HAROLD COOPER: 2019 WAS MOST DIFFICULT YEAR SINCE 1981
February 24, 2020 With a footprint that roughly spans from Indianapolis to Louisville to Cincinnati, Premier Companies was named the ARA Retailer of the Year . And its CEO, Harold Cooper, recently joined Clinton Griffiths on Agritalk Radio. Cooper shared he started in ag retail in 1981 and until 2019 he thinks that first year had been the most difficult in terms of the variables of the growing season. “We really didn’t get started until June 5, which is when prevent planting starts in this area,” he says. He shares how a year like 2019 demonstrates you “need every man or machine on deck” otherwise the jobs won’t get done in the tight time frames. To help their farmer customers be able to adjust to the wrinkles mother natures throws into every growing season, the co-operative has invested in structuring its facilities differently. “We are building efficiency and more storage of product closer to the farm,” Cooper says. “We’ve built greater speed to get that product moved out.” In their...