Turning soil on a new era for Aurora, FV Coop

Crowds gathered, dignitaries spoke and golden shovels turned earth on Friday morning signaling both the beginning of a new manufacturing business for Hamilton County and the culmination of more than a decade of work by public and private entities at the Mission Critical business development site between Aurora and I-80.
The groundbreaking ceremony in a former soybean field just south of the “Welcome to Aurora” sign along Highway 14 also revealed a fascinating web of relationships which led to this momentous day.
The groundbreaking was the official kickoff of a construction project that will result in a 100,000 square foot agricultural manufacturing plant to be built by Illinois-based company, Brandt, Inc., in partnership with Frenchman Valley Farmer’s Cooperative of Imperial. The plant will serve as the anchor business for the Aurora Development Corporation’s (ADC) 135-acre Mission Critical site, which has been in the planning stages for more than a decade. The plant, known as Specialty Ag Formulations, will manufacture micronutrients for use in agriculture which ties in well with Aurora’s ag-based economy.
Shortly before 9 a.m., vehicles began to park on the newly-mown field and nearly 100 local residents and company representatives, joined by Gov. Jim Pillen, Dist. 34 Sen. Loren Lippincott and numerous other local officials and special guests, gathered near a fifth-wheel trailer set up to serve as a temporary stage for the program.
ADC President Jim Ediger was the first to take the stage and extended a welcome as well as introducing Gov. Pillen and other dignitaries in attendance.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to hear the governor speak a couple times this week,” Ediger stated. “And each time he talks about making generational changes and impacts to our community. We think this project and opening up this piece of ground for future development really is a generational change for Hamilton County. It just takes a lot of people to make something like this happen, and so we appreciate everybody coming out today.”
Ediger then introduced Aurora Mayor Marlin Seeman, who continued the narrative of the team effort that had brought about the events of the day.
“This day culminates an effort on the part of many from the local, state and national level, because no project of this size can be done by single people but by partnerships,” Seeman said.
Making the connections
Next to take the stage was former Aurora businessman Rod Schroeder, who was instrumental in bringing Brandt to the attention of the ADC. Schroeder said he had gotten to know Brandt CEO Rick Brandt a number of years ago through a partnership between his company (Meristem) and Brandt. He said it was an interesting relationship because “they were both our retail customer and a well-respected competitor on the specialty ag side.”
Schroeder told the crowd that several years into the relationship, the business partners had decided to build a new plant somewhere in the Western Corn Belt, and to do it in partnership with Frenchman Valley Co-op.
“Well, because of my history at Aurora, I know this commu-nity is awesome to do business in and raise a family in,” Schroeder said. “And because of the strategic location we serve—we’ll be serving about six states or so north, south, east, west—I thought, well, why don’t I introduce Brandt to the city of Aurora. So they flew out their leadership team and we had a great meeting and of course Aurora Development Corporation did it right. They gave us a tour of the city and we had a really good discussion and I got them in front of each other.
“I looked at the Aurora Development Corp people and I said, ‘Hey, I’m bringing this company to you because they are held in high esteem,” Schroeder continued.
“They’re a longtime family business. They’re well respect-ed. They’re going to be an awesome community partner!’ Then I looked at Brandt and I said, ‘Brandt, I’m bringing you to this community because this is a hell of a community to do business in. You come here and you will be successful. All the infrastructure’s here. People are great. And because of that, this is going to be a win-win.’”
In introducing Rick Brandt to the audience, Schroeder noted that in 1994 Brandt had become CEO of the company his father had founded 70 years ago. He reported that since that time the company had seen “tremendous growth” and now sells products in 79 states and more than 80 countries world-wide.
“Rick is an entrepreneur at his best,” Schroeder said. “He’s been involved in more than 25 acquisitions during his tenure.”
He also noted that this will be Brandt’s sixth plant built in the U.S.
Brandt perspective
Taking his turn at the micro-phone, Brandt joked “I don’t know why I brought these notes; you just pretty much went through them.”
“I’m really looking forward to getting this project under-way,” Brandt continued. “I’m excited about this project. You know, this is a big deal for us. This is going to be a 100,000 square foot production facil-ity. To manufacture Brandt products here is exciting for us. We just built a new production plant in Brazil—we opened it a couple of years ago—and it is totally state of the art. It’s a beautiful plant. And Shawn as-sured me on the way here that this one will be even better. So, I’m looking forward to seeing it, hopefully about a year from now. We’re shooting for sum-mer 2024.”
In introducing his company to the people of Aurora, Brandt noted that it is celebrating its platinum anniversary, his father and aunt having founded the business in Illinois in 1953.
