AUBURN, Mich. — The Andersons, Inc. has purchased Auburn Bean and Grain, announcing the acquisition on Oct. 8. Auburn Bean and Grain is comprised of four locations in the Saginaw Valley area, including the Auburn location, Hemlock Elevator, Standish Elevator and Frutchey Bean. The acquisition adds six grain and four agronomy facilities to the company, increasing grain storage capacity by 18.1 million bushels or 13 percent, as well as adding 16,000 tons of dry product storage and 3.7 million gallons of liquid material storage.

The additional facilities are located in one of the most productive crop-producing areas in the state and represent a good geographical fit between The Andersons’ existing Michigan locations and joint ventures with Thompsons of Ontario, according to the company.

Farmers are not likely to see major changes in operations because of the stock sale or in the people they deal with at any of the locations. While The Andersons has dispatched staff to train employees on The Andersons’ business procedures, most of those changes will not be visible to the customer base.

"There probably won’t be any procedural changes, at least not anything major, especially during harvest," said Auburn Grain CEO Cliff Vennix. "Our growers know who The Andersons are and are not afraid of dealing with them. We will carry on with our current farmers. The Andersons has the same customer service value that Auburn Bean and Grain has and we feel that the company is very palatable with us."

"It will be business as usual," according to Debra Crow, media relations specialist at The Andersons. "We are purchasing a good business that is already in existence and we don’t expect to see a lot of changes."

The acquisition comes with several Class I rail transportation agreements already in place with CN, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. According to Vennix, Auburn Bean and Grain has access to short or regional freight lines, which carry grain to more distant Class I lines for further distribution.

No details were available as to purchase price or other conditions of this transaction.