New Pipestone System Company Offers Help With Marketing
March 29, 2010
Financial risk: if only you could inoculate against that. Successful marketing: maybe one day somebody will isolate the genetic trait for that. Until then, look to our new joint venture company for marketing and risk management help.
Recently, Dr. Luke Minion and Tim Hinton, Vice President of Big Gain, Inc., announced a new joint venture—Big Stone Marketing, LLC. Big Stone Marketing will provide marketing, risk management, and verification services to all Pipestone System shareholders.
Brian Stevens is the new Big Stone Marketing president. He spent 19 years at HormelTM Foods, most recently as Director of Procurement.
“We are excited Brian is joining the Big Stone Marketing team and are confident that his long history of service to the swine industry will provide a great foundation for future growth for all Pipestone System and Big Gain producers,” Dr. Minion says. “Organizing Big Stone Marketing and appointing Brian as president further our efforts to provide Pipestone System producers with appropriate services to keep them competitive in a dynamic agricultural business environment.”
Here’s how Brian describes his new responsibilities. “I’ve been on the other side of the desk, working for a packer. Now I’ll work with Pipestone System producers (and Big Gain customers) to get them the best marketing agreement. I understand packers’ needs, which gives me the ability to talk to packers in their own language.”
Brian suspects his particular background will make this new marketing group—Big Stone—different from any in the industry. He’s bought hogs and he’s managed hogs so he knows what it will take to accommodate the needs of both groups in any negotiation.
“A Pipestone System producer with 10,000 hogs may not know what the packer wants to hear, but I do. In a way, I’ll be matching the producer and the packer. I also understand the timing of the market—when the time is right to negotiate. That sense of timing is another way Big Stone Marketing will be very different from other marketing groups.
“I’ll approach packers with the ability to market huge numbers of hogs on behalf of System shareholders, in contrast to the smaller number of hogs an individual producer approaching a packer alone can offer. We’ll have the ability to construct a vertically coordinated marketing chain for Pipestone System producers.” And, Brian adds, “I’ll be there to make sure every stepping stone on the road to market is PQA /TQA certified.”
Dr. Minion points to another of Brian’s strengths in his new job. “Brian has plenty of experience with risk management. He can help apply the tools of the futures markets to protect producers’ inputs, corn, and soybean meal. He can help them use lean-hog futures to serve as risk protection when the opportunities exist.”
This company is new and Brian only assumed his responsibility very recently. Even so, “Brian is already reaching out to allied industry companies—people he’s worked with over the years—so he can develop programs tailored to your needs for marketing and risk management services,” Dr. Minion concludes. In other words, Brian and Big Stone Marketing are gearing up to help you with the really scary side of your business.
Editor’s Note: Pipestone System operates in five states across the Midwest USA and is responsible for the management of 140,000 sows, over 500 employees, and nearly 2,000 boars. Big Gain, Inc. is a supplier of nutritional products and services with two plants and a dealer distribution network in the upper Midwest.
Contact: bstevens@pipevet.com
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