Premier Team Member Spotlight: Ryan Priest

We recently sat down with Ryan Priest, the Chief Operating Officer of Premier Companies, to gain a deeper understanding of the strategies, challenges, and innovations that have propelled the company to new heights. Ryan brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table, serving as CEO of a recently merged Co-op prior to taking on his role at Premier. Here’s what Ryan had to say:

What led you to become the COO of Premier Companies?

From December 2nd, 2016 until Sept 1st, 2021 I served as CEO of White River Co-op. With the consolidation of multiple cooperatives throughout Indiana, I helped direct our board through meetings with several neighboring co-ops and the decision was made through board and membership vote to merge White River and Premier on Sept 1st, 2021. Harold Cooper, CEO of Premier was gracious to offer me the opportunity as COO of the newly merged Premier Companies.

Can you describe the culture at Premier Companies?

Premier fosters an environment of discussion and debate throughout its ranks and divisions. We welcome constructive discussions and disagreements among employees and divisions. Employees should feel welcome to weigh in on topics where they question the direction or hold knowledge of the subject. As a farmer-owned cooperative, we are here to serve the member/customer with timely and accurate products, placement, and recommendations.

How does Premier Companies differentiate itself from competitors in the market?

We have a focus on efficiency to serve our customers. Whether energy or agriculture, we have focused on people, equipment, and facilities that serve the customer in whatever manner they desire. We have application equipment for custom work, alongside facilities designed to serve the farmers equipment if they choose to do the work themselves. We have placed liquid fuel bulk plants and propane storage throughout our territory, increasing our efficiency to better serve our customers.

How does Premier Companies foster innovation and creativity within the organization?

Premier is always looking to the latest advances in the way we do business. The willingness to implement new practices and equipment helps drive innovative thinking within the company. We are willing to view items such as renewable fuels, carbon sequestration, and robotics as future compliments to our industries, not as competition.

How do you measure success at Premier Companies?

Success to Premier is a well served customer base, by an employee group who is content and fulfilled by the work they do. We also look at profitability and the ability to grow our territory in a complimentary manner to our current business to maintain competitiveness and scale.

Can you walk me through your day-to-day responsibilities as COO?

Every day is different. I have weekly divisional meetings to stay up with the happenings across our territory. I try to visit a couple of facilities weekly, but this is an area I can improve greatly. I have taken on some tasks lately as we deal with labor issues to try and source adequate numbers of people to maintain the level of service we are known for. There is never a shortage of assets, repairs and maintenance, and other expenditures to understand and approve. I work closely with the CEO to help implement his vision and strategy.

What are the biggest challenges facing Premier Companies right now?

The labor shortage is our biggest challenge currently. In an industry that is weather driven, it is getting difficult to find employees who are willing to deal with inconsistent schedules and the long hours and short windows we have to get a crop in the ground. To compound this issue, our employees are required to hold several licenses and certifications that make training timely and expensive, unless they come from a similar business.

How does Premier Companies ensure that its employees are well-trained and prepared for their roles?

We have taken steps to do more in-house training. We do our own CDL training through our safety division. Our agronomy and sales divisions do a great job giving agronomic training to our account managers and interns concerning pests, diseases, and other issues that could be affecting the crop. Our energy divisions utilize in-house training and third-party opportunities to certify and train our teams to safely and efficiently handle liquid fuels, lubricants, and propane. We make sure to keep all of our certified applicators and energy techs up to date with all licenses and training. We utilize AsMark to maintain safety training for our employee group, as well.

Can you discuss any upcoming projects or initiatives that Premier Companies is working on?

We are always looking at profitable growth opportunities. We will continue to be aggressive in acquisitions to build out our divisions. We have plans to continue some consolidation of locations where it makes sense. Efficiency and customer service are getting infinitely more important as the labor shortage continues. Making sure we are suitably located to handle our jobs is always a focus.

How does Premier Companies approach sustainability and environmental responsibility?

