Oldtimer said:
Mike said:
Neighbor was telling me that Vigortone is owned by a French company, "Provimi" and that he wouldn't put a bag of Vigortone on his place if they gave it to him.
Is this true?
Vigortone Ag Products was founded in Eastern Iowa in 1912 by Dr. E.B. Fenton, a practicing veterinarian. Dr. Fenton had established a reputation with feeding winning racehorses and local farmers requested of him to begin formulating and mixing vitamin and mineral mixes for their livestock, as he had for his horses. During the 1920's, Dr. Fenton established a distribution system where a Farmer-Dealer could sell Vigortone products to their neighboring livestock producers.
During the 1960's and 1970's, Vigortone sales grew dramatically throughout the U.S. with the ability of farmers to use their tractor to power a mixer and blend Vigortone vitamin-mineral premixes with local grains and protein sources, allowing them to manufacture economical livestock feeds on the farm.
The company went through several ownership changes over the years.
In April of 1998, Provimi Holding BV purchased the assets and business of Vigortone Ag Products from its owner, PM Ag Products, Inc. Ultimately, the Vigortone business was merged and became part of North American Nutrition Companies in December of 2001.
Vigortone Ag Products has been a provider of livestock nutrition programs for over 90 years and continues to flourish by anticipating and adapting to advances in livestock nutrition and management. Products and services are sold throughout the United States through its farmer-dealer network, with focus on selling beef range, beef feedlot, dairy and swine products. The Vigortone office is currently located in Hiawatha, Iowa and their operation has a total of 83 employees.
http://www.vigortonestore.com/info.html
You tell me what country they are from :???:
History
Provimi was founded near Rotterdam in The Netherlands in 1927, where it started up as a trading company for Dutch farmers. In the thirties it started selling a product under the acronym Provimi, a mixture of 3 basic elements in every animal feed and this is where the present name is derived from: Proteins, Vitamins and Minerals.
In 1971, the American agricultural company Central Soya bought Provimi. It was listed on the New York stock exchange. Non-core activities were subsequently divested and the Group focussed entirely on animal feed in the following period.
In 1988, Central Soya, including Provimi, was taken over by Eridania Béghin-Say, a large French agri-business conglomerate listed on the Paris stock exchange. In the years to follow, Provimi went through a period of internal and worldwide external expansion.
In 1989, Provimi took over its first Polish company, producing complete feed. Provimi is now the number one animal nutrition producer in the country. In the following years, Provimi also achieved a leading position in other Central and eastern European countries.
From 1996 onwards, the Group expanded notably in the pet food and fish feed business,
with acquisitions in Denmark, Chile, Spain, the Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Greece and Italy.
Since 1998, the Group reinforced its international position with developments and
acquisitions in the USA, South America, China, Vietnam and Australia.
In 2001, the Eridania Béghin-Say Group was
demerged into four companies, one of which was Provimi.
In 2002, Provimlux, a holding company jointly controlled by funds advised by CVC Capital Partners and by PAI Management acquired the 53.66% majority shareholding of Provimi. After the subsequent execution of a standing offer, Provimlux held 74.05% of Provimi, which remained listed on Euronext Paris.
In 2003, the Group acquired several more companies in strategic areas and segments, such as complete feed and concentrate
producers in Romania and Bulgaria and a pet food producer in The Netherlands. On top of that it closed an asset deal concerning an animal health division in India that serves the dairy segment.
In 2004, it further acquired the premix producer Nutriway
in Vietnam, the complete feed producer Rusteco Protein
in Bulgaria and the pet food producer Nama
in Slovakia.
In 2005, Provimi took over two more pet food producers, Ben
in Poland and Pet Hungaria
in Hungary, as well as the
Russian premix producer Rybflotprom. It also inaugurated a new state-of-the-art plant
in Brazil and completed the merge of its Polish subsidiaries Provimi Polska Holding and Rolimpex SA into Provimi-Rolimpex SA.
In 2006, the Group acquired Vita
in Canada, another premix producer, and Virtus Nutrition and Nutrius
in California, a nutritional supplements and premix/base mix producer respectively. Through its Chilean subsidiary Alitec the Group also signed a joint venture with AquaChile, the world's second largest salmon producer, for the production of salt water fishfeed in Provimi's existing plant
in Pargua, Chile. In December, Provimi also acquired the assets of SESA, a private label pet food company
in France.
http://www.provimi.com/smartsite.dws?lan=UK&id=100