Remarks:
Today, the spirit of Australia’s independent rural reseller burns with pride and purpose. But it wasn’t always so. By 2001, after a decade of buyouts and mergers, corporations had almost come to dominate the national farm input market. Adding insult to injury, this was a market pioneered by independent, mostly family-owned and operated businesses committed to servicing their local rural community. Meanwhile, global suppliers had also merged into bigger corporations, closing small reseller accounts and leaving many to source product from fickle wholesale markets. Out of this turbulence, a few of the nation’s more visionary independents came together in July that year declaring “enough is enough!” They figured the only way to counter the rising corporate threat was to harness their own collective power. Drawing on their survival wits and gut instinct for self preservation, they forged a unique co-operative structure and business plan upon which to build the best buying group in rural Australia!