We are very active in these areas. From our offerings through the TruTerra platform in the agronomy division, ensuring we farm responsibly for our communities, neighbors, and future generations, to testing of the Solix robot platform to reduce pesticide application amounts through autonomous, solar powered applicators. Our risk management department works closely with all government agencies to ensure our agronomy and energy locations are safe and environmentally maintained.

How does Premier Companies adapt to changes in the industry and market?

We aren’t afraid to test methods and equipment that may, at this moment, appear to be a financial hardship for us. We are also looking to build training opportunities through a local college to train specifically for some of our positions to help deal with the labor shortage we are experiencing.

Can you discuss any recent developments or milestones that Premier Companies has achieved?

We are constantly looking for opportunities to grow our business units. We are consistently evaluating opportunities to acquire other businesses in and around our trade territory that can help strengthen our buying power to ensure product availability for our farmer owners and customers. Within the last few years we have purchased several liquid fuel and propane companies. The largest acquisition that increased our footprint into all of Kentucky and parts of Tennessee was the purchase of Southern Petroleum. The ability for Premier to purchase that business and bring CountryMark liquid fuel and lubricants to those states is very important to our goals of bringing farmers product choices to those areas.

How does Premier Companies prioritize customer satisfaction?

We have always focused on having supply as our priority. This requires decisions to be made months in advance of the product being used. At times this doesn’t seem advantageous from a pricing perspective, but we are committed to staying competitive and well supplied when the customer’s need arises.

Can you discuss any partnerships or collaborations that Premier Companies has formed?

As a cooperative, we are owners of several other regional and national cooperatives. Our partnerships with Land O’ Lakes, CountryMark, CHS, Growmark, and others allow us to have access to quality products on a much larger scale than if we stood alone. This is an example of a cooperative working as it should. We have worked with several other manufacturers and suppliers to make sure we are well stocked to service our members and customers. We have recently partnered with Ivy Tech to develop an applicator certification course to train interested individuals to operated our spreaders and sprayers.

How does Premier Companies maintain a positive relationship with its stakeholders?

Being a farmer-owned cooperative we work closely with our stakeholders every day. We ensure competitively priced product when they need and a well-trained workforce. They are represented by a board of their peers, who make decisions monthly on their business. If we operate efficiently and effectively, we return a portion of the earnings back as a cash patronage or a non-cash portion of equity in the business.

How does Premier Companies stay ahead of trends in the industry?

We are fortunate to have a network of peers that keep us aware of coming trends and changes. We aren’t afraid to implement new ideas and test them on the ground to see how they fit our organization. Keeping an open mind to change allows us to be in front of trends and not surprised by them.

How does Premier Companies ensure that it is complying with all relevant regulations?

We have a qualified team who know and implement our regulation requirements from environmental to human resources. We also work with outside companies such as AsMark who help provide us the tools and training to stay in compliance across all our divisions.

Can you discuss any challenges that Premier Companies has faced and how the company overcame them?

There are challenges every day. From regulation to labor shortages, we are seeing the world change around us. None of us at Premier are satisfied to sit and wait for an answer to come to us, we like to forge ahead and try to make our own answers. From in-house training to our partnership with Ivy Tech, we have worked to overcome the labor shortage through a more hands on approach. Regulation of our industries will always provide challenges, we have to strive to find the most effective and efficient way to deal with them. With major interests in energy and agriculture, there will always be the challenge of a portion of the public with a misguided and misunderstood idea of what we do and our intent in doing it. We must act responsibly and be positive advocates of these industries every day to sustain our business model.

What are your future goals as COO of Premier Companies?

I am either blessed or cursed with never being satisfied with my level of performance. When I became the COO at Premier, I had never been one previously. I had stepped down as CEO of White River Co-op as we merged with Premier in September 2021 and had to take the time to relearn an entirely new business. At the risk of sounding generic, I intend to continue learning and increasing my contribution to Premier. I am blessed to have this opportunity and do not want to ever give the impression that I am complacent at my current level.

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn!