yard, MID-CO, Seedway, STAR Energy, and United Lubricants. In Canada, Growmark owns FS Partners, which has partial ownership of Norfolk FS and provides for Haldimand County, Norfolk County, Kitchener, Waterloo, Oxford County, and Middlesex County.