OMAHA — The Scoular Co. has acquired Evans Grain and Elevator Co.’s grain-handling assets in Ontario, Ore., and Caldwell, Nampa, and Notus, Idaho. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction was first announced in September.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with John Evans, and we are looking forward to having him and other Evans employees join our team and work with us to expand marketing options for local producers as well as grain and feed ingredient customers,” said Kevin Thompson, Scoular’s director who oversees the company’s trading activities in the U.S. intermountain region.
Mr. Thompson said the newly acquired facilities fit well into Scoular’s trading and grain-handling activities in the region, noting that two opportunities resulting from the acquisition are particularly exciting. One of these stems from the proximity of the former Evans facilities to Scoular’s barge-loading location in Burbank, Wash., and the other supports Scoular’s growing commodity and feed ingredients business in the western United States.
“We took control of the Burbank facility earlier this year, and following substantial investment in renovations and repairs, we are shipping wheat via barge to export facilities,” Mr. Thompson said. “Going forward, we see an opportunity to truck wheat from these newly acquired facilities to Burbank to support this program.”
He said the company also is excited about using the commodity transloading facility at Nampa to provide grain and feed ingredients to dairies and feedlots in the Treasure Valley region. He said Nampa complements Scoular’s existing operation in Jerome, Idaho. Scoular built the Jerome transload facility in 2006, and in the fall of 2014, the company began operating a newly constructed commodity blending facility located adjacent to its existing transload operation.
The Evans Grain transaction is Scoular’s second acquisition of Treasure Valley grain-handling facilities in recent years. In July 2012, Scoular purchased two grain operations in Weiser, Idaho, from Weiser Feed and Storage, Inc.