FULL INTERVIEW: Bruce Bennett, President of Ingredients at Benson Hill
Benson Hill has announced the acquisition of a soy crushing facility in Creston, Iowa.
Bruce Bennett, President of Ingredients at Benson Hill, says the company has acquired ZFS Creston, LLC, an established food grade white flake and soy flour manufacturing operation in southwest Iowa for approximately $102 million ? primarily financed through a new debt facility. The investment fulfills a final step in Benson Hill?s ability to convert its proprietary soybeans into value-added soy protein ingredients for the underserved human and pet food categories.
?Benson Hill is an ag tech company who has put significant focus over the years on developing outstanding genetics with our soybean varieties,? said Bennett. ?Part of our plan is to translate that value down to the consumer. In order to do that, we needed an asset that would enable us to actually process the genetics into food and feed ingredients. Creston really fills that gap for us. It?s a well-run facility with great employees in the great state of Iowa. We are really excited about that.?
Bennett explains the Creston facility is geographically complementary to Benson Hill?s soy crushing facility acquired in 2021 in Seymour, Indiana.
?A similar type of acquisition with additional crush capacity for us,? said Bennett. ?Having both assets under one roof is actually a really good strategy for us because geographically they are really complementary as far as our farmers and where we are planting our genetics in the Midwest and in the Heartland. But also having a bit of risk mitigation. To have a second processing facility is always a good thing.?
Bennett says capacity and capabilities acquired through ZFS Creston will enable the company to immediately deliver a portfolio of better-from-the-beginning non-GMO ingredients that are less processed, more sustainable, identity-preserved, traceable and domestically sourced.
?We want to certainly thank the Meeuwsen family and Zeeland Farms for basically bringing to us a wonderful asset with wonderful people,? said Bennett. ?We?re really excited that we can take a great business and overlay great genetics to propel it forward to even higher heights. We?re really looking forward to working with the team at Creston.?
Over time, a growing proportion of the revenues generated at the Creston facility will come from the processing and sale of Benson Hill?s proprietary soy ingredients in combination with continuing a portion of Creston?s existing revenue sources.
Bruce Bennett’s full interview can be found at the top of this article.
