GROWMARK Leverages Supply-Chain Expertise To Serve The Ag Industry

As an agriculture cooperative that provides a host of warehousing and logistics services in a highly time-sensitive industry, GROWMARK knows the importance of supply-chain logistics and specifically having an experienced and reliable logistics partner.

The organization provides customers with fuels, lubricants, crop nutrients, crop protection\ products, seed, construction services, equipment, and grain marketing assistance. In addition, GROWMARK provides a host of services from warehousing and logistics to training and marketing support.

 

Supply-Chain Logistics

To supplement its supply-chain services amid rapid growth, GROWMARK turned to NOTS Logistics, a third-party logistics company, to handle warehousing and transportation for its growing footprint. Both companies exist to ensure their customers have the products and services they need when they need them.

For years, GROWMARK and NOTS worked together from a NOTS facility in Nashville, Illinois. In November 2020, as GROWMARK sought to expand its geography and take pressure off the existing facility, it turned to NOTS. GROWMARK was going to need a Distribution Center to service the Southern States Cooperative locations in the state of Kentucky. And since GROWMARK had already set up a similar Distribution Center with their partner NOTS Logistics in Nashville, Illinois several years earlier to service their Southern Illinois Cooperative locations, the agriculture cooperative asked if NOTS could provide a similar solution in the state of Kentucky.

NOTS quickly secured a 65,000-square-foot building in Lebanon, Kentucky. NOTS even took care of meeting with taxing and regulatory bodies and local officials, getting everything lined up and ready to go. Within four months of the initial meetings, GROWMARK had the Kentucky Distribution Center fully staffed, equipment in place, and up and running.

“From start to finish, they really took care of it,” says Rod Wells, Chief Supply Chain Officer for GROWMARK.

“They did this in a matter of a few months. It was the speed at which business gets done.” GROWMARK feels comfortable to put its customers—other cooperatives, retailers, and end consumers—in the hands of NOTS.

“They are very good with customer service,” says Wells.

“I don’t go to sleep at night wondering if our customers are going to get taken care of. I
know the team at NOTS knows them well enough.”

-Rod Wells, Chief Supply Chain Officer, GROWMARK

 

Customer Service

NOTS is proactive and responsive in serving customers. For example, they bring back empty containers for GROWMARK before the organization ever asks.

In one instance, a truck broke down on the side of the road and NOTS sent a special emergency delivery to the customer. “NOTS always seems to find a way through an issue to deliver as opposed to saying that one’s too tough for us to handle,” Wells says.

 

Recap: Your Supply Chain Logistics Partner

GROWMARK is a company that specializes in supply-chain services for agricultural industries. The company has been rapidly growing its footprint and needed to supplement its warehousing, transportation, and other logistics capabilities with the help of NOTS Logistics. Both companies exist to ensure their customers have the products and services they need when they need them; if you’re looking for quality third-party logistics solutions like those offered by both these companies, contact us today!  Partnering with us will allow you to focus on what matters most—growing your business! 

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