Dear Patrons:
The year is slipping by right before our eyes. It seems we just started our new fiscal year and here we are with September in our rear-view mirror. It seems to have been a good year for crops generally around our trade territory with talk of some growers harvesting irrigated barley that was never irrigated yet still produced a quality yield.
For Town and Country, we have had a good year thus far with sales volumes tracking right with last year. We are still dealing with a shortage of employees that has caused us to slow growth in some departments and even shorten the hours of operation at other locations. We are still seeing a need for CDL drivers, especially with Hazmat endorsements and convenience store/deli employees. The H2A program that we have been utilizing to supply us with agronomy workers has been a savior to us as the new age American workers are not showing any interest in running TerraGators and fertilizer delivery trucks. We continue to seek out American employees and are willing to train them in our various operations if they are willing and able to learn. At Town and Country, we believe there is still a lot of opportunity out there for growth and we will continue to work on different ways to capture the opportunities that come our way.
Our management team will soon begin working on budgets for our next fiscal year that will begin on January 1. This is typically an exciting time as we all get to look down the road to try and figure out what we need to add to our various locations to enhance our ability to serve our patrons. Sometimes this includes the addition or updating of rolling stock, possible expansions of existing facilities, potential new facilities all together, or sometimes just new offerings of products. This analysis is sometimes very in-depth as we put together our wish list and then figure out how to pay for these proposed additions. In the end, it all needs to benefit our patrons to help them be more prosperous. That is what your cooperative is all about.
Thank you,
Wes Burley, General Manager
Want to get in touch with Wes? Contact him at wburley@tandcsupply.com or 406.628.6314 Ext 12.
