Landmark, company in talks to build soybean crush plant
(Published Friday, March 9, 2007 11:55:24 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Gina Duwe Gazette staff
EVANSVILLE-Discussions are moving forward to bring Wisconsin's first soybean crushing facility to Evansville.
But a plant that processes 2,400 tons of soybeans a day would cost $80 million to $100 million to build, said Larry Swalheim, CEO of Landmark Services Cooperative.
That's too much for Landmark to take on by itself, so co-op officials started talking with three large agriculture-based companies with the needed resources and expertise.
Swalheim said Thursday that one company dropped out immediately. The second spent time reviewing finances but decided not to participate because the company already operates two crush plants.
"We're on our third person right now, who is very interested," Swalheim said.
He declined to name the Midwest company.
"We're still looking at if they were interested, what kind of an organization structure would it be, what would their involvement be," Swalheim said.
The company has shown a lot of interest, and it's just a matter of getting the right players and investment strategies together, he said.
The possible crush plant would locate next to the biodiesel plant. The facility would crush soybeans and extract oil used to make biodiesel.
