The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Big River Resources' Shareholders Hear Positive News On Expansion of Ethanol
By Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher
Since 2002, Big River Resources has been in the ethanol business growing, making improvements, paying generous dividends, never without a profitable year, and remains debt-free! Yet, every year, false rumors have continued about ethanol -"It's not a good investment", "it's not profitable", "it's not needed", or "it's bad on your engine", and even heard from a fellow who said, "it causes smog!" And this week, "its hay day is over. Electric cars are going to take over," but good news was heard at the annual meeting Thursday.
Big River Resources, LLC - West Burlington, IA was formed as a cooperative and grew into a holding company structure as a joint venture with Iowa and Illinois farmers led by the late Ray Defenbaugh in Illinois, and Andy Brader in Iowa.
The initial start of the cooperative began in July 1992 with fuel and feed production objectives.
Big River Resources has grown into four subsidiaries beneath it which include: Big River Resources West Burlington, LLC; Big River Resources Galva, LLC; Big River Resources Grinnell, LLC; and Big River Resources Boyceville, LLC.
These subsidiaries have facilities in West Burlington, Iowa; Boyceville, WI; Monmouth; Gerlaw; Edgington; Aledo; Galva in Illinois; and Grinnell, Iowa; and, they consist of a 90 million gallons per year (mgy) ethanol facility, a 100 mgy ethanol facility, and 10.61 million-bushel capacity grain elevator sites.
All are located on either the Burlington Northern Railroad or Canadian National Railway.
The company also has an investment in Absolute Energy, LLC a 100 mgy ethanol facility in St. Ansgar, IA, and Big River Resources LLC is a majority shareholder and managing company of Big River United Energy, LLC a joint venture company in Dyersville, IA.
Big River Resoures, LLC now has a 21-member board and employs 249 team members full time.
During the business meeting of the 19th annual meeting of BBR held at the Catfish Bend Convention Center in Burlington, IA, the new officers were announced which the board approved after the passing on January 22, 2020 of their CEO, President and Chairman of the Board Raymond E. Defenbaugh. Vice President Andy Brader was named Chairman of the Board; Jim Leiting, COO was named CEO; Deborah Green Human Resource Manager was named COO, and Jessica Steele Assistant Human Resource Manager is now Human Resource Manager.
Others in the management team remain as: Chief Financial Officer Jim Hall; Manager of Operations Stan Janson; Commodity Manager David Zimmerman; Environmental/Technical Manager Brian Schasel; Safety Manager Randy Clark; Grain Elevator Operations Manager Jerry Borg; Burlington Plant Manager John Wolf; Galva Plant Manager Ralph J. Peel. Mrs. Raymond (Alice) Defenbaugh and four children Dan, Matt, Jennifer (Kinneer), and Deb (Green) came forward for the passing of the gavel to the hands of the new chairman of the board Andy Brader.