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USC expands sales force and marketBy Doug Rich Nearly every agricultural manufacturer in business today can trace its roots back to a farmer, in a shop, with an idea. USC, LLC is no different. The history of USC, LLC only goes back 1998, though. That is when Jim Renyer and his brother, Andy, started their business manufacturing seed treatment equipment. At that time they were still farming with their Dad near Sabetha, Kan. They still do some farming today when they can but most of their time is consumed by their manufacturing enterprise, which is headquartered on the family farm. Their brother, Greg, and sister, Diane, also work at USC. In 1998 a manufacturer in Sabetha was approached with an idea for building seed treating equipment. They declined the offer but one of the Renyer brothers who worked there brought the idea home to his brothers. In 1999 the brothers formed an LLC and began building seed treating systems in their farm shop. The original idea was to build a thousand of these seed treating systems. It has taken them several years to reach that lofty goal. The growth of USC, LLC has been slow and steady over the last eight years. In 2000 they sold their first 25 seed treaters and had three employees. Jim Renyer, the chief executive officer, said they doubled production in 2001, 2002 and again in 2003. Sales slowed in 2004 but began to rebound in 2005 and 2006 when USC, LLC added a sales force and expanded its market. Their target revenue for 2007 is $7.5 million. In the beginning Jim Renyer said his brother, Andy, manufactured the parts in one half of the farm shop and he built the seed treaters in the other half. Today that farm shop has expanded into a 33,000 sq. ft. plant that employees 41 people. The first product they sold was the LP800. This standard unit is a continuous flow seed treating system that can handle up to 800 bushels per hour. They now offer several models of seed treaters and have expanded into food processing equipment including dyer ovens, toasters, and coolers. But seed treating systems are still their primary business. At first nearly all of their production was purchased by Syngenta, who had seed treatment products but no facilities for building seed treatment systems. Although Syngenta is still a very important part of their business USC, LLC has hired a national sales force and are putting in place a network of dealers to market their equipment to the entire seed industry. USC offers seed treating solutions from on-farm equipment to complete commercial size systems.
Doug Rich can be reached by phone 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com. C 5 9/10/07 All Editions Date: 8/31/07
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