Grain Millers buys property

Feb 05, 2014 at 09:12 AM CST
The company plans to consolidate its local warehouses at the Bertelsen Road site in west Eugene By Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard Grain Millers, which operates a prominent mill near downtown Eugene, has bought the former Lumber Products Co. facility in west Eugene and plans to consolidate its Eugene warehouses there by the summer, a company executive said. The manufacturer of whole grain ingredients used in cereal, bread, bars and other products, also might eventually do some packaging or processing at the site, Executive Vice President Christian Kongsore said. Grain Millers, which is based in Eden Praire, Minn., bought the 140,000-square-foot warehouse at 70 S. Bertelsen Road, and the eight acres it sits on, for $5.97 million in late December, according to Lane County property records. The property is not a replacement for the nearly 100-acre parcel along Highway 99, south of Junction City, that Grain Millers bought in 2007, where it plans to build a new plant, Kongsore said. “This is not in lieu of the Junction City property,” he said. “We’re hanging onto that. That’s a nice piece of property for us, and we still have a long-term view of that.” An expansion in Junction City, however, is probably still years down the road, Kongsore said. “We have so many processing plants throughout North America now,” he said. “We have seven different sites and each site requires their own unique expansions, so we kind of scale our projects up and down, and (Junction City) is probably five years out.” Kongsore said the company’s decision to buy the west Eugene site had nothing to do with the pace of development in Junction City. He had told The Register-Guard in 2008 that he was hoping to get the Junction City project rolling by 2010. Grain Millers snapped up the west Eugene site because “it’s immediately available (and) it met all of our immediate needs,” Kongsore said. “It’s a beautiful warehouse space,” he said. “The building itself is a Class A building and requires very little for us to do. We’ll put ($200,000 to) $300,000 into it, and it will be great for food storage. “It’s a nice big property,” Kongsore said. “There’s some rail access, so there’s some possibility for doing more there in the future if we desire. As we move along we may look at it for some packaging options and maybe some processing options even, but we’re in no hurry to do anything there.” The spacious warehouse will be an improvement over the patchwork of storage spaces the company has now, Kongsore said. Grain Millers has about 40,000 square feet of warehouse space scattered among three sites in Eugene, including the company’s mill at 315 Madison St. Grain Millers has 110 employees in Eugene. When the west Eugene warehouse opens, which is expected to happen this summer, four to five employees will work there, Kongsore said. One person already has been hired specifically to work at the new warehouse; the others will be transferred from the company’s other warehouses throughout town, Kongsore said. Grain Millers processes mainly oats, as well as barley, rye and wheat in Eugene. It also processes and distributes soy, flax, and ancient grains, such as amaranth, quinoa. The company remains “very strong’ in organic products, Kongsore said. Grain Millers’ customers, from bakeries to baby food manufacturers to beverage producers, all have seen good growth over the years, he said, and he expects that to continue. Privately owned Grain Millers was founded in 1986. In addition to its Eugene mill, it has sites in Eden Prairie, Minn.; St. Ansgar, Iowa; Yorkton, Saskatchewan; St. Peter, Minn.; Marion, Ind.; Las Animas, Puebla, Mexico; and Newton, Wis. View Original Article

Feb 05, 2014 at 09:12 AM CST

The company plans to consolidate its local warehouses at the Bertelsen Road site in west Eugene By Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard Grain Millers, which operates a prominent mill near downtown Eugene, has bought the former Lumber Products Co. facility in west Eugene and plans to consolidate its Eugene warehouses there by the summer, a company executive said. The manufacturer of whole grain ingredients used in cereal, bread, bars and other products, also might eventually do some packaging or processing at the site, Executive Vice President Christian Kongsore said. Grain Millers, which is based in Eden Praire, Minn., bought the 140,000-square-foot warehouse at 70 S. Bertelsen Road, and the eight acres it sits on, for $5.97 million in late December, according to Lane County property records. The property is not a replacement for the nearly 100-acre parcel along Highway 99, south of Junction City, that Grain Millers bought in 2007, where it plans to build a new plant, Kongsore said. “This is not in lieu of the Junction City property,” he said. “We’re hanging onto that. That’s a nice piece of property for us, and we still have a long-term view of that.” An expansion in Junction City, however, is probably still years down the road, Kongsore said. “We have so many processing plants throughout North America now,” he said. “We have seven different sites and each site requires their own unique expansions, so we kind of scale our projects up and down, and (Junction City) is probably five years out.” Kongsore said the company’s decision to buy the west Eugene site had nothing to do with the pace of development in Junction City. He had told The Register-Guard in 2008 that he was hoping to get the Junction City project rolling by 2010. Grain Millers snapped up the west Eugene site because “it’s immediately available (and) it met all of our immediate needs,” Kongsore said. “It’s a beautiful warehouse space,” he said. “The building itself is a Class A building and requires very little for us to do. We’ll put ($200,000 to) $300,000 into it, and it will be great for food storage. “It’s a nice big property,” Kongsore said. “There’s some rail access, so there’s some possibility for doing more there in the future if we desire. As we move along we may look at it for some packaging options and maybe some processing options even, but we’re in no hurry to do anything there.” The spacious warehouse will be an improvement over the patchwork of storage spaces the company has now, Kongsore said. Grain Millers has about 40,000 square feet of warehouse space scattered among three sites in Eugene, including the company’s mill at 315 Madison St. Grain Millers has 110 employees in Eugene. When the west Eugene warehouse opens, which is expected to happen this summer, four to five employees will work there, Kongsore said. One person already has been hired specifically to work at the new warehouse; the others will be transferred from the company’s other warehouses throughout town, Kongsore said. Grain Millers processes mainly oats, as well as barley, rye and wheat in Eugene. It also processes and distributes soy, flax, and ancient grains, such as amaranth, quinoa. The company remains “very strong’ in organic products, Kongsore said. Grain Millers’ customers, from bakeries to baby food manufacturers to beverage producers, all have seen good growth over the years, he said, and he expects that to continue. Privately owned Grain Millers was founded in 1986. In addition to its Eugene mill, it has sites in Eden Prairie, Minn.; St. Ansgar, Iowa; Yorkton, Saskatchewan; St. Peter, Minn.; Marion, Ind.; Las Animas, Puebla, Mexico; and Newton, Wis.

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