Late this morning The Scoular Company closed the purchase of Gateway Plant LLC. Scoular plans to return the plant to ethanol production before the end of the year.
The acquisition includes the 55-million gallon ethanol plant and the adjoining 1.8 million bushel train facility.
The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, said Scoular Senior Vice President John Heck.
Ted Loomis, Gateway Ethanol chairman of the Board of Directors, said he had no comment on the purchase at this time and deferred all comments to Scoular.
Jeff Wilkinson of Scoular will serve as Scoular's interim manager at Gateway. The company has not decided if there will be a name change but they will be operating the grain elevator as The Scoular Company, Heck said.
Scoular anticipates the grain-handling portion of the facility will be ready to receive grain by April 1. They are hopeful to have the plant operational by the late third quarter or early fourth quarter this year following extensive plant renovations, said Chuck Elsea, Scoular's chief executive officer in a press release announcing the purchase.
The company intends to run the plant up to full capacity very quickly. They do not intend to operate the plant at a reduced rate, Heck said.
Currently, the company is in discussions with companies interested in operating the plant in partnership with Scoular. The details of that partnership are undetermined at this time a lot of options are available, Heck said.
Before the plant can be operational a boiler package has to be reinstalled and extensive plant renovations will take place to the distillation, dehydration and evaporation processes at the plant.
Scoular began looking at the Gateway facility in August 2010. They were drawn to the facility because the location worked very well with their current operations.
The increase in the number of corn acres in the area in the last few years also played a part in the decision to purchase the plant. Scoular decided they wanted to buy the facility in late November 2010 right after Thanksgiving.
Some employment interviews have already been conducted and the company welcomes job inquires from previous Gateway employees.
At this time, no date for announcing who has been hired has been set.
The purchase of the Gateway facility brings to eight the number of Scoular facilities in Kansas.
The company has 70 locations in North America with over 600 employees and nearly 200 of those in Kansas. The number of Kansas' employees is expected to grow by 40 when Gateway is in operation.
The Scoular Company is a century-old agribusiness company buying, selling, storing, handling and transporting grain, food and feed ingredients worldwide.
