Scribner CEO at Southern States; SSC, Perdue forge new grain pact - Newsline - Southern States Cooperative names Tom Scribner president, leases 13 grain silos to Perdue Farms

Rural Cooperatives, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Patrick Duffey

In the midst of spinning off chunks of its Mid-Atlantic operations to stabilize its financial situation, the board of directors of Southern States Cooperative (SSC) at Richmond, Va., has unanimously appointed Tom Scribner as president and chief executive officer (CEO). Scribner has been the co-op's chief merchandiser. He succeeds Wayne Boutwell who resigned after 5 years at the helm. Boutwell had earlier been CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives in Washington, D.C.

Scribner joined SSC in 1988 and earlier had worked for Countrymark Inc., in Indianapolis, Ind. In late October, Scribner announced the cutback of about 120 staffers, mostly at Richmond, including 23 positions recently vacated or planned under the budget. Some were offered jobs elsewhere in the cooperative. He advised employees that the combination of drought, lower sales and the troubled agricultural economy made it "essential that we concentrate on our core business activities and in making those operations as efficient as possible."

SSC sells farm production supplies and services and lawn and garden products through a chain of 1,300 retail stores stretching from Maine to Florida. Last year, the cooperative hired an Arkansas consulting firm to guide a restructuring program and deal with changes in agriculture. Most recently, SSC eliminated its truck fleet, which covered 8 million miles per year but operated only three-fifths full. The cooperative contracted with a Richmond firm to provide its needed transportation services. To further tighten operations, changes were made in the assortment of products, services were improved and sales people trained with better product knowledge. Scribner said SSC was using its buying power to negotiate better prices with venders. In the future, SSC plans to organize its stores around crop centers in a hub-and-spoke arrangement that will require every store in a region to carry a full line of products.

Meanwhile, faced with drought conditions in the East this season and a general agricultural malaise among many of its farmer customers, SSC agreed to a long-term lease of its 13 grain elevators in seven states to Perdue Farms, a major poultry producer and marketer based in Salisbury, Md.

SSC also plans to sell its Wetsel seed subsidiary at Harrisonburg, Va., to a subsidiary of The Anderson Group, an investment firm at Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Wetsel was a leading distributor of turf, horticultural and lawn and garden products in the East.