“Evelyn, my aunt, one of the co-founders, is going to be 100 years old two weeks from today,” Brandt continued. “If you know any of the Brandts, we like to have parties and she’s been planning her party for about six months now.”
Noting that his father, Glen Brandt, passed away in 2020, Brandt said he “would have loved to have seen this plant.”
Brandt said with existing fa-cilities in Illinois, Florida, Utah and California, the construction of the plant in Aurora expands the company’s national footprint.
“It’s very, very strategic for us in this part of the country and also gives us better access to the Great Plains,” he said. “We’re also looking forward to deepening our relationship with this project with Frenchman Valley. From what I’ve seen so far they’re really, really good people and from what I’ve heard so far from our team, really, really, really good people, so that’s who we like to do business with.”
Imperial-based partner
Next at the microphone, Frenchman Valley CEO John Bender returned the compli-ments to Brandt and extended thanks to Schroeder, who he said he has known for 30 years.
“Rod, thank you for bring-ing this together,” Bender said. “Thanks for introducing the community to us. I want to thank the economic devel-opment corporation as they worked with zoning and other issues for us.
“When we came up here and did our tour, I didn’t know if we were looking at sites or if they were trying to sell me a timeshare,” Bender joked, “but it was well done, Kelsey (Bergen, ADC executive director), and we’re here.”
“So we want to thank you all,” Bender concluded. “A year from now I expect you all to come back and fill out an application because we will be looking for employees and that’s tough anywhere you go. So thank you. We’re glad to be part of this and look forward to actually seeing dirt move here in a couple of weeks, we hope.”
The governor speaks
Pillen gave the longest speech of the morning and continued with the theme of the vital nature of relation-ships.
Noting that he had attended an ag and economics summit in Kearney earlier that week, Pillen said “One of the things I was talking about—all of us—was doing a better job of building relationships with our neighbors and getting comfortable being uncomfortable talking about things. I think relationships are so important.
“I’m working hard to be governor of all Nebraskans. That doesn’t mean I’m going to build relationships with every-body. That doesn’t mean I’m going to agree, but if we have a relationship we can respectfully disagree.”
Pillen shared with the audience some observations he had made during his time as governor, namely that the state needs to brag more about its accomplishments and to take time to celebrate them as well. He went on to speak with optimism about Nebraska’s potential in the new agricultural economy. (That will be the subject of next week’s Ag Life feature story.)
The governor concluded his remarks by complimenting Aurora for its initiative in working to bring new industry to the community.
“Aurora is an extraordinary community in what you all do together,” Pillen said. “Just so you know, everybody’s a little jealous of the folks in Aurora and so congratulations... Just so you know, when anybody in the state drives down 14 or 34 and comes through Aurora, you know, there’s only one word Wow! What’s going on here? So congratulations.
“I think you figured out that together you can,” Pillen con-tinued. “That’s our message for Nebraska—together we can, together we will, together we win. And the other beautiful thing is in Nebraska, none of us cares who gets credit. Let’s just get together and get it done.
So congratulations, Rick, on what your family is doing. Congratulations on putting it here. And I’ll leave you with this—I’m gonna guarantee you that you’re gonna fall in love with Nebraska people so much you’re going to say I’m out of Florida, I’m coming to Nebraska.”
Meeting the new neighbors
One of the people the governor had the opportunity to meet is the woman whose family will be Brandt’s nearest neighbors. Laurel Marlatt, who lives with her husband Rob and her two college-aged sons in the home that adjoins the Mission Critical site to the south, was in attendance at the groundbreaking and was introduced to Gov. Pillen after the groundbreaking ceremony. Marlatt was surprised by the fact that when she pointed across the field to her home, the governor recalled that it had had its roof taken off by a tornado in 2008.
“For him to remember that 15 years later is amazing to me, actually,” she said.
Marlatt also met Rick Brandt and came away with a favorable impression of her new neighbor.
“Well, I thought he was understanding when I said it’s just really hard to watch really nice farmland be developed,” Marlatt said. “And his response was that he understood that and he just said I want you to know we’re going to be great neighbors and we work hard and we play hard. He went on to tell me what their plans were for the rest of today... I just thought they were very personable and very interested in making sure that I knew that they were going to be great neighbors and, although that didn’t have to be a consideration for the ADC, I certainly appreciate that it has been.”
Marlatt said her property is separated from the Mission Critical site by a small strip of land owned by her father and aunt, but notes having the facility next door will be a change that will take getting used to.
“So we just embrace having new neighbors and we move forward,” Marlatt said, “know-ing that the people that are moving in and building next to us are people that want to make sure that they’re good neighbors with us, and vice versa.”